Granny with Goggles

 Dear Marmite

Team Marmite!

I am back in the swim. This is not quite like our swims across Tanjong Beach on Sentosa, or even the little trips across to the small man-made island and back. As much as you used to love a trip to the beach, this is different. This swimming is going up and down the length of an indoor pool for just over an hour. I know you wouldn't last the course. I am sure you could not imagine what this type of swimming is like either.

Our swim at the Beach

Let me try to explain. First of all, because of COVID I have to have a membership to the Sports Centre so that I can book a slot to swim. Places are limited so this involves a bit of planning. I can't pop round to the pool on a whim. I book early morning slots - as you know, I am an extreme Lark in that respect. 

So with a coffee inside me for fuel, I walk the 200 odd meters to the pool, programme my watch to the swimming activity and set off. I have been doing this since the end of July and through August I did enough lengths to get me across the English Channel. My aim for September is to swim a marathon and I am well on my way already. Doing about 2.5km a session adds up.

The lane swimming at the pool is organised so that the fast swimmers head for the lanes on the left and the plodders have about a third of the pool on the right to do circuits. Over time, I have realised that it is my demographic that inhabits the righthand side of the pool. They drift along with their heads high and remarkably keep their hairstyles in tact. Some even wear goggles but never dip their faces near the water. 

The people I share my swim with are usually youngish men. So as a Granny with goggles I set demands on myself to swim as fast as I can. Today I managed to get a sweat up chasing a rather nice young man up and down the lengths.  I am also getting to know a few people well enough to pass the time of day with and the staff who work at the place are really very nice.

What swimming does to me!

In the course of a swim I come across more than 6 people - the new limit for meeting people except if you are in a classroom, at a funeral or a wedding. I have discussed this with a friend and we are thinking of having a "wedding" celebration just so that we don't get into trouble for meeting up with more than 6 people. 

The newspapers say that experts are predicting a difficult winter with COVID and Boris might even have to cancel Christmas! These same experts must also believe that the virus is less virulent at weddings, funerals and in classrooms because more people are allowed to gather in these places. It is clearly a very selective strain that makes it safe to eat out in a pub near strangers but not to share space with close friends.  Faith in the pronouncements of the PM diminished to zero this Dominic's comings and goings yet this man is still in a job. What can I say?

I bemoan the size of my little world. This extends to a pub quiz, food parcel deliveries, doing the Community Orchard gardening, swimming and shopping for food. I know that when I think about my life in Singapore, it is the wonderful people who I count as friends that I miss. Marmite, it is you I miss most.

I don't have that friendship group here in MK. I also know that the life I had in Singapore is no longer what it was. For many of my friends, their time in Singapore is also running out. The place I worked for is shrinking too. Thank goodness for modern technology that keeps me connected to a big world beyond. 

It was lovely being vicariously part of Team Marmite last Saturday! You, Marms were in your element surrounded by old friends.