Swimming Lessons

Last September we got a message from the school saying that my lad wasn't very confident in the pool when his class went swimming. They suggested extra lessons on a Saturday morning with me in the pool with him, to give him that confidence.
On the first lesson I soon sussed what the problem was. He could swim fine but he insisted on wearing floats on his arms stating that if he took them off he would drown.It took 3 months of Saturday mornings to wean him off those floats until one Saturday morning he swam a pool length un-aided. The class cheered and clapped him, the instructor congratulated him, I was proud of him, and to prove it wasn't a fluke , he swam another 2 lengths. The instructor thought he was showing off then.
The following Saturday, the instructor came up to me and told me that in his normal school swimming lessons he refused to swim without floats. He must have thought that because I was there, I would save him from drowning. It took him another month before he finally discarded the floats, with or without me.

His extra lessons finished before Christmas, but now the little lass is coming with me on Saturdays. She's so skinny that the armbands keep falling off.

I think she'll learn fast...or drown!

Ruminating

After a nice bottle of Californian red and a chicken dinner with all the trimmings, plus chocolate sponge with choc sauce for afters, I began to ruminate on what has happened in my life for the last 7 months.
It was June of last year when I last posted to this blog, and not a lot before then either. I can't even begin to explain why I stopped blogging, especially when I really enjoyed posting and reading other peoples blogs. Was it posters block?-- I don't think so. There was a lot happening at that time to provide enough material. Was it lethargy?-- mmm possibly. I used to think, shall I post tonight. Then almost immediately I'd think--nahhh I'll post tomorrow night. I used to put a lot of energy into my work as a photo lab manager back then, that I would feel drained when I got home. It's only now, 10 months down the line, that I can understand why. After blood tests, my doctor diagnosed me as having an under-active Thyroid Gland. I think the medical term is myxadema or hypothyroidism. Anyway, the symptoms are reduced brain function, feeling tired all the time and weight gain. I ticked all the boxes there. Your thyroid gland produces hormones to kick start your metabolism, unfortunately my kick start had fallen off. I am taking tablets to control this and am now feeling 200% better and sharper than I have done in months. So hopefully it's business as usual. Hooray!

Anyway, going back to my ruminating, the last post was all about the bomb site. Well the builders went away £2000 better off, but the outside of the house looks brilliant. We get the odd few hundred pebbles showering us occasionally, when we have high winds, but you always get that after fresh pebble dash, don't you?

June turned out to be the hottest June on record in the UK and July wasn't to bad either, but by the time my holiday came around in August, the British winter started. I was off for the first 2 weeks in August and it chucked it down everyday, cold with it as well. I don't think the weather has improved much since.

Anyway, it's nice to be posting again. Lots more to come now that I feel "rejuvenated" (sic)

See you tomorrow or Tuesday (oops slipping)

Just One Of Those Things

What with travelling to Bradford everyday, the computer being bust for 3 months, an under-active Thyroid Gland, being Dads Taxi, some good DVDs to watch and generally being knackered most evening, (probably because of the thyroid gland) I haven't done any postings for 7 months.

Hopefully that will all change now I'm on medication. (Thyroxine). I'm feeling a lot more energetic nowadays and with a bit of luck I might lose some weight as well.

Keep looking in, I'm planning a different look for the site and will be bringing you up to date with the news.

Bye for now