As you may or may not remember, I've just come back from India. Also, for those of me paying attention, I was supposed to take part in a Swimathon this evening. Even I haven't forgotten that I HAVE MAN FLU.
My timing sucks.
The last time I was in India (again on business) I had a dreadful time. It was back in November, before I started writing this blog, so I haven't gone into gory details before. But let me enlighten me. They don't have curly wurlies in Pondicherry. The heat made my insulin go off (insulin stinks at the best of times, words can't do justice to the smell of rancid insulin. Well, my words can't). The resultant high blood sugar caused a nasty infection. It also attracted over 150 bed bug bites. I was so ill that I ended up in hospital. In an Indian hospital. The D-man had promised CS that he'd look after me and make sure that nothing bad happened to me. For a few days he was fearing for both of our lives.
But then, a few weeks ago, as we were sitting in the poncy Business Class lounge at Heathrow heading back out to 'Pondy' to do it all again, whist stocking up on as much free alcohol as possible, we started to reminisce - we looked back on all the things that happened. And a funny thing happened. We laughed.
It had taken us almost four months to get to the point where we could laugh about it. Well, actually he started laughing about it almost straight away, albeit slightly nervously, with a tinge of hysteria.
So we made a pact there and then. We wouldn't look back and laugh at any misfortune either one of us encountered (although the smart money was on mainly me). No, we would laugh AT THE TIME.
And we did. We laughed when we lost our luggage (and then found it again). We laughed when 'mild' curries ripped the skin from our mouths (and then fell for the same 'trick' the next day). We laughed when we discovered a massive financial hole in the accounts (well, I did anyway). We laughed when it was too hot to do anything else. And it made the trip a whole lot better. I made a mental note.
Now, back to tonight. I have MAN FLU, remember. However, I still joined the 50 or so other grown-ups and six children taking part in the Swimathon at the local pool. There were two separate distances, the mile swim for Sport Relief and and a 5k swim for Marie Curie Cancer care. 49 grown-ups were going for the 5k swim. The other grown up joined the six kids for the miler.
Of course it was humiliating being lapped by an 11-year old boy, It was just as bad being lapped by the 10-year old girl. The others looked even younger. And yes, they lapped me too. And not just once. Several times. In fact for the last 10 lengths or so (thanks, poolmate!), they were all counting down the lengths I needed to do. From the poolside, where they had already finished, gotten changed and dried their hair. I wanted to cry with humiliation. Instead I looked back at their cheery faces and I laughed. I swallowed a bit of water though, which didn't really help.
For the record, I completed the swim in just over 42 minutes. Thanks to my Poolmate, I now know that they miscounted, but I really couldn't bear to correct them as they were having so much fun pointing and laughing. I didn't go the extra mile. I went the extra mile and 50 metres.
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