Blue sky panic

It was uplifting to see blue skies at lunchtime and I enjoyed a wander around King's Cross.

The evening brought my swimming lesson and I wasn't best pleased when the instructor herded us into the middle lane - we've always had the side lane before. I guess it's good to come out of the comfort zone and seeing as I've been learning for a year, the middle lane shouldn't pose too much of an issue. However, there were five of us in our group and in the lane (wide enough for just two people) and I have a real problem with space - I don't like the thought of bumping into people (I need whiskers). This isn't so much a problem with crawl and breaststroke, since I can generally spot a limb in front of me and navigate around the swimmer, but this lesson was about the backstroke. This isn't my favourite because I can't see where I'm going. Plus, I'd never swum backstroke in the deep end before. I got myself in quite a lather, but the instructor managed to convince me to swim from the deep end to the shallow end, except I didn't get that far. I had the notion I was sinking and got into a panicky splash as I tried to right myself up in water that was too deep for me to stand in. I spent the rest of the lesson shivering in the shallow end trying to pluck up the courage to float on my back to the centre of the pool and back, while my classmates were powering up and down the lane. I felt a bit like a scaredy child and I'm not looking forward to next week when we'll be doing it all over again (not the panic bit, I hope - I just have to relax and get on with it because I know that I can do it really).