Swimming

I have recorded few really good days over the last six months - for the most part there haven’t been many of them. Stuck in airports, endless delayed flights, lack of sleep and the demands of clients have made the last couple of months at least less than thrilling. And I guess, as I look at my volume of blogs, the declining number perhaps indicates a lack of recent stimulation . I haven’t been able to think of anything I wanted to say.

But today has been good. I started with a couple of thousand words of the new book (’Brilliant Idea’), and followed it with some insightful research. All the productivity meant I felt less than guilty about heading down to our local lake this afternoon for an extended swim with my seven year old daughter. Nothing is as tedious I suppose as reading about other people’s children, particularly if you have none yourself. But this afternoon was blissful. The perfect temperature – around 35 degrees – deep blue sky, clean water and a rare opportunity to have some time with Lily. Younger daughter was at the crèche. We swam to the opposite side of the lake (Le Barrage at Vailhan in The Herault), then around an Island in the middle of the lake and then we went in for a final swim out to the middle of the lake. There is nothing like the hot sun on your face when immersed in cold water. You feel all the toxins escaping from your body by the second.

And those lovely words a father loves to hear – ‘this is really good daddy, just you and me’, that tells you that she will treasure the rare but lovely 3 hours we had.

A curious thing happened this morning. On the spur of the moment I bought a series of Mozart piano concertos (21-25) played by Ashkenazy at HMV Oxford Street last week and listened to them all this morning while I worked. I have posted little about music recently but today I recommend them as an aid to creative writing. I like some classical music (although I cannot stand the tweeness and ham acting in opera) but I surprised myself with the pleasure I got from these. I balanced it with Roni Size’s ‘New Forms’ on the drive back from the swimming!