Early morning classes are always hard to drag yourself out of bed for, especially when the weather seems tailor made for snuggling up. More so, if the night before had you falling asleep at 1am. Surprisingly enough, I made it before hand to see there were chairs put out around the pool with new students like me waiting already. And I was so so so glad I didn’t buy the sessy swim suit with HUGE flowers right down to the ankles. People were dressed to walk into a movie set right away. We all waited for Nisha Millet to turn up but a guy walked in instead. So much for being taught by a star. ;) And the guy was on the heavier side and right out went any notions I had about losing weight by swimming. Sigh. So much for an easy weight loss plan.
We started out by learning to breathe while swimming – breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose. I should have figured out right away all the happiness this procedure was going to bring to my life :D
Next, you will float automatically if you let your body go limp. And cough cough, he looks over at the ladies and says, you guys will have it easy- women float very easily. It should have made it easy but as it happens, most people floated making a straight line but few(part of whom I was of course) tilted off to the side . uahhahahaa. Luckily, vision under water is a toughie and no one could see the embarrassment or others toppling off.
The first day left me all excited. I realized I actually enjoyed being in the water and trying all the breathing stuff. Of course, when I went to office, the first question I was asked was if I had cried or not slept. Turns out chlorine water for the eyes – not a good thing. I zombie-fied around office with bloodshot drunkard eyes. Nope, no one felt sorry enough to take some work away.
Day2
Swimming wise, day 2 got us kicking water trying to propel ourselves ahead. Looked like I was making decent progress, before I could congratulate my self on that, the trainer started with freestyle.
That’s moving that hands like swimmers do. Piece of cake. Or so I thought. Just make sure your palms touch the water at 90 degrees,Your wrist upto elbow should be perpendicular while they enter the water. Push the water away right beyond your hips. Oh and while you are at it, make sure you breathe right and keep kicking those legs.
Oh, wait did I miss a teensy-weensy detail. Looks like I did. On the count of 4 strokes, pull half your body out and take your next gulp of air. No more ‘swimming’ for as long as you can hold your breath only stuff. We had progressed to , if you run out of it, get some and continue.
The day saw me get goggles from the instructor. Ah, must have forgotten to mention, I bought the cap also from him and he offered me a choice of blue or pink – I said it doesn’t matter. And for the goggles, he offered navy blue (which he dint have, but would get the next day), so I chose the fluorescent cyanish-blue. If you haven’t caught on to where I am leading , wait for it , I am that specimen in the pool with a fluorescent orange swimsuit, red shorts, bubblegum pink haircap and fluorescent cyan goggles J There, did I paint a pretty picture J No wonder the dude kept trying to get me to choose sober colors !!
Day3
Day 3 was by far the toughest. Having gotten goggles now and being able to look at the floor, I started counting the number of tiles I was able to cross with one breath while swimming (read as flailing arms and legs wildly) I made it across 2 tiles, the size of a Rubik’s cube side each. I could have cried. I furiously started coordinating the arms, the legs, the breathing and failed miserably. Turns out my hand-leg co-ordination aint that great. I should have played all those video games. They would have helped, I am sure. If I would use my hands, I would stop kicking. If I took the breath, it would be at the wrong count of by turning to the wrong side. There were times, when I would nail most of it – swim for the count of 4 , kick my legs, turn left and get back into water only to realize that I had taken the air at all. And then , tying to get the breathing right, I stopped kicking my legs and found that I was sinking. All my joy of having gotten a hang of swimming was going right out the pool. It is more distressing then one would think.
Rest is in Progress :)
Being Indian, brought up in the environment that we are and being of the more modest sex causes way more issues than anyone lets on especially when the subject at hand is the frantic search for swimwear.
Swimming classes have rules – swimsuit and cap for hair. The search was frantic since I had no idea where the stuff is sourced from. The big sports brands make only small sized suits. The local gully type of shops have weirdly shaped and designed ‘swimsuits’ if we can defile their name in that fashion.
Having successfully sourced one in fluorescent orange shade, I completely forgot about the cap. Nope, no snickering about fluorescent or about orange, try half a dozen shops and then you pounce on the thing that seems closest to what you want. And of course, I picked up football shorts too :)
I watched the latest Bella movie with colleagues from office. All of who had no idea what the series was about. It was fun explaining why a below-average-girl with no special powers has a Wolf and Vampire in love with her. How a Vampire is Vegetarian. Why are we watching this movie. Did the movie end, I was still waiting for it to finish. He he he he . We were roaring with laughter in the scene where Bella realizes (oh spoiler alert!) that she loves WolfBoy too. So, there’s VampyBoy that she loves and then there’s WolfBoy she just realized she loves. At that exact moment another wolfboy walks in , and someone says “Is she in love with him also?”
Well, the movie was ok in the sense a Mills and Boon is ok. Ie, if you are in the mood for not using your mind and if you just want a teenage love story.
I had watched Inception 2 days before this one and there was definitely a contrast. I must confess I was worried if I would be in the pile of people who didn’t understand the movie at all. There was so much talk about it. So many people talking about mindblowing moments. So much praise for the the elaborate set ups and layers and hidden meanings. I did like the movie, but I wasn’t blown away by it. I think the entire concept of Inception (while it is fascinating and obviously was a labour of love&effort) happens in daily life all the time. You don’t need three layers of dreams to plant an idea and not be caught doing it. A normal face to face conversation with a generous amount of twisting of words can easily help in planting doubts, creating new thoughts and nudging people where you require. It’s called Manipulation.
If I remove that thought from my head, well then, Inception was a nice watch. I loved the scene where the guy figures out it is a dream based on how the carpet feel against his skin. I think the guy from “3rd Rock from the Sun” had some amazing fight sequences in no gravity. And trying to create a “I am falling backwards jolt” when there is no gravity was an interesting question. There is something very captivating about movies where the minutest details have been thought out and planned for. I still hear that there a lot of things that you don’t notice at the first viewing, so I may end up watching it again and try to peel the onion a little more.
Couple of days back, I had just gotten the green and had crossed road when to the right I saw this guy on a bike who had combination of tan skin and light green eyes(has to be rare). And he was cute to boot. While I was just realized that , the actual cute thing happened. The girl behind him was talking to him and she must have said something interesting, because he blushed and she actually pinched both his cheeks and he broke into a sheepish smile. It was such an amazing moment. There is something about seeing someone happy that can put a spring into your step.
And today morning, I saw this old lady, the plump grandmotherly type, sitting at her doorstep, drying her hair in the sun. It’s a very normal sight, but she looked so peaceful and she had this smile on her face as she turned to talk to someone next to her. It made me realize that what you actually need in life is just happiness within. :)
I am sitting on bed by the window, looking out on a forest - its greeeeeeeeeeen and its raining. I see the drops landing on the puddles already formed and creating lovely ripples in them.
There's something amazingly calming and beautiful, fascinating and breath taking about rain. About water too generally.
It reminds me of me long long ago, doing exactly this. Writing a blog post, with a cup of tea by my side while looking at snow fall slowly to the ground.
I was in the US of A then and I am in the US of A now. But now, the world has shifted along the axis, an axis I don't recognise.
I have come a long way.
I am still finding my path around that, for now, orbiting around my little puddles.
Its going to be 2 years.Two full years. And I have NO idea where 24 months went, I can still remember my wedding preparation like it was yesterday. I cannot believe I have been married for all of 2 years. It is darned funny.
