Pool pals

I made a promise to myself to give myself Sundays. Like the name of the band - I'm taking back sundays. It's my day, I choose. Lately, I've chosen to begin the day by swimming at my community centre pool. This week was great. I have a new pool pal. I had been in the pool dutifully lapping back and forth for about 20 minutes when my new friend joined in. I can't even tell how old he is - but he's likely Italian - or from Eastern Europe. Sometimes I can't understand a word he says - but I just smile and continue doing the laps until our next encounter between laps. What really made him my pal was his comment that I was improving and that I'm getting quite good - better than last week. Something about this unasked opinion of a quiet observer was really nice. Getting back into swimming is hard. The first week I got in the pool, i actually thought perhaps it would be nice if someone just came and killed me. And that was only after 10 minutes. But it's true what they say - it's a great workout and you feel it all over. And it's almost musical too. I find that the rhythm and sounds of the swishing water is almost hypnotic and calming.

My old Italian pal has got to be over 60 and he's definitely a regular. He wears these crazy white hand paddle things - perhaps to help him get some speed in his swim. He's very old fashioned too - he brought up what I was doing Monday, and I said no swimming, and his response was perhaps I was going to be cooking all day. Yes, perhaps if I was Italian, but unfortunately I'm British by birth. And you know their reputation for international cuisine!