Brighton and Hove Triathlon Sept 15th 2019

Brighton and Hove Triathlon was a qualifier for the European Standard distance Triathlon in Tartu, Estonia 2020 and that alone was a good reason to do it. I had already qualified for the European Sprint Distance triathlon in Malmö, Sweden 2020 earlier in the year, so that would start to make 2020 look interesting.

The main reason to take part in this race is another reason entirely. The race director John Lunt is my oldest friend in the sport of triathlon. My first multi discipline event, was one of the earliest events that he put on, it was also my first swim run event ever. That was the Damp Dash at Kingston about thirty years ago. I had entered the half distance race 400 swim/5km run but it was cancelled due to a very low entry.

John rang to tell me that, I tried my best the chicken out of the whole thing but John talked me gently into doing the full distance event 800 swim and 10km run, after I told him that I had only just learned to swim front crawl and that I had not been running very long either, just a few months. He didn’t say goodbye to me until I agreed that I would see him in the morning on poolside.
Photo here was at Johns Run2Music Brighton run. I got conned into going dressed as Madonna, ridiculous I know.

I had a wonderful time at that race and was hooked straight away. He was nice, His chief aide, now wife of many years Nicola, was so helpful and all the young athletes told me that I was doing well as they passed me on the run. It was all so friendly and such fun. Since then I have lost count of how many of John’s races I have enjoyed but his races alone must amount to well over a hundred. Of course John Lunt is so well known in the sport internationally, now having also masterminded the 2012 London Olympics triathlon and the Commonwealth Games blah-de-blah-de blah.

Brighton and Hove is a fairly new event; I think only four years old. I have done three of those four anyway. Why, because I know that it will be a professionally run event. The whole team are brilliant. It has a sea swim twelve miles from my home just along the south coast and I love the sea. The bike ride is dead flat, and in laps of Hove Kingsway, a big wide road with lots of crowd support and the run is along the classic promenade, all of which also makes it a perfect event for beginners and old hand alike. It is a fun race but it is also very strictly controlled and that is comforting to beginners, particularly young women and the children in the races put on to encourage new triathletes into the sport. There is even a scoot-a-thon the day before for the teeny weenies.

 

Last September I was not even the oldest competitor because my friend Geoff Geering was doing the sprint distance in the 85-89 age group, whilst I did the full standard distance in 80+. There was an even older man at 87, who I think did the super sprint distance though I am not totally sure, but certainly showing triathlon to be a sport for all ages and categories and leanings. All triathletes.

 Geoff and I were both interviewed the day before for BBC TV that added to the fun. I think my finish time was 3.45.20 and my husband Steve, was a couple of minutes slower…. which was not altogether popular. We were not racing together, because we were in different wave starts. All told though, such a fun event in marvellous situation. Brighton and Hove seafront is picture postcard impressive. I was born in Brighton. Little old Brightonian me, pre-war by a couple of weeks.

dafbelt.blogspot.com

BTF National Aquathlon Championships, Arundel, West Sussex September 8th 2019

My next race was the National Aquathlon Championships in Arundel on next Sunday after the Lausanne Worlds.

Steve was away working but thought he was safe enough trusting me to get to and from this event on my own, since it is not much more than two miles from our home as the crow flies. My friend Birgit, who runs with us regularly on Sunday’s normally, came to support me from the sidelines, so I supposed that she did not trust me not to get in trouble with Steve away! It was kind of her and she took some photos as well as shouting in support. She was still to be there for the awards and take more photos which would be useful.

The open water swim section of the Aquathlon was in our friendly River Arun starting at the Black Rabbit Pub at the end of Mill Road in Arundel the swim distance was only 750 metres and the race organiser Mick Dicker of  Raw Energy Pursuits had his fingers crossed that the timing information for the ‘Slack water’ timing of the tide was correct. I say this with the certain knowledge that the wicked River Arun has a will of his own; he is not a trustworthy chap. In fact from experience we are all aware that there is always a little movement going on in that water. The swim would go toward the sea on the right hand side on entering the water for half the swim and then come back on the opposite side of the river crossing in to the finish at the Black Rabbit. I love the feeling of moving water. There were wetsuits.

After the return to transition in the pub car park we were straight out on the 5km run. No chance of getting lost on a run route we often use. Straight along Mill Road toward the town and Arundel castle lower gate. Then turning back along the opposite side of the road, on the lovely tree lined moat path overlooked by my favourite Castle trying not to trip over ducks etc. Then there was a section that was off road on the paths that wiggle around Swanbourne Lake and finally back down the road to the pub again and the finish line.

It seemed that most of the marshalling was done by Littlehampton based Tuff Fitty Triathlon Club of which Steve and I were the founders 25 or more years ago so I knew just about all of them which was a great comfort to be among friends.

On my training runs with my husband we take each day as it comes. Sometimes, if we have been working hard on the bike or even just plain working hard at work we will do our run training as a jog between a couple or three lamp posts and then a walk to the next. That works for us oldies quite well and in the end there is not much difference because we don’t tire so quickly. I wouldn’t want anybody to think I was some sort of Super Woman because I am not.  What I am is just somebody who enjoys the life I have fallen into and what I enjoy about it most is that Steve and I do pretty much all of it together. Sure its getting harder as we get older but it is still very satisfying to get through races.

 

However for this event with a mostly flat 5km run I set myself to run as much of it as I could so that meant all the flat sections and I only walked the short uphill path around the lake so it was my best run for some time.

 

That made me National Aquathlon Champion again.  There was no competition in my age group, so some people would not think it has any credit but I don’t see it that way. I was very happy to stand on the podium. I can’t remember which years but I think I have gained that title a handful of times over the years. I only enter it when it is either close to home or convenient in some other way, maybe fitting in with a work trip or a weekend away. It is still a good little training day and always enjoyable and satisfying. Next year it will be in Worthing and I would not miss that one either.

ITU World stand. dist. triathlon Championships: Lausanne, Switzerland 2019

ITU World standard distance triathlon Championships: Lausanne, Switzerland 2019

On August 27^th we drove to Beaune, in Burgundy for a last couple of days training before the World Championships. All we did was a couple of really nice familiar bike rides. We know that area well, having been there for work and sport bike holidays on umpteen occasions, this time we did a quiet and ultra pretty canal ride that we like, it 

has a café and a bakery at the far end.

Then on 29^th we drove just 200 km to Lausanne through the Forêt du Jura and a little way further on to Cully, where Steve’s nose for something different found us booked in to, Auberge Du Raisin, a quiet place a few miles outside of the city. It was perfect for us, he had chosen a large attic room where we could spread out and relax. Steve had been influenced because of its highly rated restaurant. It was a mere two minutes walk down to the lakeside and the fabulous views there, close to the ferry point for lake tours. Steve likes to stay somewhere quiet since he knows me well enough to want to avoid having me get nervous before big events. Calm, calm, calm is the key.

When we went in to Lausanne for me to register or the event, it seemed, through talking to other competitors, that some swimmers had already found out that there was a strong current for the swim. That had seemed obvious to Steve and I, since the race first came into the picture for us. We were aware that the River Rhône entered Lake Geneva at one end of the lake and exited near the city of Geneva. The Rhône is not just a little stream, so there is bound to be a strong flow. Our home is in Littlehampton on the south coast of England, where the River Arun, that is the second fasted river in the UK, joins the English Channel; so even though I am quite old and do not swim that fast, a strong current would not cause me to get my panties in a tangle.

On Sunday September 1^st, having checked my spot in transition added my drink to the bike and in my case a handful of Jelly Babies for the bike course section I have to add that not everything works for all. I never eat before a race. I don’t eat breakfast normally. There was a long hanging about time before the wave starts and in the hour before the first wave, it was announced officially though not altogether unexpectedly, that it would be a no wetsuit swim. That was a disappointment to some but something that I was perfectly happy about.

For the first time at Worlds, I was competing in a new age category of 80-84 after my 80th birthday two weeks before. My opposition was American. During the course of the event my husband/coach Stephen, shouted at me every now and again to let me know how far ahead I was. The first time, he said I was 27 minutes ahead but later on it had stretched to almost an hour. He did not give me updates out on the run course and I found out later that he was so pleased and excited that he left me to it and went for a burger! We found out later that  the nearest woman had not made one of several time cut offs and had been withdrawn. I was the only female in that group to complete the course and so I became World Champion again.

