Inadequate words
Jul. 13th, 2004 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
triskellianI throw 'favourites' about with wild abandon. I can often be heard claiming all sorts of things as 'one of my favourite things'. So, in my own personal example of the dilution of the language, I no longer seem to have adequate words to describe how I was feeling at about 5pm on Sunday.
I was swimming in the sea at Eastbourne. There were lots of people walking up and down the promenade, and a few on the beach, but no one else in the sea.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
secretrebel sat on the beach watching, with an amused expression on her face.
We'd stopped at the beach on our way home from her aunt's house, where we spent the weekend making a bridesmaid dress. I had claimed I only wanted to say goodbye to the sea (I said hello to it on Saturday), but I paddled, and it was warm (as warm as the sea ever is off the British coast). I wanted to swim, but the beach was pebbly, and there were some steeply shelving sections, and I was debating whether or not I would, whensecretrebel, who has been to beaches with me before, asked if I'd regret it more if I swam or if I didn't, and thereby sealed her own fate. Off I went to the car, to retrieve swimsuit and towel (and a book for her), and then I walked down to the sea.
There was only the briefest of cold shocks when I ducked down to get the first wetting over with (it's like removing plasters - you can do it the slow and agonising way, or you can build all the pain up into one tiny blast that lasts a fraction of a second and is gone), and then the water was warm. The sun came out, and the sea was calm, and I swam and drifted, trod water, jumped through waves, and played around in the enormous expanse of living water, in a euphoric haze.
Swimming in the sea really is 'one of my favourite things', in the strictest sense, in the sense that doesn't allow me to use the phrase as a description for the huge mass of stuff I like. I stayed in the water for perhaps half an hour, and I felt like I'd barely begun; I could have stayed for hours more. When I came out onto the beach, walked up tosecretrebel and sat down on the blanket, I almost got back up again to go straight back in. There's something particularly special about being the only swimmer in the sea, and I hated to leave it.
All the way home, I could smell the salt water in my hair, and it made me smile.
I was swimming in the sea at Eastbourne. There were lots of people walking up and down the promenade, and a few on the beach, but no one else in the sea.
secretrebel sat on the beach watching, with an amused expression on her face.We'd stopped at the beach on our way home from her aunt's house, where we spent the weekend making a bridesmaid dress. I had claimed I only wanted to say goodbye to the sea (I said hello to it on Saturday), but I paddled, and it was warm (as warm as the sea ever is off the British coast). I wanted to swim, but the beach was pebbly, and there were some steeply shelving sections, and I was debating whether or not I would, when
secretrebel, who has been to beaches with me before, asked if I'd regret it more if I swam or if I didn't, and thereby sealed her own fate. Off I went to the car, to retrieve swimsuit and towel (and a book for her), and then I walked down to the sea.There was only the briefest of cold shocks when I ducked down to get the first wetting over with (it's like removing plasters - you can do it the slow and agonising way, or you can build all the pain up into one tiny blast that lasts a fraction of a second and is gone), and then the water was warm. The sun came out, and the sea was calm, and I swam and drifted, trod water, jumped through waves, and played around in the enormous expanse of living water, in a euphoric haze.
Swimming in the sea really is 'one of my favourite things', in the strictest sense, in the sense that doesn't allow me to use the phrase as a description for the huge mass of stuff I like. I stayed in the water for perhaps half an hour, and I felt like I'd barely begun; I could have stayed for hours more. When I came out onto the beach, walked up to
secretrebel and sat down on the blanket, I almost got back up again to go straight back in. There's something particularly special about being the only swimmer in the sea, and I hated to leave it.All the way home, I could smell the salt water in my hair, and it made me smile.
