Advance Lone Piper

Another kilometre swum this morning. Maybe I should be marking these on a map and see if I can swim to New Zealand New York Newcastle Newhaven. I have noticed that the water is slightly, well, yes, COOL. I asked what temperature it was. 26/27 degrees they like to keep it at. Jings! That's colder than Warrender Baths and I thought they were cold.

They like to keep it cool as it's a competition and training pool. So real swimmers like to be cold? I thought they trained for hours? Anyway, I may invest in a hat. No, not a woolly hat (although if they made waterproof woolly hats for swimming in, I'd have one). I think just keeping the cold water off my head would help.

My head is famously cold. I wear a hat all through the Scottish summer. I cannot be caught without one when a brisk wind inevitably greets you as you turn a corner, even on a sunny day. I wear my hat in cinemas, theatres and planes, because air conditioning always comes down on my head, wherever I sit. I also sometimes wear my hat in the house, though never when I have visitors.

So you see, I have a sensitive head. Perhaps a nice swimming cap will trick me into thinking the pool temp is 29 30 degrees.

Had a morning pottering about and doing lots of wee tasks. I wrote to the Man in Charge of Fountains, enquiring about the unfixable leak in the Ross Fountain, as I'd written about a year ago. I told him of the leak in my flat a year or two ago, and a plumber who spotted it immediately (it was a pinprick of a hole behind the dining room wall) and fixed it in minutes. I offered to give them his number, as they obviously don't have a competent plumber (I didn't say that last bit, just inferred it).

Met up with my pal S and we went into Our Club. S joined as well. We had a good old chinwag, and we used the (free) iPads SO many times to help us finish off a story.
'You know that chap who used to be in that series with the blonde woman...'
'Yes, and he and the other chap were in that series in the 70s...'
'She was in that series about the family who won the Lottery...'

As I came back to the Gardens, there was a lovely sky, but I wasn't in the right place to make use of it. As I came out of the Gardens I took a shot of the North British Balmoral Hotel, framed by the trees. I then noticed my bus about to turn down the road, so I RAN down to the stop. I don't know if it's the swimming that's made my legs able to run a bit better, but I made the stop easily. No puffing.

That lone piper (can you spot him?) was playing 'Advance Australia Fair' for some reason. I suppose he knows nobody listens to him, but I did. I know it's not Australia Day, because I saw it on blip. But maybe he didn't.