Wednesday
Dear Elsie
Today was the day I woke up to a still perfect sea.
We just had to go to the beach.
And it was around the trip to the beach that a couple of sayings of the day arose. Both made me laugh.
The first needs a bit of explanation. One of the things I’ve never written about is our morning beach routine. I always pack a change of clothes and go down to the beach with my backpack. The backpack contains my change of clothes, a packet for my wet swimming costume & two towels – one hand towel & one beach towel. I also take 2litres of hot water, which gets wrapped in the beach towel. To pack the bag, the wrapped bottle of water needs to go in first. This morning, I put the other stuff in first and then tried putting in the bottle, and true to form, the bottle started sliding down and the towel didn’t get in. This is the reason the bottle needs to go first, so I started chiding myself, “Helga, this is the whole purpose of putting the bottle in first! I don’t know why you didn’t!” Mike was standing waiting for me and in response to my conversation with myself, he said, “Don’t argue with a woman who is arguing with herself!” That made me laugh!
Off to the beach we went. Mike went off on his run and I headed for the surf. Sally, (Paul’s wife – the same Paul who brings the shower heads), was on her way out of the water. As I passed her, we greeted each other and with a twinkle in her eye, she said, “It’s delicious” talking about the water. How could that be interpreted, I wondered? I soon found out. Literally first steps into the water told me ‘delicious’ was a post-swim term for ‘freezing cold but now I’m out”! It was bone chilling, ankle cracking, wrist wrenching…at first. But 3 minutes later, once I had got in and further out, it improved. I went to the barrel and back, eager to watch Mike’s first response. I was not disappointed. It was really cold in the shallows. I did my 30 minutes, by which stage light rain had fallen and most of the locals had left. Joe was there though and he announced with honest conviction, “the water temperature is 11C!” I would not have been able to manage half an hour if it was 11C but I did notice the shallows were considerably colder than further out & that was where I spent most of my time.
It really was “delicious!” Walking home, our feet were numb. A hot shower warmed me up but I have been in long sleeves all day.
Julian arrived.
David live streamed an exciting chess game. The 18 year old Gukesh won. All of India celebrates. Tomorrow is a rest day.
We have everything we need for life…
2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