Karen and I started swimming daily together in May 2020 and here we are still going. When we started the website exactly a year ago I didn’t imagine we’d still be here tapping away a year later to be honest. But here we are… and we are still asking one another why we’re doing it. We’re still swearing about the cold (also about other various factors including the weather, people and life in general) and still, yes STILL managing to forget random items of kit on frequent occasions. But for perhaps the first time ever, we’re still actively taking part in an activity that we started as a joke.

I look down at my bright pink legs after swimming and wonder how on earth I have the tolerance to throw myself into the cold waters of The Solent each day. But somehow we both manage to do so. Only today we were asked yet again how we keep going and we both agreed it was because of the other. When you make a pact with someone to do something there’s a bond that then ties you to them, a silent partnership that holds you together. Don’t get me wrong, there have definitely been days when we’ve almost turned back from the shoreline without getting in, days when we look at each other through our respective rainy car windows willing the other to say “Let’s not bother today”. But somehow, one or the other gives in and pushes the other Orange Hat to get undressed and dino step into the water. I’m not sure if it’s been a coincidence that over the months (now turning into years) we’re both yet to hit a ‘low day’ at the same time – we’ve been lucky enough to have the other one there to push us on (or should that be in?!). There’s always been one of us ready to take the lead in telling the other that they flipping well are going in and so… order is (sort of) restored to the Orange Hat universe. Both Hats swim and inevitably, if not ridiculously, agree that “it’s not so bad” after all!

And so I reckon we’ll just keep going – writing, drawing and swimming, maybe into our dotage. If you’re happy to keep receiving our ramblings then we’ll keep blogging and sharing? Happy swimming all.

Here’s to friendship and sharing!