“There are absolutely no ‘swimming Police’!” Karen very wisely points out. It’s a cold, grey, January morning and we’re feeling a little lack lustre and slightly grumpy. And she’s right of course (very frustratingly ‘as always’), but it doesn’t stop me feeling as though I really should go swimming each day. It’s daft – this was something that we started of our own fruition and something we continue to do with no direct pushing from anyone. But still I can have the feeling sometimes that we really ought to go, even if one or the other of us is moaning about the cold / time / tide or all three subjects at once. And sometimes it’s a recognition that ‘real’ life is also happening and it just doesn’t fit. 

Obviously there have been times over the last two years when we haven’t legitimately been able to swim (children’s weddings being the most obvious!), and times when we’ve been unwell (thankfully very few). I’m also aware that the pandemic and the associated restrictions have meant that we’ve each been at home on the Island predominantly and not had too many opportunities to be away. So we’ve been swimming to keep our sanity…. or maybe shown the opposite?!

It’s at this dull, grey (did I mention how grey the weather is just now?!) time of year when feelings of apathy are more likely to set in and I start to wonder if the ‘swimming Police’ might in fact be checking in on me to make sure we are swimming regularly. Will a uniformed officer armed with a rubber ring and a snorkel appear at my door and demand that I get my cozie on and get down to the shoreline? Will a man in a wet suit appear and frog march me to the beach? As Karen helpfully points out – I’m pretty good at beating myself up over such things and in actual fact it’s entirely up to us whether we swim or not!

A dear older, wiser friend suggested to me this week that I should try not to let the things I enjoy doing become sources of stress (thanks Val x). She advised that I should do things for enjoyment because… well because they are enjoyable, and not let them become an onerous chore. I do enjoy swimming very much, even when it’s grey and cold, but if there’s a day when I really don’t fancy going into the waves at low tide then maybe I can take a day off…. and just wave at the swimming Police.

The more important thing here is sharing time, doing something that makes you laugh, with people you enjoy being with… and eating biscuits afterwards.