I’m back! And it’s never felt so good to swim again. What a blessing for the rain (which was pelting down during the matinee) to have cleared and for the view of the misty mountains clearing across the water and a freshness in the air (heaven having been indoors with Covid for a week).
Postponed swims meant I already some some swims with folks planned and rescheduled and it was so good to meet Monique. I didn’t know it was her that called out cheerfully in the show that I’d be meeting to swim with after the show. Monique is from the Netherlands and brings this lovely warm honesty and frankness to how she talks about swimming, and how the British approach it all 😆.
I had never seen a pop up changing stool before until Monique whipped hers out of her swim bag and sat on it to change!Chatting away about how swimming really pulled her through the pandemic, how it’s how she met a closer bunch of outdoor swimmers, how this swimming was one of her closest feelings of being back in her home country. Monique told me that when she first did a swimming course she had her first experience in a wetsuit, but hated that swim and realised it was the restriction of the wetsuit- much preferring to swim in a cossie…or naked preferably! Laughing as she tells me how in the Netherlands there’s no issue with nakedness, especially when swimming and saunas but the group of women she swims with now are the first British people she’s met who are up for a moonlit skinny dip!
It was glorious to swim out into the calm of the lake together.We chatted about the show, about Monique’s love for the theatre, especially Theatre by the Lake. She’s part of the creative programme and just loves meeting all the people who get involved locally.
For once I was the first to be dressed and ready to move after, but I enjoyed Monique balancing on her stool trying to get her socks on with an all-round joviality about her as she talked!
So good to be in the water again, and on stage, and to meet someone like Monique.
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