Letter of the day... M

Today I'm going for

M

Or MMmmmmmmmmm if you're eating something tasty.

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M is not so interesting as O or N really.... Even Wiki doesn't have much to say about the trusty M. BUT, without it my middle name would be "arie" rather then "Marie" and I do like Marie so I for one am glad of the 'M'

Some Photo's

Yes I know - this is actually my second blog in the same morning!

GOLLY!

Anyhow - thought I'd share some swim camp pictures (thanks Jules for uploading!)

First off Jules and Anita swimming (this is the last day of the camp so clearly they look good in the pool - nice body position etc etc.... prior to this camp they both swam like an octopus - only kidding guys ;o)... now they are sleek, water pushing, body gliding swimmers... ahem)
and Anita;

They both usually look whacked after some of the killer sets....

...
but always managed to put on a brave, smiley face after....
We took ourselves to the pool bar regularly, even allowing out mate "pool buoy" to come along too;
Archie the coach often got us stretching before the pool sessions;
.. and all this swimming led Anita to have quite a problem with water in the ears, (either that or Jules had been talking in her ears for too long and she was doing the whole "la la la la la I can't hear you" thing....)
...and despite Anita and I not sharing the flat with Jules this time - we still managed to sneak our way in for some downtime, Anita even managed to corner the "sofa of snooze" on one occasion, and wasn't wanting to leave for the next swim session;

And of course swim camp wouldn't have been complete without the coach... Swimming along I'd often see Archie telling me to "STOP"

In which case you'd hang on to the side to be given new "guidance"
Or simply you'd be swimming along and get one of the following signs;
Karen saw this and thought... "OK I've got to get that hand in better"


or
Karen thought... "crap... yes ...I've forgotten about that whole back bit of the stroke"

or occasionally;
Karen thought... "Wholly Molly... I'm doing something right!!"... I didn't see this sign too much!

Letter of the day... N

As I have a few "letters of the week" to catch up on I thought I'd do a few days of letter of the day to play catch-up!!!

So today's letter of the day;

N

And so thanks to Wiki....

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"N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ˈɛn/) is spelled en.

N ,represents the dental or alveolar nasal in virtually all languages that use the Latin alphabet. A common digraph with is , which represents a velar nasal in a variety of languages, usually positioned word-finally in English. In languages like Italian and French, represents a palatal nasal (/ɲ/). The Portuguese spelling for this sound is . In English, n is silent when it is preceded by an m, in words like hymn (although it is pronounced in words such as damnation ). N is the second-most commonly used consonant in the English language (after T).

It also represents the element Nitrogen (Atomic number=7)"

N is also another version of nought, none, nada, and actually is just before "O" (see previous post) in the alphabet.

N also stands for "naughty" which my Dad's dog is quite often but not as bad as my cousins dog who eats socks!

Swim Camp quick recap

Oh'la!!

'K so I've been away for a week to the sun for ouddles of swimming... and I mean A LOT... reckon did just over 14miles... YES 14miles.. now this may not sound much to you pro's out there but for little old me who had done about 14miles from June to Oct (I kid you not) and that is added together.. this was A LOT!

.... lucky then that I'm 5-6kilo's over "race weight" and thus had a good man-made buoyancy aid of my own to help me ;o)

I haven't any pics yet - got a couple on my phone but I'm awaiting a certain Mr Rose to load his photo's up so I can steal them!!

There were 14 of us altogether on the course with one coach. Certainly some people got more attention then others but overall I thought we all got out of it what we could. My front crawl stroke has certainly changed, hopefully for the better... the only "problem" with the new stroke is I'm catching that much water now that I have realised I am completely feeble in the upper body!! Still once stronger with this stroke I should indeed go faster - let's hope so or it would it be a real, ahem, well waste of money!! ...... I'm sure I'm better already but it's going to take some time and practice!

I met tri buddies Julian and Anita once more on the course. The three of us shared a flat in la Santa earlier this year - in fact Jules was in that same flat but with other roomies (the shame of it!)... Anita and I had a 1.5mile walk each day to the complex - which was as good as a wake-me-up as I was going to muster.

Being in an outdoor 50m pool is FAB and something you just wouldn't get over in the UK. Lovely blue skies and nice water. Never too cold and never too warm. Perfect conditions... apart from the gale force winds, which did, if you can believe it, cause a bit of chop on the water but nothing too significant.

One of the good things about doing this sort of things with friends is you quickly identify your fellow classmates... occasionally with no reference to their real name. The class of 2009 thus contained characters such as;

"Hillingdon" - that's what was on his swim hat. Later found out his name was Julian

- "Protugues lady who's not Portuguese" - So named as we orginially thought she was from Portugal but later found out she was actually Persian living in Ireland (no where near Portugal then)

- "French lady who's not French" - I'm not sure why or who thought this lady was French. Maybe because she looked like she could be.....

- Thelma and Louise - who were in fact sisters, Clare and Louise... we just needed something to help remind us on one name.

- Richard the I and Richard the II... yes there were two Richards on the course..... alas who Anita and I thought was Richard the first was in fact Jule's Richard the II..... so more confusion... Anita and I thus renamed Richard the Older and Richard the younger

- The man who wore clothes. Nice guy who we assumed had a problem with sun burn as he had full length skins/ rashy on both legs and body throughout all lessons.

- Billy the stretchy man. So named as he was often used by the coach to demonstrate some stretch or other.

Mikey the float - there was no one actually called Mick or Mickey on the course but we did see a float with this name on so there was someone at the pool at least with that name!

There were others too on the course ...... suffice to say the whole crowd were lovely people. Everyone went there to learn something and get better at swimming. Compared to a tri camp there was a distinctly different atmosphere.... I didn't think people were so competitive with one another, which was refreshing and nice actually.

We ended the week with a course meal on Tuesday night, where I consumed a brandy too much ..... followed by a smaller gathering on final night for pizza and one last (and actually first in my case) ice cream from the pool bar.

An excellent week :o)

Now I've done all that I've got three weeks to consolidate my learning before heading off on a South American adventure for three weeks! WHOOP!

Letter of the week; O

O

"O is the fifteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English (pronounced /ˈoʊ/) is spelled o; the plural is oes, though this is rare"

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O can be quite an excitable word with many emotions attached

- Oh.... oh dear! Oh My God... Oh No! Oh la la! Oh Oh ohhhhh!
- Oi!

You can also miss letters before the o and things still make sense... for example I'm going on 'oliday this Thursday (I AM in fact doing this, I'm going to Lanzarote for swim camp... and altogether now ... YEAH!)

Let's not forget it also represents Oxygen (which I will be requiring during swim camp no doubt)

... and also means zero, nothing, nought..... 0

We also use this as a symbol in modern day communications; to smile :0) or sadness )0;

So many uses..... even a pretty little pattern;

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO