Last year was spent in with the lost love. So soon after Dad going, it was not really a happy occasion. In fact I recall I went to bed early despite there being an Elton concert televised.
This time my sister telephoned me in early December. She said that a charity swim was being organised at Inellan down the road from where she lives. She asked "would I join in?"
"Of course!", without thinking, I confirmed that I would do it.
As the weeks went by and the day approached I became a little hesitant. As I drove from home to Scotland through the snow I watched the outside temperature fall from a balmy 0°C to -6°C.
The days wore on and my trepidation increased. As I have explained before, 2nd Christmas was great, but between Christmas and the dip, only time. Even that's not entirely true, since we went for walks, and played Lego so diversionary activities were plentiful.
My sister confirmed a few days before that Old Years Night (as our Nan calls it) would be spent at a dance organized by a local dairy farm in the Toward community hall. It turned out to be great and ranked as highly by me as a barn dance wedding I once attended near Brighton. The best ever wedding of a friend I have ever been to, but that's another story.
The New Year dance was great. A bloke with a synth and a mic, sang a range of songs including some traditional Scottish dances (which is always a good laugh so long as you can follow the people in front) including 'stripping the willow, the dashing something and something else'. It was a real laugh.
New Year came, balloons fell from the ceiling, my sister and brother in law danced.
2010 was here! Hoorah! Gone was the back-end of the worst period in my life.
Then came morning.
For Christmas my sister had bought me a "Keep calm and carry on" t-shirt and we decided to wear the same as a uniform. I had found my sun hat from a few years ago and we both had blue shorts on.
It should at this point be explained that we knew a few people who had borrowed wet suits for the dip, but for some reason, we decided that if you are going to swim in the freezing cold, you might as well do it. "Wet suits are for wimps", we chanted!!
The support crew (brother in law and nephew) were both carrying the cameras and 'snakes blood soup' (which tasted remarkably like tomato?) was poured into the Thermos flask.
My sister and I ran next door to gather some more troops (successfully getting swimming agreement from two with the rest of the family in support - G looked particularly fragile but was in fine spirits).
Then the time came. A hundred or so strangers lined the beach at Inellan and a few other people were in fancy dress with wings like 'arctic fairies' ready to take the plunge. In all I estimate that 25, or so, of us were there for the swim.
Having duly signed the obligatory health and safety disclaimer and paid our £5.00 entry fee, a wonderful fancy statue of liberty started the countdown.
We were off.
My sister and I had already agreed to swim further out than any others and that swimming was not confirmed unless total immersion had been achieved.
I was proud to say that my sun hat floated at least twice straight from my bobbing head.
We gained our footing and both stood up. Shaking hands to the sounds of shrieks and screams of the natives running for the shore we calmly chatted for a bit and agreed to go in again one more time. This time it hurt!
We got out and waded in as controlled a fashion as we could into shore.
Warmed by towel and snakes blood soup, a shot of whiskey was passed to each of the swimmers by the organisers.
We all congratulated each other and having got dressed, proceeded to get back into the car and return home, triumphant!
This article is duplicated on the new Gullbad Nogbee platform:
HERE where you can better follow my adventures.
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