Another fish is in residence to keep the other one company, so we now have 2 fish we never wanted. Newsflash that A found some money on the verge along a road, she gave a third of it to her chosen charity, Edukids, and is spending the rest on things she is not usually allowed to buy. H found some money in a field on a cliff near Swanage, clearly they take after their paternal grandfather who is well known for having an eye for gold in the gutters of Claygate.

My last day of freedom as a at home person was spent in Bitterne, aptly enough, as on the last day of term when everyone was at school except me, I enjoyed a very nice swim at BLC, in cool and almost empty pool. My general low energy levels are dragging on and on, I have got rid of the sore throat but am exhausted and can only manage a 15 minute jog, the idea of a 78 mile bike ride in a couple of weeks is not filling me with joy right now. I have even spoken to my Dr with a view to getting an appointment, as maybe I am anaemic or something. That was suggested today, as someone noticed all my bruises. My bruises are war wounds from sailing at the high performance end of dinghy and cat sailing. Seriously!!! I was asked to go out on a fabulous fast cat with a very good couple of sailors on Sunday morning, and learned to trapeeze, the hard way, on a fast boat, but it was awesome as we were soaring across the water, and I felt excited and not scared at all, in safe hands!

After lunch, as I happened to be wandering around wearing a wetsuit, a man I had never seen before asked me if I wanted to go sailing. Of course I said yes, and set off towards the water after him, and able to answer his question 'are you ok going out on the wire?' with the answer - 'well, I learned this morning!' It was a very different boat, being a dinghy, and it seemed to be the kind of tippy over boat that would have FREAKED ME OUT a couple of years back. I was once again in the hands of a very good sailor, literally at one point as I fell off/out/somewhere and I have the hand shaped bruise where he tried to haul me back in without us capsizing. Somehow, in wonderful slow motion, we managed to capsize, and then righted the boat with nowhere near as much trouble as it takes to do it with a cat. Still quite a lot of fiddling around in the water, but it was ok. The reason for my falling off/in is still unclear, but it was when I was just taking control of the spinnaker. This is a beautiful and awesome piece of fabric that means you can sail fast downwind, it is literally like a kite, and is beautiful, so powerful, so awesome, and the crew has the job of holding it in the right place. You can feel the power of the wind through its rope, it is so so awesome, however, clearly a novice I got something wrong and ended up over the edge. I had got it right (ish) the first time and messed up the second time.

So, still smiling, a bit achey the next day, and have instructed R that our upgrading of our fleet will not be to a Dart 18 but to a F18, and I also need to upgrade the Topper to a Asymmetric Dinghy. The boat pot is a little low at the moment, but R is now working as a bike mechanic and is a part time teacher, so I am sure he will soon start using his bike profits to buy boats. He won't need much encouragement!!