I love Brighton. (I like the seaside in general and, as a vegan, I find the eating-out options in Brighton are very good.)
I also love swimming.
I am not so fond of combining the two: ie swimming in the actual sea in Brighton.
For a start, the beach is very pebbly and you have to walk across it in bare feet or “jelly” shoes (not very protective) to get to the sea. For another, I sort of prefer swimming pools.
Once upon an August Bank Holiday Monday, my mother (Leslie) and sister (Louise) and I were enjoying the end of our long weekend in Brighton. The sea had been quite rough when we arrived and it was still quite rough.
Louise and I said it didn’t look particularly good for swimming.
Mum called us “middle aged fuddy-duddies”. She added, “Sheila’s girls would have gone in.”
And indeed, this is the link to the whole Kilimanjaro climb. Jae and Gwen have always been adventurous. I just didn’t realise that Jae was quite this adventurous. Although once the Kilimanjaro plan was in place, it all made total sense. Of course Sheila, Jae and Oscar were going to do something which no grandmother-daughter-grandson combination had done before. Who else?
Back to our Brighton tale. Mum took her leave, and went to catch a bus back home. She assumed we would sit and watch the sea, maybe have a snack at the cinema café which used to sell 2 flavours of vegan sorbet, but definitely not go into the sea.
Louise muttered about not being a middle-aged fuddy-duddy. I assured her she wasn’t – she was 38 at the time and arguably not even middle-aged in the first place. Or fuddy-duddy. That goes without saying.
We both ventured into the sea. Which was rather choppy and slightly chilly. But we went in. And swam about there. So there.
Mum is less of a fuddy-duddy than she makes out, having once been swimming in a Russian river. She had an asthma attack and had to be rescued by one of her and Dad’s friends. Big shout-out to Peter Errington for saving Mum’s life.
Despite this, Mum still goes swimming. I’d probably be afraid of bathwater after an experience like that. But she clearly isnt. 😉
Note from Jae: How funny that Leslie used to compare you and Lou to Gwen and me. Particularly as Louise was always substantially more likely to swim in open water than I was – she’s convinced me into many a sea or lake! Ma used to do the same about you two! I remember a particular occasion, aged about 13, when she said to me, “How come you never do any homework? Louise does two hours every night.” To which I responded, “Well I don’t! So, knowing that, you’ll have to think about who you’d prefer as a daughter – me or Lou?”. What a cow!! And how extraordinary that I remember it so clearly. I think I’ll try not to compare my boys to Gwen’s kids – Samson and Onnie – or to Lou’s boys – Ben and Alex. At least not to their faces! Although maybe I should take reassurance from the fact that if they do respond in a mean way, at least they may be haunted by it thirty years later!