We finally had a mild weekend this weekend, it was about 11 or 12 degrees C both days, much better swimming weather than on previous weekends! And I was very glad of it-after a weekend off I was not looking forward to getting back in, so the warmer weather made things much easier!
Sunday was a fun swim-it was Mike Harris' first lap since he had his second knee replacement in November, so the plan was to get around the island and then back to his apartment in Kinsale for mulled wine and mince pies-great incentive to get around as fast as possible! There was a good gang of people down for the swim-both swimmers and onlookers wrapped up in nice warm clothes!
Mike hadn't been in for longer than 10 minutes since his operation so he decided that he'd head to the first corner and see then how he was doing with the cold. He refused to wear a wetsuit but conceeded to wearing the bottom half of an old one to cover up his knee so that it wouldn't seize up! So after the obligatory group photo (which I will post when I get a copy of it!), out to the first corner we headed. And of course when we got there he had no intention of turning back-his only comment was to "push on"...so that we did! It was quite rough so a few of us stayed with Mike to make sure that everything was ok. And it was better than ok, he made it around with no problems at all, and then proceeded to get out and make tea for everyone while still wearing the half wetsuit!
So after we had tea and were warmed up a little we headed back to the apartment in Kinsale, where Mike's wife, Ann, was making way too much yummy food!! Once everyone was fed, John Conroy started passing out the lyrics of a Christmas carol that he had composed last year after Mike's first knee replacement:
Harris the red togged swimmer
Has a pair of bright speedos
And if you ever saw them
You would even say they glow
All of the other swimmers
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Harris
Join in any swimmer's games
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Imelda came to say
Harris with your togs so bright
Won't you guide the swim tonight?
Then all the swimmers loved him
Since he got his brand new knee
Harris the red togged swimmer
You'll go down in history!
And then there was the presentation...
Mike's new red togs!
Mike had lost a pair of red togs during the summer so Finbarr found a 'lovely' replacement pair!
So know that Mike has had his two knees replaced, we're trying to figure out what joint is going to be replaced next so that we can have another party next year!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment