Another trip to Bitterne for a swim tonight. It was 'adult' lane swimming, and I found a pace maker in the fast lane and worked hard to keep up with her. The fast lane at Bitterne roughly works out as equal to the medium lanes at the Quays. Although every now and again you get some joker with goggles and a nose clip doing tumble turns like we are at the Olympics. Darlings, this is Bitterne, not Barcelona. We do sedate breast stroke, heads up, not weaving around under the water with flippers on and a float. I like the fact that when all you can see is someone's head, it is very levelling.

I noticed 2 girls in the medium lane who both had short fringes ('bangs' for my American readers). I wondered if this is fashionable, or whether they are sisters with a snip happy mother. Or maybe it was one of those things like with a chair leg, where you keep sawing until you have none left but at least its level.

We had a barbecue at our house tonight, as a kind of housegroup with all the kids. Lots of friends who live nearby came too, and we brought and shared food, which worked out amazingly well. Plenty of wine and meat, enough of everything else for everyone to have a meal that did not consist entirely of wine and meat. I tried to add up how many people there were - I think it was over 30. Our poor little barbecue! The rain started just when the last people had gone home. Perfect.

Changed in a cubical on the way out.