Embarrassing moment for the Sitcom Queen (me!)

Hi there

I know that we all have embarrassing moments, but I seem to have them more frequently than other people.  My friends reckon I have most of them (plus injuries) when I'm away on holiday but the other day I proved that embarrassing incidents can happen just as easily to me at home, as on holiday.

I was in Countdown Supermarket in Kilbirnie.  A young guy walked toward me with something strapped to his chest.  I peered closer.  Oh, yes, I think it was a baby, in a little hold-all, but this was hard to make out because the guy was so big and the hold-all so tiny.  I opened my mouth to say something, to coo over the baby, if indeed it was a baby.  This is what came out of my mouth:

"Oh, what's that tiny thing you've got below there?"

(Pause..... whilst my four readers snigger, then collapse in fits of giggles)

Okay, okay, foot-in-mouth time, most extraordinary.  But I still didn't click onto the deeper meaning of my words.  How naive am I?

For a split second, the guy actually looked lower down than the cute little baby nestled against his chest.  I was still happily old-person smiling away.

It was a one week old girl, so the guy hurriedly explained to me.

And we went our merry ways.  It wasn't till about an hour later, I realised my giant faux pas.  J, my swimming buddy,  later said to me - she was all but rolling on the floor in hysterics - that the guy would no doubt by now - it was 6 pm in the evening - be at the pub regaling the tale to his mates as probably he would be doing hundreds more times in the future.  Oh what a laugh-in everybody would have.

Thanks, J.  So great at confidence-building....

third swim for June at Hataitai Beach! Yippee

Hi there
J and I had made a pact that there would be no swimming today after our gym circuit.  But, oh,, the weather was so lovely, and the sea was flat and clear.  So, we burrowed in our respective car boots ('trunk' if you're American), came up with ratty old lightweight bathing suits, and took the plunge.

After my swim and, as usual, I went to Countdown Supermarket in Kilbirnie.  I swear the store had the cold air conditioning going in their fresh fruit section as well as their chiller section.   There was a truly cold blast as I walked through the automatic doors.  I was in my knee-length lightweight gym pants, a heavy jacket I'd located in the boot, and ditto a woolly hat and mittens.  I must have looked a sight.

This afternoon I went for a walk around Miramar.  I went past the (Peter Jackson) studio - see below - where they are currently filming The Hobbit Part II.   All the hive of activity is good for Miramar.

8th swim, Hataitai Beach

Hi there

J and I completed our eight swim for May at Hataitai Beach yesterday.  The trouble is we enjoy our swims so much that we egg each other on with "just another up-and-down, eh?"   Every time before stepping into the water, I say "I might only do one up-and-down today".....  It never works out that way.

The water in winter feels really great once we get over the initial plopping down into the sea but when we get out and we're in the changing shed, we start shaking and shivering, and our fingers and toes don't function very well, and we can't do up things, or pull things down over our shoulders.  For the next couple of hours we are so cold that we have to drink umpteen bowls of soup and cups of tea and with our hands wound tightly around the cup, bowl, or mug to get some sort of warmth into our fingers. 

More often than not, I go to Countdown supermarket straight after a swim, dressed up like an eskimo when other shoppers are in more lighter attire and I always seem to be hunting for something in  the cold food aisle - it suddenly feels like I'm in Alaska.  Poor (cold) me.

It's my fingers that feel the worst after a swim and, also, actually when I'm swimming.    I must see if I can get (don't laugh) some sort of waterproof (warm) gloves.