what I'm thinking is that I will start writing till I get a good topic. Tim Urban talked about, in the process of writers block, you have just got to start writing and it will come. The synapses will spark as the fingers beat out an introduction till a theme, a great theme, rears itself before you. So now I'm there, after this awkward Dickensain ramble, and so we start.

I swam today instead of going to the gym and the biggest difference is that, instead of listening to podcasts on crypto, self improvement, pshcology, philosophy, freakonomicy style money qwerky shows, there was just the sound of the rythm of the splash.

All that depleted senses, no noise, no phone, no back ground gossip and it got me thinking. Can I concentrate on the swim technique as Terry Laughlin preaches or should I try to get to a zen like quiet and splish and splash the 20 minutes till it was over. The first few lengths past and the heart rate sped up to an even and calming level and all was going well.

But then, as always happens, another person joined the lane and started to swim. As anyone who has done laps in the local pool will tell you, this is a nervous moment. Is the other swimmer faster or slower than you? Without communication above or below the surface of the water you feel and try to make out the other persons speed and stroke style.

I can only imagine the horrors of being deaf and dumb but this 'enclosed wet universe reality' will probably be the closest I would ever get to it. In the pool I have a purely English accent for my internal voice but the anxiousness recceeded fast. He was doing breast stroke slow for one length and then returned fast on front crawl. We started so that we meet mid pool but it took me another 6 lengths to understand we were in a stange sync where we didnt have the swimmers worst feer of either letting someone fast through or trying to overtake on a clear stretch.

I settled on my normal memory games for the next 20 lenghts where I remember famous people all stood around a forrest car park until short sighted Fxxxxx joined the lane. Her yellow swim cap always gives her away but we are thankfully accommodationg in each other swim speed.

I finished the swim to find that there had been 3 other people in the lane all the time. How had I missed this? As I sauna-ed I reflected how different the swim is to the gym. Swimming puts you at the frontier of an unknown world, a curious place that takes you away from the normal and refreshes you like no other pastime thatI encounter.

Tim Urban https://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_urban
Terry Laughlin and his Total Immersion technique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Immersion