Keeping my head above the water

 Good morning. 

Here we go again, another wet and miserable start to the day. Have they been mucking about with the cloud seeding again. Oh well, I have enough to do to keep me busy.

This is a photo of the swimming baths in Burton upon Trent, taken a long time ago. The building was demolished. It had some awful memories for me, trying to learn how to swim and being shit scared of the water. Once a week we were loaded on the bus and driven five miles to this place of torture. 

It was a Stevensons double decker, just like this one. Who would have thought that years later I would have a job driving them, when I got my PSV, Public Service Vehicle Licence. The baths were long gone by then. I did the school buses, morning and afternoon. 

Inside the baths it was freezing cold. There was an iron spiral staircase to get to the top deck of changing rooms. Quickly get your cozzie on and scramble down without slipping, and walk through the foot bath before getting into the pool. The smell of chlorine was overwhelming and took your breath away. 

I was in the beginners class. Mr Cotton was the teacher. He didn't care what we did, he was easy going. I just jumped up and down and splashed about to give the impression that I was actually trying to swim. I stood by the side rail not daring to let go.

One day as I remember, they swapped teachers about, and we got Miss Rasmussen, who was in fact Mrs Cotton, though we always called her by her maiden name. From that day the swimming lessons became more tortuous for me. She gave us exercises to do, like handstands in the water. There was no way I was going to put my head under the water. I gasped and choked. I tried but I just could not do it. 

Every week when it was baths day I was worrying about it. I told my mum, she asked dad to write an excuse note to say I couldn't go because of ear ache or tummy ache. This got me out of going for a couple of weeks. Dad was not very supportive and stopped writing the notes. So I wrote the notes myself and added his signature. My handwriting was neat and tidy and I could copy his. 

I handed the notes to the teacher at the start of every swimming lesson, and was told to sit in a classroom and read a book. I watched the bus drive out of the school gates with a sigh of relief. This went on every week and eventually Miss Rasmussen just naturally assumed I was not going, so she left me alone.    

I have never learnt how to swim. The thought of my head being underwater frightens me to this day. I need to see, I need to breath, and I need to hear. I will paddle in the sea up to my knees, but that's it.

I went shopping yesterday to the retail park. Spent £80 in the Range on cat supplies, food and litter. Spent £40 in Home Bargains on some cat food, and some food for me. I might go to town this afternoon because there is a new exhibition on at the Arts Centre, and I can pick up a few items from Aldi that I didn't get yesterday.

Have a good weekend everyone. Toodle pip.   ilona