There were only four men (of seven) in that age group who finished the race in the cut off time and only one of those was faster than me. So I was unquestionably my category winner.

 

It was a very hard event. I would say the most challenging ‘Worlds’ that I have ever race in. After over a week of very hot calm weather there had been heavy overnight rain and by morning the conditions in Lake Geneva were rough.

That did not lower the water temperature however. With the water conditions most people were not happy about. The bike course was very hard and hilly with challenging climbs and a couple of dangerous descents. I saw one man hit the metal barrier on a descending corner so hard it made a dreadful clanging thud and he flew over the barrier quite close to where I was climbing upwards on the other side. He landed with a thump and was lying on the road screaming as I rode on. I know that sounds mean, but there were people there and they were already quickly attending to him.

I had prayed for a thunderstorm or at least rain for the run but unfortunately my prayer passed unheard and the sun came out and returned to the oppressive heat of the previous days. I have never experiences such a hard run as this one which had six ascents of the park paths including sets of  STEPS surrounding the Olympic Museum. The downhill sections were a relief, I love running downhill but it was mostly in the heat of the sun. It was a great relief to get to the blue carpet of the race finish, knowing that I was World Champion in my age group and pre-qualified for 2020 worlds in Edmonton, Canada. A race I have done before in 2014.

Lausanne Distances: 1500 metres Lake swim/ 40km bike ride/10km… though it seemed much further!

Dafs Diary Restored

                    Trying not to look too short next to Human Race head honcho Nick Rusling

June, July and August 2019 Update

At last I have got myself into Blog action again and to save anybody trying to work out when I last posted a page on Daf’s Diary, I can tell you that it was seven whole months ago. The main reason this page has been sleeping, is because at the end of May 2019 I decided that since the summer was going to turn me into an octogenarian, that I had better try to make sure that I had done everything I could to give myself a fair chance to complete the heavy programme of events that I had set in stone at the time.

My looming 80^th birthday was not the only major hurdle to climb over whilst time moved on toward the horizon. Steve and I would also reach our 40^th wedding anniversary on May 30^th. That was as amazing as me being and eighty year old woman. Both seemed impossible to believe. It seemed to cause something of a stir within my sport also, which I found a little baffling since being in my last year in the 75-79 age group seemed to pass without impressing anybody very much and yet just a few more months later appeared to be something of note.

In the 80-84 age group then, I was qualified now for The ITU World Triathlon Championships for 2019 in Lausanne on September 1^st. I really wanted to take my place on the GBR team for that. I also received a letter from my governing body on May 28^th to say that I was also qualified for the European Sprint Championships in Malmö in 2020 that was from the results of the Eton Sprints earlier in May. 

                  Being interviewed for Wiggle Sports on registration day for Windsor Triathlon

My races in two June did not go according to plan and that was disappointing, ultra disappointing for me actually. The first was Windsor Triathlon that I have competed in over twenty times, so it can be said that I know that event well. In fact I did win my age group in the event against the odds, so it was not all bad. About two thirds of the way through the swim, which was in the River Thames that does have a strong current after all, a wave of faster swimmers were passing me and I suffered an almighty punch in the back of my head that caused the lights to go out momentarily.

 I have no idea how long for but enough time for Steve to get seriously worried and when my head bounced back to the surface, the first thing I focused on was my husband taking his shoes off on the river bank obviously just about to jump in to save me.

I swam to the bank spluttering and stopped there holding my head and trying to recover my composure. I stayed out of reach because Steve wanted to pull me out. I did carry on but very slowly, aware as he was, that I was shaken but otherwise fine, all things considered. Steve was still shouting at me when I got into T1 and bellowed that if I was stupid enough to carry on, I must at least wear my Gortex bike coat. It did lash rain for 99% of the race but thanks to my warm and waterproof coat, I did not freeze to death. In fact I really enjoyed the run section that went into Windsor Castle grounds and gave the competitors two chances to run The Long Walk as it is called.

