Dancing and Poetry on #groovingmums

#Groovingmums

Week 8, this feels like a pregnancy, when do we start counting in months?
Kate issued 2 challenges this week for #groovingmums, involving poetry and dancing.
The only thing that sprung to mind was Keats’s ‘Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness.’ My Gran had this on her biscuit tin and I’ve always wondered how the rest of it goes. It is one of my earliest childhood memories, so this week my personal challenge is to seek it out and learn some more.
About 4 weeks ago I started swimming again; apart from holidays the last time I swam I was 16 for a local club. I competed in competitions all over the UK and had time trials on a regular basis at the Olympic pool in Coventry. I have 2 particular memories from then, the first was the Olympic diving board, how we all bravely climbed to the top and stood there, daring one another to jump. OMG, I hit the water with such force and speed that by the time I surfaced from the bottom I was gasping for breath and as I tried to haul myself out the side of the pool, my hands were red raw from the force of hitting the water and had to crawl back to my towel as I could hardly walk. The second memory of the time trials in Coventry was sneaking out during a break to the bombed cathedral where they were filming swop shop and I met Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin and got their autographs. We were told off for both; I was around 13 at the time. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed swimming, I’m not fast (anymore) but I’m a strong and steady swimming, having qualified as a life guard about 7 years ago and actually having rescued my teenage son from the Atlantic ocean nr Bordeaux after he got caught in a rip tide, having ignored ALL the advice about not going in past his knees. Anyway I now swim a minimum of a mile a day at the local gym. I find I swim faster when I’m in a foul mood or I’m angry and I count the number of lengths I swim. I now know that I can swim the mile just under 40 minutes so to make it more fun, this week I’ve been reciting Dr Zeuss ‘The cat in the hat’ ‘I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am?’ I find I’m actually making most of it up as I go along and it makes it more fun in the pool.
Challenge number 2. Dancing.
Tonight I was supposed to be going to the Cuban and Havana bar in Hatfield, near Pretoria. It’s a once a month meet up for expats. I’ve been 3 times so far and although it’s been great to meet other English people, they haven’t been in the same situation as me and it’s been hard work. Lots of air kissing, too much cleavage on show, talk about work and travels. They are mostly single women, mid 40’s, no children and over on a 2 year contract, they have a house provided, car and cell phone on arrival. But tonight I would’ve had the opportunity to dance, so as I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather this week and my step son is visiting. I opted to have a boogie in Pick n Pay this morning instead, suitably embarrassing the kids in the process.