The Commie

At the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh this morning for an event connected to the Games in 2014.

The pool will host the diving competition, making it the only venue in the world to be used in three Commonwealth Games.

The pool has just opened after a big refurbishment and it was back to full Scottish modernist glory. And busy with swimmers, dancers, weightlifters and a few people having chips in the cafe of course ;-)

It was great to hear about the plans for a legacy from the Games in 2014, especially from some of the young people involved.

But the biggest thrill was meeting David Wilkie, my childhood hero. Of course we've met before, when I was wee and doing a sponsored swim, its possible that day isn't as etched on his memory as it is in mine.

Apparently I was relatively new to this swimming lark so my parents had encouraged friends and family to be generous in their sponsorship - "she'll only managed a couple of breadths". But spurred on by the presence of an Olympic medalist I swam... And swam... And swam...

Afterwards we got our photo taken individually with him. I look like a wee drenched rat. It's possibly one of the proudest moments of my life and I have the photo on my mantlepiece to prove it.

It didn't tell David Wilkie all this. But I did shake his hand. Twice.