10 things to do before I die #2

2: Learn to swim (properly)

When I was a child swimming lessons were a fairly unstructured affair. The aim of the game was to ensure every member of the class got across the width or length of the pool without putting their feet down - but it really didn't matter how. I think it would have been quite acceptable to fashion a rudimentary raft from a nearby chair and sail it across with a makeshift chair-leg oar as long as you reached the other side.

To put it kindly, my swimming technique is not a text book one. I use far too many muscles, make far too many movements and expend far too much energy so that 25 metres feels like swimming the channel. It's probably quite amusing to watch as I frantically flail about like someone being chased by a swarm of wasps, gasping for oxygen as I reach the other side.

This holiday has been helpful in that every time we are lucky enough to have a pool in our hotel, I do as many lengths as possible with hints and tips from Gareth to improve my technique - so I have got a little better. But I have completely given up on front crawl as it involves putting my face in water (which I can't abide) so I stick to breast stroke - which I wasn't even taught at school (and explains my ineptitude for it).

My sister Lynn took adult swimming lessons a few years before she died and improved so much that she could swim for miles. I feel it's time I followed in her footsteps and booked some lessons. It would be great for my health and I wouldn't feel like such an idiot when we go as a family to the pool of a weekend and I'm forced to rest for a good ten minutes at the deep end trying to get my breath back to return to the shallow end. It's not a good look when ultra-fit women go up and down, up and down in lanes when I struggle with just a few metres!