Wednesday 28 March 2012


High Tide02:30 (2.30m)
Low Tide08:18 (0.80m)
High Tide14:46 (2.30m)
Low Tide20:39 (0.80m)

Sea temperature: 7.8
Sea conditions: glassy calm
Weather: sunny with a light breeze - moving on weather
Joined by: The Poet, Jesse the Lurcher and Sara - now that The Poet has broken up for the Easter break he will be a regular
Topics of conversation:
The Pirate had forgotten his bag and so the morning started with working out if he had to go back for it - I lent him my 'stool bag' and we promised him second use of towels, until DK turned up calling him all kinds of names under the sun and carrying 2 bags. The Pirate's Wife had been on her way down to the beach with it. We agreed that she is wonderful and that the rest of us had husbands/wives who wouldn't even notice we'd left without.
The relationship between DK and The Pirate was then in the spotlight, they are constantly bickering in a predominantly friendly fashion but DK certainly has a more acerbic tongue and a well honed vocabulary of insults. I explained to The Poet that when I first started swimming with them on a regular basis I wondered if they had moderated their behaviour for me and that it took some while to become accustomed to their early morning banter, not being sure if it was in jest. The Poet told me that his son had been at an all boys' school and that when they had first started taking girls in the sixth form he had asked whether it had changed things, his son's swift reply had been "Yes! We can't fart in class anymore!"
Is there a wind farm off our shore? None of us had realised that it is there but it had been a very clear day yesterday and Sara and The Poet had bumped into a bird spotter who had noticed something out to sea and trained his binoculars on it. It's only visible as the sun swings around to the west. We all knew it was planned but the fact that it's now there without anyone realising was agreeably surprising. We all stood and stared but with the sun in our eyes nothing was visible.
There's a map here
The village webmaster lives in a house with unparalleled views of the bay and I had cause to visit her this morning, she is also a font of all knowledge and has been watching its progress through a telescope. She counted 58 turbines yesterday and says that there are many more to go up, mostly beyond our horizon.
I shall try to remember DK's joke, it is a joke that only he and his friend, a scriptwriter, find funny. His friend wrote with him but also for programmes like Minder and Shoestring so we were treated to a rendition of The Pirate's favourite George Cole lines followed by the joke: A man goes to visit his mate Harry and arrives at his house to find the blinds drawn and black at all the windows. He knocks on the door and is greeted by a woman dressed in black with tear stains down her cheeks. "Is Harry in?" he asks and the woman sobs, telling him that Harry has passed away and that the funeral will be in a couple of days. The Man asks "Did he mention a tin of green paint?"
No, me neither...

Jess the lurcher is going to the vet to have her teeth sorted and may have to have some removed, poor Jess. The Pirate had bumped into Sara and The Poet walking on the marshes and had had a conversation about this yesterday but had misunderstood, thinking it was Sara who had teeth problems. They only realised they were talking at cross purposes when The Pirate asked if she was going to an NHS dentist or private.


Lists and grammar - this has been an ongoing conversation for the last week. The New Yorker, who writes for pleasure, and The Poet had been talking about commas, colons, and lists. Or is it commas, colons and lists? Teaching primary school age means that the foundations of grammar are crucial to my lessons and I was concerned to hear that the 'laws' have changed, but who (we wondered) changes them? Perhaps Lynne Truss or the Grand Grammar PooBah?


Only children - both Legs and The Pirate's Wife are, as am I. We discussed the responsibilities and relationships that are associated with parents and children in such circumstances, especially as the parent ages. None of us have the experience of sharing such responsibilities, whereas DK and The Pirate have close siblings and we wondered if one is able to understand the other's viewpoint. I suspect this one will run too.
Although I was not related to my friend who died last week, I was her only executor and 'beneficiary' and, I now discover 'good friend' can be added to that list of onlys. I also discovered that she had a daughter, who left her when she was 8 or 9 to live with her ex-husband. This, along with the bureaucracy and financial ramifications has made for a difficult week of hard decisions but what has really helped me to cope has been this small and wonderful group fools, sorry, swimmers. They've helped me with their care, legal advice, humour and strength. Without them things would be a lot harder.
What would I do without them?

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