News of the Day: Swimming, pubs, food

Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday. Today I went swimming for the first time in about 2 years. It was lovely.

I always used to swim once a week at our local pool, then I stopped going even before the pandemic as the pool became overcrowded and quite frankly, dangerous. The laned swimming became squashed into such narrow lanes (by greedy management) that on one occasion after being kicked in the legs more than once by strong men swimming in the lane next to me, I decided enough was enough and I quit. Not without complaining to the management though, who asked me to fill out a complaint form and then…. err, never responded.

So my hunch was that there would be more space in the lanes in our post lockdown life, and I was right. The lanes were massive.. only 3 lanes for the whole pool, and never more than 3 or 4 people in each lane. Bliss! You have to book online and choose which lane you’re going to stay in. I stayed slow and steady, up and down to the tune of 24 lengths. The changing rooms were spotlessly clean and being sanitised after each person. Long may this continue, but I suspect it will gradually get busier (and dirtier) and they will allow it to go back to how it was before and the accidental kicking will start again. For now, I am happy 😊 and came out feeling calm and refreshed, not bad for £4.65. A few hours later now I am still happy but a little tired. I feel like I used some dormant muscles that yoga does not touch and I’ll sleep well tonight.

This is a weird photo (this isn’t me!?!).

What’s your favourite exercise? I think the best is when you just enjoy it and it doesn’t feel like exercise at all. For me swimming is mindful and meditative, I go into a different zone mentally. I know for others they find laned swimming boring going up and down, up and down, but mindfully focusing on the sensation of each stroke as if it’s new, which it is, you can achieve a zen like state. Maybe that’s just me, no drugs or cocktails involved, honest!

I’ve been home drinking tea and relaxing this afternoon while David is out at band rehearsal (again!). They have a wedding to play at in just over a week’s time so the pressure’s on. It’s a shame I’m not allowed to go to the wedding and hear the results of all this practising as it’s obviously strictly limited numbers at the moment. Covid rules bla bla bla.

As things start to feel a bit safer with this virus, we’re starting to think about little trips we might go on. Nothing too adventurous, I don’t want to go anywhere near an airport queue thank you very much! We are thinking of going to London for a night’s stay. We can easily do London as a day trip from Windsor, but we may treat ourselves to a bed for the night for a mini holiday. I’ve been looking at deals on a hotel with a rooftop bar overlooking the city, looks good! I also did some research using my pub books this afternoon. David bought me these for my birthday.

We both enjoy a drink, and the fantastic ambience you can get in some of the olde worlde London pubs, so much character. Sometimes it’s best to just stumble across them (or out of them!). Sometimes it’s good to have a plan. We came across this amazing pub a couple of years ago near Oxford Street. It had the most stunning interior of etched glass. We couldn’t remember what the pub was called, but I think I’ve now identified it as The Argyll Arms and we’d love to go back there.

Here are some photos from trip advisor. Of course I’ll take some of my own if we go back there, and swot up on its history to impress you all!

You get the idea!

For tonight it’s an alcohol free night in cooking turkey meatballs and pasta. I’m going to try a recipe from “A Girl called Jack” online that I’ve not done before.

The tartiflette last week was divine by the way..this was it just going into the oven. The turkey meatballs will be healthier than this one.

On the subject of naughty cheese snacks, can you believe this recipe?! I had a toasted macaroni cheese sandwich at Dobbies garden centre (Hare hatch) last weekend. I never would have thought of that. It was really tasty, and I liked the way they’d put cheese on the outside of the bread as well. Genius.

The wandering guitarist is now home so I’ll love you and leave you. Ciao! X