 Alarmingly though, over the next couple of weeks, little bits fell off my teeth and when I finally got an appointment, almost 5 weeks later, the dentist had to patch up and repair four broken teeth! He asked me if I had been in an accident or if anybody had hit me; I bluffed through that questioning because it was too long a story and he would probably only have told me that it was time to retire, which would have annoyed me because if you get punched in the head and bang your teeth together, it is not your fault and in the middle of an open water swim with hundreds of other people trying to take the shortest line, it is not their fault either or anybody else’s nor does it have anything what so ever to do with my age or ability.

The second of my two June races, Ironman 70.3 Haugesund in Norway also went terribly wrong which was such a shame because both Steve and I had looked forward to our first holiday in Norway tremendously. The race director Ivar Jacobsen, had been very kind and responded himself to all my questions about the event before I entered. He used my story….

(Mad old bat of nearly 80 doing triathlon) on the race website and during the week approaching the event in Haugesund, I gathered loads of new friends and on social media too because of that. That much was more than fun, it was heart warming.

                                                Registration for Ironman 70.3 Haugesund

This was something that I had trained so hard for and was looking forward to enormously but in the run up to the event, I had trouble with my gears and as many times as it was corrected it didn’t last long. Come race day the weather was far worse than I had endured at Windsor. Before the swim start there was a Hollywood movie quality lightning display with ear shattering thunderclaps. 

Still I enjoyed the lake swim and once out on the bike course still in torrential rain, thunder, fork lightening and streams of water flowing over the road. My bike gears started to play up again, until after less than twenty miles there was nothing left and my little legs were spinning away on not exactly any gear at all and I was out of the race. We do all our training together and at a point where he should have seen me and did not, Steve came back to find me in a concerned state, and we both turned back to the race base. 

Such a shame, it really is, but I try not to get too down when a DNF occurs as they do for everybody from time to time but it takes strength of will. Things happen, get over it! After all, we had enjoyed our holiday there much more than we had expected Norway is so stunning, beautiful and interesting as are its inhabitants.

July it cannot be said was uneventful. That is not something that describes my life at all. Triathlon is an important part of me and it keeps me healthy, there is no argument against that statement. Yet my heart and mind are full of other things that also give me pleasure. 

                                              Ironman 70.3 after bike racking, Haugesund 

Before we left Norway, we went to the Viking Village where I think much of Norsemen was filmed and we had a great time there. We were a group of very different people who all get on so well. Apart from Steve and I, a good friend who swims with us 3 times a week came along, as did a club friend of ours who also runs with us on Sundays who drove there with her mother who we all call Mutti, even though she is not old enough to be mother to us all she seems to like the familiarity of the group.

During July there were two theatre visits and an art house film showing White Crow (ballet story of Rudolph Nureyev). There was only one local sports event ten minutes from home Dawn on the Downs, a 12km trail run. That was very pretty as well as a useful bit of training, as were a couple of sessions riding loops of Box Hill that is a fun place to train and very convenient for the purpose since it has good car parks, a very nice cafe and a visitor centre. Then add that once per month we hold a poetry meeting in our home, just a small group who read their own work and enjoy listening to everything else and discussing all work that is brought.

                         Louis Arriving on a previous birthday bearing gifts.

Training continued in earnest during August over all disciplines with the ITU World Triathlon Championships approaching in one month’s time. As it happened I was very glad to have something serious on the horizon to focus on since my daughter’s dog Louis, who was more a member of family than simply a pet, died on August 8^th to totally devastate everybody.

He was eleven years old, the best trained and most well behaved dog on earth. He came to stay with us, if every my daughter Jacqueline and her husband Martin were away on holiday. The day I heard about his demise I just sat a read through all the poems that I had written about my walks and adventures with the dear little black spaniel Louis, alias the Prince of Darkness or plain old Black Bum if he was having a mad day. Keeping my mind on my training was the only option.

 

My eightieth birthday came only a week later. We started that with a 1500 metre pool swim instead of a structured training session. After that we did a short bike ride followed by just a 3 km run. This left no time to think before we had a late 2pm birthday lunch at the Parsons Table in Arundel. Jacqueline and Martin did their best to put on as cheerful as possible faces for my big day. 

