GONE SWIMMING

SUNDAY 23rd JANUARY

  Jeannette cooked a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon, after which Reilly and I went walking in the park.  Another scorching day looms by the looks of the sky.  Rob and I drove over to Carlingford with a view to taking Nick swimming at the open air pool in Carlingford.  However Nick declared vehemently that he didn't want to go to Epping only to Ryde (an indoor pool containing a slide).  However Rob took no notice of Nick's outburst and played Wii football with him.  Nick somewhat disgraced himself by harshly dropping Jingles to the floor.  The unfortunate kitten landed with a bit of a thump.  Rob banished Nick to his bedroom.  After a spell of confinement Nick emerged to say that he did want to go swimming in Epping after all. 

  I was surprised at the paucity of swimmers present at the pool, particularly as it was a gorgeous day and a Sunday to boot.  Nick has become quite a proficient swimmer since I last saw him taking swimming lessons, and has no fear of the water.

Rob managed to get his shoulders slightly burnt, not putting on any sunscreen until he felt a tingle.  As this was the first occasion I was exposing mine to the sun I made sure I applied cream before I went out of the changing rooms.  We had great fun in the pool  with Nick swimming bewtween our legs, having swimming races and jumping in the pool.  Robert tried to down me with a rugby tackle under water but the Rock of Gibraltar stood firm!

All in all we must have spent a couple of hours at the pool, and Nick was not over keen on leaving!

After returning to Carlingford and dropping Nick off - I provisionally arranged to take him to see Yogi Bear on Wednesday which is Australia Day - we drove back to Oakhurst - I had mistakenly called it Plumpton, but I'm informed by Robert that it is an adjoining district.  Rob complained of the steering pulling to the nearside and the front wheel vibrating.  This seemingly got worse the futher we progressed.  I suggested it might be the tracking, wheel balance or suspension.  Upon getting back we got the jack out and Rob tried to undo the nuts on the front wheel but they wouldn't shift.  However they were unable to resist my weight jumping on the spanner and we duly got the wheel off.  A chunk of tread was missing from the inside half of the tyre - it could have blown at any moment.  We put on the spare and Rob went for a test drive and all the former symptons were gone.  We had a celebratory beer, and I then cooked Bombay potatoes and curried mushrooms to go with the curry and rice cooked by Jeannette, and we had a bumper feed. 

  The third one dayer is interestingly poised as I write this, but sadly it didn't go England's way.  Anyway who cares about the pyjama game?  I'm about to go on Skype and try to contact Adam and Jim.  I successfully contacted Adam who was in the bath with Leia, so Karen actually answered the phone.  I had a nice talk with Leia who seems to be speaking much better since I last spoke to her in October, and was quite loquacious.  She had just had her hair washed, and we were able to see the results.  Adam on the other hand didn't appear to have have washed his beard and moustache at the time of speaking!  We managed to get the video contact going so we were all able to see each other.  Robert was sporting his skinhead look having had all his hair cut off minutes earlier.  Leia had difficuly in understanding that it was night time in Australia having only relatively recently got up!

  I failed to get any answer from Jim, I'll try tomorrow morning.