Health and well-being

I'm back! My last post was written at the end of our fantastic holiday to New Zealand. Since then I have been going through a rather unsettling period of change. I don't mean that something terrible has happened; in fact the opposite! I can't blog about it in detail because it's confidential which of course means that it's work related, but basically I had to say no to going back to school to cover part of a timetable after my retirement, because the conditions did not suit me at all. And it's not easy for me to say no!

But my life has much more in it than work, and at the moment I'm concentrating on improving my health and fitness. A healthy mind in a healthy body and all that!

So I have been swimming - a lot! At least three times a week. It's interesting watching all the different people who use my local swimming pool during week days. There is a usually a group of about ten male pensioners who occupy the shallow end and occasionally use the sauna or sit on the chairs beside the pool. They are in truly terrible shape with gigantic tummies. What is remarkable about them is that they do absolutely no swimming or exercise at all. I presume that their doctors have ordered them to go to the swimming pool but have not made it clear that they need to swim once they get there! The female pensioners are much more conscientious. They dutifully swim up and down the pool, as do I. The faster swimmers are very serious with swim caps and goggles, and they lash up and down the lanes until these are changed into an area for school pupils to get lessons. The pupils are very noisy but it's nice to see them enjoying the water. The young swimming teachers are very grim and shouty though, I was watching one of them and she didn't crack a smile the whole time. 

Imagine my surprise on Wednesday when the class that came in for a lesson was from the school I left a year ago! I swam over to say hello and one of the pupils immediately said "Mrs S Anderson - born on New Year's Eve!" These are my people! I set up those swim sessions years ago and used to go with them every week - it felt a bit strange not being part of it any more. Then when I was getting changed in one of the cubicle I heard a couple of the teachers talking about me - they didn't know that I was still in the changing area. Luckily they sounded quite affectionate about me!