More to come about the 2019 season very soon.

Stress Factors

 My wave start

Stress Factors: Day 1

Eton Sprints Weekend: Saturday May 18th + Sunday May 19^th 2019

It was a weekend that we had both looked forward to, and also an event that we had done a number of times in previous years. The venue is Eton Dorney Lake that was the site for the 2012 Olympic rowing events.

I use the weekend as a chance to put in an event of identical sprint distance two days running and hope to have results that are very similar, using it as sound training for longer events. The course it almost completely flat for the four laps of the 20 km bike course that on my bike computer showed just over 13 miles. That, on an outer road closed to traffic taking an anti clockwise direction. Then, a 5km run course that is a bit of a head banger being dead straight along side the rowing lake curving only at the far end to make up the distance. It is the most spectator friendly event, where it is possible to see the swim, bike and run watching from roughly the same position. There is also a comfortable terrace on the first floor of the boat house where spectators can overlook the whole of the transition area and the swim course.

Steve and I drove upon Friday afternoon. We had planned to leave early that morning but a nasty deep cut on Steve’s shin, sustained two weeks earlier when he slipped off the back of his truck, suddenly turned nasty and erupted like a tiny volcano. A visit to the surgery was necessary where we were told that the wound had become infected. That was the end of Steve’s plans to race as he collected a course of anti-biotics and pile of large dressings from the chemist. 

On race morning I had taken the brand new wetsuit that I had been given by a sponsor. I had only tried it on once and thought it was rather small but on talking to the manufacturer they insisted that that WAS the size I needed, even though at the first attempt wearing only my undies, it took thirty minutes to get on and being alone at the time, I had not attempted to do the zip up. I was not convinced that it was the right size and so I also took my existing five years older wetsuit in case the new one split under the strain, considering that I was a few pounds heavier after a spell with a chest infection when I had abandoned my diet!

With both Steve and I working together it and having my cycle shirt and padded bike shorts on to race in, it took 45 minutes to get on, we both had to admit that it was very stretchy but even so there are limits. I had not had much difficultly in getting my legs in and pulled the suit up over my bottom. It then became very hard to squeeze my ample bosom and wide swimmers shoulders inside the top half. All stretch seemed to have reached the limit. When I buy clothing I buy women’s size 12 jeans and trousers but size 14-16 shirts and tops.

Finally I was in.  Steve could not manage even to begin to close the zip and it was most uncomfortable and very quickly I realised that there was no way I would be able to swim in it since I could not even breathe in it. All the stretch was exhausted and I was huffing and puffing close to panic with my bust pressed tight to my chest as we started to peel in slowly off.

 

Thankfully my old wettie went on easily over the race kit. Still, I had got into a bit of a stew to say the least, doing a last minute change before darting to the swim start still breathing heavily, and my deltoids muscles aching from the tension of trying to work myself into the new suit. The usual calm pre-race period where I focus on the course and prepare myself mentally for the event was totally missed with the hassle of the wetsuit saga. The moral of the story here is to take practice sessions before trying any new equipment. After nearly thirty years in this wonderful sport, I should know that rule, should I not. Like the Cub Scouts, Brownies and Guides are taught; be prepared. 

As the claxon went off I still breathing heavily from the rush and talked to myself, trying to calm down and just take the swim at warm up pace, really slowly.

However I did get through the 750 mtr swim, three side of simple rectangle clearly marked with giant orange buoys and a large arch finish marker to aim for. It was a relief to finish the swim and that was a shame since the swim generally feels like a warm up event for me.

Once out on the bike I was happy, and the four laps were most enjoyable; such a lovely location and very well marshaled at every turn and loads of encouraging spectators. Once out on the run, I am reminded that I am not twenty one any more and neither am I a stick insect.  This is the part of the race where I do feel my age a little more these days; there is no denying that. How I cope with this is with plain common sense. I take it a little easier that I used to and I have a tried and tested method for that.

I keep a pace that does not raise my heart rate to bursting point, and generally jog/walk my way through. I can truthfully tell any beginners that if you do this whilst you build you running up; you will not be the only ones slowing to walk a little before starting to run again. So that is my system. I leave pushing myself to the ‘lights out limit’ to the younger folks. Nothing left for me to prove.

On the Dorney Lake 5km course; I ran counting 60 strikes of my right foot and then walked 30 strikes. I repeated that all the way to the turn point and then on the way back finding that I was feeling comfortable, increased that to 110-120 strides jog and 30 strides walk and that got me to the finish in a time that I was happy with, and that compared favourably to my normal weekend longer training run that is hilly. This was as flat as a pancake.

 Alice with the tri-bars

Stress Factors: Day 2

The second day was different from the start. My Husband/Coach/Rock/ Best Friend had to leave for a work trip to Chartres in France with an Australian client that he was couriering. As she bought a container full of antiques, he would load and bring her purchases back to the UK to pack and ship.

So he dropped me at Eton Dorney Lake at 6.30 am and left me to fend for myself. My advantage is that I know loads of people, most of the marshal’s and some of the Technical officials too. So I made my way into the registration tent whilst they busied themselves setting up for a very long day with roughly 1300 athletes to deal with after 900 the day before. I sat myself quietly in a corner telling them that it was too cold for me to just stand around outside. I call this ‘My little old lady act’. I don’t pull this one that often but in truth, I do get quite cold even on nice summer days in the early mornings and this day was cooler that the day before, overcast and threatening rain.

The registration did not open until 7.15 am and I was first because I was inside the tent and not queuing outside. Once I had my number stickers on my helmet and bike I walked along to transition where I thought I could set myself up quickly and come out to meet a young man who I had promised to do a video interview with for the Wiggle Sports Blog before the race. ‘No problem’ I had told him by email.

As I went to enter the transition I was immediately stopped and told that I could not race on that bike because this was a drafting race and tri-bars were not permitted. There was a discussion. After that I was told to leave and that I could not race unless the tri-bars were removed. I knew there was a bike stand that was hiring out bikes for first timers to do the event with on a day hire basis, so that was where I made for.

The mechanic there did agree to take the bars off for me and hoiked my bike, who I call Alice, up onto a work frame and soon had Alice fit to go. Off I went back to transition.

Stop! Called the voice of a technical official. My bike was still not right. I should have standard handle bars with drops.  Alice does not have drops. I have never used the drops.

I have had a handful of racing bikes over the years and all the drops have been removed.

Also, the race that this was a qualifier for; is not actually a drafting race.

At this point there was a lot more discussion. Then a photo was taken of my handle bars and sent for top level consideration. Telephone calls were made. It all took a very long time. Meanwhile the poor Videotographer waited…… and waited.

When eventually I was told that I could rack my bike and race; I hurried to set up my transition spot. I suggested to the video man that he made his way to the other end of the transition zone near the swim start and I could speak to him there before my swim start.

When I got there in my wetsuit, holding my goggles and swim hat. He was nowhere to be seen. By this point; I had got up at 5am, had arrived at 6.30am and spent a lot of time sorting out my problems. Rules are Rules. I had not had a cup of coffee and more importantly I had not made the usual several trips to the toilet. I had a full bladder. This may well come under the too much information heading but I was not able to relieve my bladder until I was standing on grass in my wetsuit in the swim wave pen, waiting for my wave start! To be truthful this is not unknown and I would not be the only person taking a last minute leak.

The rest of my race was fine and my total time was slightly faster that the day before with less than a minute difference. 

I rushed to get dressed and waited to see if the video guy was still around. I waited an hour until my taxi arrived to take me home. The crossed wires were discussed politely by email later. No cross words. He told me that they would not allow him to go through transition, well of course not. Had he known the venue, he could have walked around the other side on the boat house building along a grass bank as people who want to take photos always do but that was not his fault.

The moral of this story is to stay cool. Be reasonable and pleasant at all times. Much more is achieved with honey than with vinegar. Never lose your temper in these stressful situations. Keep you head on straight. Never, never, never lose your rag or you are lost.

Clive Patterson-Lett alias Bike-Fitta who kindly restored Alice to her usual training and racing state.

Stress factor

A good day can go seriously wrong

Your heart plunges as you see it happen.

Try to remember who sang that old song
that went ‘Like the sound of one hand clappin'.

A situation out of your control

Stay present for yourself and keep your cool

Yes; it was Dylan and not rock and roll

Lyrics in your head don’t make you a fool.

Smile on and use logic not wild fury

This is not the time to rise to the bait

It’s just a hiccough not a grand jury

Don’t change into someone they start hate

Loose your temper and any chance is lost

Work for the outcome or you pay the cost.

The Look-Return from the Forbidden Planet

Return from the Forbidden Planet

All this week I have been a little under the weather suffering from a nasty little bug that Steve came back with from France and promptly gave to me. My daughter and son in Law also have it now. The main feature is a horrid cough, well I have ever been a chesty person and anything cold or flu wise will sink to my lungs.

So Steve, who had this first, and therefore knows better than me (thinks he does anyway) has been constantly telling me to take advantage of the time as a rest period from training, and he is right, in that whenever I have picked up a little speed whilst moving around the house, it has brought on a coughing attack. So he as been telling me to sit down quietly, read, write or sew. 

Right then! I had taken delivery of a little jacket that was displayed onone of those annoying adverts that pops up on the side when you look at your FB feed. Actually, and this I swear is the truth, I do not recall ordering it. I did notice it and think it as rather me, though also over the top fussy, a bit Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts club band kind of thing. When I unwrapped it, I was disappointed at the workmanship and again that is me all over. Still it was something I could sit down quietly and address.

When I got a sewing kit out on the table where he was sitting;  my husband gave me ‘The Look’ and seeing that, I explained that the buttons were held on with spit and that I was planning to make sure that they did not fall off at the first wearing. He asked if I had counted how many there were. OK there was a military arrangement of sixteen big shiny buttons on the front. That was interesting on its own because the jacket did not actually fasten anywhere, it was all soft and hang loose, not wild about that. I stitched all of those on securely as well as the two on the epaulets.

I was still thinking about the lack of any functioning fastener, when I caught Steve giving me a more serious version of ‘The Look’. This time there was a slight twist of the mouth and I admit there was indeed just cause. I had put the jacket down at the end of the buttons phase and my imagination had taken a firm hold on my hands. What I was doing as he gave the upgraded ‘WTF are you like version of The Look’ was, that I was actually fastening an imaginary hook into a little embroidered silk loop, trying to see which side of the collar to place the hook and which side to place the tiny silk loop that I was planning to sew them.

My dear long suffering husband of almost forty years (next month) shook his head gently as I then picked up a little black hook and selected a skein of old rose embroidery silk and place the two together. Having painstakingly carefully worked the dainty ‘eyelet’ for the small metal hook, neither can be seen front the front. I did not want the jacket flapping in the breeze.  Job done.

That afternoon I wore the soft coat when we went to Chichesters New Park Cinema to see the most marvelously arty-farty film ‘At Eternity’s Gates’ that is brilliantly acted by Willem Dafoe as my own forever true love, the quite madly, way ahead of his time but utterly exquisite Vincent van Gogh.  Almost every book mark I have ever bought bears one of his works. 

Since I was still not recovered from my bug I had taken a bottle of water, hankies with Olbas Oil to inhale and some sucky-sweets to avoid a coughing fit. What I had not bargained for was the explosion of my emotions over the poor mans tormented life. A couple of times I was sure that I was going to make a complete and utter silly of myself. Indeed, I had to sit out the titles and credits at the end, which is something I like to do, but on this occasion the time was used to mop up my tears before going out into broad day light having attended the 2pm performance.

On the way back to the car park we had to pass the fairly new sculpture of John Keats by Vincent Gray. Keats is sitting on a bench in front of the house where he wrote Eve of St. Agnes, not too many years before his own untimely death from TB. I could not resist sitting down with him for a moment and pestering Steve to photograph me with my mobile phone. You cannot help but notice that dear Mr. Keats is also giving me ‘The Look’! Appraising my little jacket and asking “What planet are you from Madam, and who invited you to sit down with me anyway”?

The book , The Burning Chambers with 586 pages.... kept me quite during the week. It is also Chichester related since the best selling author is local resident Kate Mosse. I think I have read all of her wonderful stories.