annanotbob2's Diaryland Diary

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Swimmin' Wimmin

9/3/24
It’s been a bit swim-focused these last few days. On Friday I went with the Mental Health Swim (MHS) group to see the film Vindication Swim – I should mention that the Mental Health Swims is a national organisation, which trains and supports people to lead these monthly swims. There may be one near you! Our local group only started last year and is already so good, such a strong community feeling considering none of us knew each other at the start. Anyway, some of us went to the pictures together, except we left it so late we had the last few tickets and were scattered all round the picture house. The film is about Mercedes Gleitze, a woman bon in Brighton in 1900 who was the first woman to swim the channel in 1927. Controversy ensued but she ended up getting the credit she deserved. It was a good film, but some of the sea scenes were hard to watch, great big fucking waves towering over her. It wasn’t her, obvs, but the actor (Kirsten Callaghan) did all the swimming herself, in the open sea, and quite often I didn’t like it.
Today there was a mass swim on Brighton beach for International Women’s Day – a day late because people have to work – which I participated in – bloody brilliant, if a trifle daunting. About 500 women, quick in and out of a very choppy sea, low tide so sand underfoot and I managed to get in further than I expected with the help, holding hands, of a couple of women from the MHS group, till a big wave came and smashed me right in the face and I started to panic and got out quick. I wish I could talk myself down when I’m in the sea like I can in other situations – this was very hectic though – loads and loads of us all quite close together which didn’t help. I’m going to try low tide again with my daughter – the sand underfoot is so different to the shingle – it’s firm and flat whereas the shingle shifts about and is sloping, to varying unpredictable degrees. Apart from that it was great to be part of such a big crowd of women. We all had to stand together for a group photo and were asked to cheer – I couldn’t help noticing that my voice is so much lower than everyone else’s – no wonder I get called ‘Sir’ when speaking on the phone

12:50 a.m. - 10.03.24

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