So far, so good!

The new year started with lots of wind and rain. Between the showers the sun shone brilliantly but it was bitterly cold. Bearing in mind my new attitudes for this coming year after I'd collected the papers I walked down to the beach taking my camera with me and listening to my new MP3 player. When the sun was out the sea was the most amazing blue colour but when it was hidden by a cloud everything looked totally grey and colourless. The change was startling in its intensity. I was astounded to actually see two people change into swimming costumes and GO INTO THE SEA! The water was freezing cold...I stuck my hand into a rock pool! They must be mad! Even the dog leaping in the surf after sticks looked at them as if they needed their heads examining! But they didn't seem to mind the cold so perhaps they swim daily are used to it. I know my paternal grandmother swam here right up into her seventies and didn't seem to notice the cold. In fact just after the war when my mother was staying down here with her while my father was in India they went swimming on Boxing Day along with several other diehards and there was a reporter from the local paper who asked my mother how she could let an old lady go swimming in this cold sea at this time of the year. My mother was most indignent as it was her mother in law who had forced HER to go swimming not the other way round! Actually thinking about it my grandmother can only have been in her late fifties and yet she was seen as an old woman. How times have changed! Now you arn't old until your eighties!

I still can't send any emails and I worked out that this is because my outgoing mail is sent by my broadband ISP and that is still down. So please don't think I'm ignoring you. I will write to people when I can. It is something that I can actually receive emails!

Regardless of my new focus on life I haven't made any great plans for today other than to walk to Swanpool which I've done, because today is a holiday and I can use it for reflection. And Martin is home! I rest my case!