I love these long summer evenings. It's just before 8pm and our front yard has been turned into a soccer pitch. I don't know where the boys come from but word spreads somehow and soon there are piles of bicycles spread all over the driveway, two or three girls talking on the grass and about 10 boys playing "footie".
My kids are fast swimmers! But I had no idea until the Stake Gala on Saturday evening.
Zeek was the man of the moment. There was nobody from our team to swim in the youth boys race, so Zeek was put in even though he is only nine and was competing against 14 year olds.
He won the first two races quite convincingly, finishing with several metres to spare. In the next two narrowly missed winning by less than a metre, this was no shame as he had swum four races while the other competitors were fresh.
He gained quite a reputation with people from all the teams cheering for him as he courageously challenged what seemed like hulking brutes in comparison to his small size.
Cheryn and Rachel were no slouches either, making a mockery of efforts of the people who finished in second and other places behind them.
Gillian won the woman's freestyle event and I came second in the men's to a professional swimmer!
Our team won the relay after my bro. Donovan and Gillian set a cracking pace to make up for a slight delay from the first swimmer. I was able to use the 1/3 pool headstart to finish just a stroke or two in front of the professional.
I think we will get Zeek some training as he really enjoys swimming - last week the school sent him off to swim in the 2 mile challenge - I doubted he could do it not having trained for it at all, but he did - all 3000m - and finished before anyone else!
My cousin Alleyn Bowen came over to visit - he stayed with Don and Eva and we got together on Saturday morning to fly our kites and then a couple more times during the weekend before he flew back to London where he is completing his masters degree in electronic engineering. I look forward to getting to know him better as I have not seen him much over the last few two decades!
Cheryn gave a talk in church today - I wonder how many other 11 year olds would be brave enough to stand up in front of 100 people and talk (from keywords only) for 6 minutes on "What I learned from my father's example" - being father's day and all. She was very nervous but it didn't show at all and while I was cringing wondering what embarrassing things she was going to say about me, she did a great job. The church gives us an unfair edge when it comes to competing in public and business life!
Cheers
Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment