Norq From Ork

We are nearly half way through the year in an almost impossible speeding passage of time.  I know I must be getting old because I’m forever questioning where the time goes.  But seriously – how did we end up in June! Weather has largely been disappointing in the last fortnight.  On Tuesday a group of us huddled together pulling our coats around us and generally moaning about the lack of sunshine.  One Orcadian friend said ‘it can be like this in Orkney sometimes.  You wait and wait for Summer then all of a sudden it’s September and summer never actually happened’  At that point, I resisted the urge to burst out crying but seriously considered going home and putting the house on the market.

We did however, have one solitary evening of glorious sunset and clear skies and I managed to get some snaps.

It was such an amazing sunset I decided to so a live feed on Instagram, except I’ve never done it before and it was all a bit rubbish.  The sunsets were nice but all you could hear was my breathing and no commentary.   People were commenting and I was carefully typing out replies until Tech Support staged an intervention and said ‘mother you can speak you know’ It’s all a learning curve….

I’ve now done well over 100 swims since January, in all weathers and conditions.  For the first time this week I ended up going home in a worse mood than the one I arrived in.  It wasn’t great weather but I’ve swum in not great weather before.  But while we were swimming, the weather suddenly changed and the sea state changed along with it forcing us out.  But my hands were so numb they hurt and I made whimpering sounds as I dried myself off and put a layer of clothes on.

 It really wasn’t a great start to the day, but not wanting to be deterred I was back in the water the following day and it was absolutely lovely. On Thursday I went for a solo swim in my lunch break and this happened….

Tow floats are very useful.  They make you visible in the water and you can even pack your things in the bag and keep them dry.  But if they touch you when you’re snorkeling and you don’t know what it is they can make a person scream like a banshee.

But to be quite honest, I would imagine the sea creatures would be more scared at the sight of me.  This is what happens when outdoor swimming meets silence of the lambs. Not pretty is it?

Here’s another news worthy item.  Orkney Beef kissed me in public the other day.  The only other time’s ever done this was on our wedding day.  I don’t know what came over him to make him do it but he went shy after wards which was endearing.  Here’s his post kiss shy face.  It’s ok, he hardly ever reads the blog any way 😉

We were at a Queen tribute night which I think is why he was a little giddy and forgot himself.  Tonight is going to be even worse for me better for him because we are going to a country tribute night.  Orkney Beef loves country music.  Pray for me guys…