WATER

 As I float around in pools and the ocean, I do wonder why I feel so much more comfortablable there than on land?

There's thought from one of Evie Wyld's characters in The Bass Rock about a woman in an outdoor pool:

"She's enjoying being weightless, thought Ruth. She doesn't care about going foreward." (14)

It's partly floating and not running the risk of tripping over my own feet. It's partly the warmth that usually provides the backdrop for such experiences. It's partly that there's nothing else you can do while you are in the water except ponder the world - or not. 



A friend talked about stopping after a number of laps because she was bored with her own thoughts. I know exactly what she means. By definition, swimming laps is an utterly uninteresting process. Up down. Up down. The only thing that changes might be other people swimming in your lane. Traditionally, I have solved problems, written emails, crafted reports while I swam laps but now, in my retirement, there aren't so many of those to do so I have less and less desire to swim kilometers even though I probably should because what have I got to think about?

Sebastian gave Susan a waterproof speaker for Christmas so we can do aqua aerobics in our pool. Susan's found the perfect Abba soundtrack. But we've also tried other water exercise experiences as well. When we first rocked up to Deep Water Aqua at the UWA swimming centre we were clearly the oldest people in the group by 45-50 years! However, we were the most experience and John, our trainer and a man with the most racous laugh I have ever heard, kept saying "look at the ladies", they've got it." 

A couple weeks ago there was an interesting BBC radio program on what makes water wet. It's all about the relationship between the water and what it's touching and on reflection, my relationship with water is the longest one I've had!

As you know, the initial impetus for coming to Perth was to have a swimming pool so even though today was the first day of Winter, I had to get in and have a swim.






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