Cathy Le Feuvre

A Sunday Afternoon Swim

One of the things I love to do is to swim! 

I learned to swim when I was quite little, and I've always enjoyed it - even the many hours of swimming training at school...preparations for many a swim meet. I wasn't world class (and actually I'm not that competitive), but it was fun! 

In recent years, however, swimming has become more and more important as well as enjoyable.

It's not just the exercise, although that of course is great. I also find  being in the water so relaxing. In the pool, just swimming up and down, up and down, up and down, you get a rhythm that is quite mindful. And when in the ocean, those mindful moments are enhanced by the presence of the fresh air, the salt on your lips, the feeling of buoyancy in the salty water.  I find it easy to clear my mind of stress when I'm looking at the surface of the ocean and into the horizon beyond. For me, it's a helpful mindfulness technique which allows me just to be ... rather than worrying about things I cannot change, past and future. 

Living in the lovely island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, where there are so many beaches and bays and swimming opportunities, I can often - or at least when time allows - be found in the water. In the summer, of course, it's a great place to be ... but even when the water is colder I find sea swimming really helpful for my wellbeing and mental health.

In recent years, which have been quite emotionally and physically draining at times, even a quick dip and a short sit in the sunshine, a quiet few moments to myself, has just been invaluable.  

Many people here in Jersey swim throughout the year and while I've not done that, I do start when the sea temperature rises to about 10°C. Which means that this year I stepped into the ocean in April.

Admittedly, it's a bit nippy at first, but I have some gear ... some sea gloves and special boots, and a big dry robe to wrap myself in after my swim. And the feeling of the chilly, salty water on my skin, the capture of my breath when the cold hits me, and even the little brain freeze that can sometimes happen early on in the swimming season are just exhilarating!

This year, I've decided to chart some of my swimming with a bit of a 'swimming diary', and today I dipped at the beautiful Bouley Bay on the north coast of Jersey where the swimming this afternoon was simply gorgeous. The sun sparkled on the water and the coast of France, not too far away, was visible in the distance.

The water is gradually warming up... today the general sea temperature in Jersey was apparently around 13°C.... so things ARE warming up. And, of course, it helps when the sun is out and the wind isn't blowing a gale.

It's an opportunity to share with you not just my swimming experiences, but something of the beauty of the island I call home.

Today, in the sheltered Bouley Bay, which even around low tide still has plentiful swimming water...the experience was everything!

Here's my little film, which I posted first on social media.... 

Enjoy!

 

Just thinking about .... tomorrow!

SO here's a question for you....what's one of the BEST things about the film 'Annie'?

There's the cute dog, and the little orphans being terrorised by the hideous orphanage manager, and the rich geezer who really doesn't like children but is eventually captured by Lil'l Orphan Annie....... a bit schmaltzy perhaps but good and pure.

THAT's the best thing about Annie ... she's innocent and optimistic, and still thinks the world is a wonderful place, despite the nastiness and deprivation around her. And, of course, that wonderful sunny character and purity of soul is  summed up in the WONDERFUL anthem  'Tomorrow' .... it speaks of a better future for us all, of the hope of dreams coming true. It's magic!

WHAT A SHAME the song is, at the moment, being hijacked by an organisation which is so far from innocence and optimism, goodness and purity!

For those of you outside the UK who don't know about our press / newspapers....lucky for you! There's this paper called The Sun which, although admittedly quite well written and occasionally does some 'real journalism' and apparently has quite good sports coverage, certainly cannot be described as good and pure.

Owned by News International (sigh) it's one of the biggest selling 'dailies' but still persists in peddaling soft porn through it's Page Three - bare breasted and near naked women/'glamour models'. Celebrities, scandals and salacious troublemaking is The Sun's basic menu, no matter how much they try to claim otherwise.

And tomorrow, not content with The Sun being on the newstands six days a week, News International are now foisting a Sunday version on the British public. Hence the TV ads we're suffering at the moment ...'The Sun will come out tomorrow...'

It wouldn't be quite so bad IF we weren't all aware that The Sun on Sunday is really just a replacement for the sleazy, disgraceful and ultimately disgraced News of the World (Sunday) newspaper which was closed some months ago in the aftermath of the British phone-hacking scandal. If you don't know what that is please 'google' it. Suffice to say, when News Corps CEO Rupert Murdoch discovered that his newspaper had been hacking the phone of a teenage murder victim, he closed the paper.

I applauded him then, so I was tremendously disappointed when Mr Murdoch came to London very recently and announced the launch of the new Sun on Sunday, which unfortunately many of us  think is likely just to be the NOTW but dressed up in new, but already soiled clothing! On the day the NOTW shut many of us were predicting a Sun on Sunday / Sunday Sun .... but as time went on I had hoped that sense would be prevail. Unfortunately not.

It's pure cynicism of course. The NOTW was the biggest selling Sunday newspaper and News Int/News Corp obviously need sales. Ok, so Mr Murdoch has given it a few months but still, the highly predictable is happening.

I, for one, am hoping that the British public realises they are being taken for suckers and that the Sun on Sunday bombs .... and not just because they've hijacked a perfectly delightful song to promote their hideous product.

I know what you might be thinking...'how can you judge something before it's even hit the streets?'

Well, I am - it's the Sun newspaper ! Just on a Sunday!

If it's the same as its daily counterpart it will ultimately be as destructive, life sapping, culture destroying and salacious as the daily Sun and the NOTW!

I'm usually an optimistic person and try to be life enhancing ....but when I think about Tomorrow .... when the Sun will come out... my heart sinks.  And this evening I'm feeling just a little bit sick every time the 'Tomorrow' advert is on TV and I see those little kids innocently singing along....

And if you're asking....NO I won't be buying said newspaper ... not tomorrow, not ever.

 

A Small Act

Last Saturday (June 25th) I was in Saffron Walden (county of Essex, UK) for the screening of an amazing film.

A Small Act is an award-winning documentary film by Jennifer Arnold, which traces the story of Chris Mburu, a human rights lawyer who works in Geneva, is a Harvard graduate and is originally from Kenya. 

So how did a lad from an impoverished rural village in East Africa get where he is today? Well, largely it's the result of an immense amount of hard work and belief in himself, but also due in part to a generous woman in Sweden called Hilde Back.

Hilde sponsored Chris during part of his early education - without this he might not have gone to secondary school at all. Secondary school led to Nairobi University and then to Harvard in the USA and now to a job with the United Nations, travelling the world to advise and intervene on  human rights.

But all along he's never forgotten Hilde, and has himself set up a school sponsorship programme  to help promising young Kenyan kids to reach their potential in the way that Hilde's money helped him. He named it for his benefactor - The Hilde Back Education Fund - although he had not met her. And then he went looking for her and found that she was, indeed, amazing and inspirational.

He found not a rich person but a very unassuming woman who had escaped Nazi Germany in World War 2, but whose parents had died in the Holocaust. The fact that Chris himself often works with refugees and displaced people makes the new relationship between him and Hilde even more poignant.

A Small Act tells Chris and Hilde's story and the story of the Foundation and several of the children going through the selection process for sponsorship in one year. It was moving and challenging as the various stories were woven together. Having grown up in Kenya myself, it was truly an inspirational evening.

The special screening at Saffron Screen was in aid of the Kyangala Trust - another small charity that is trying to help people back home in Kenya, namely the people of Kyangala Village in Machakos region. The charity is based in Essex and I'm helping a little with some of their publicity and this was part of a fundraising weekend - some volunteers were also taking part in a charity cycle ride yesterday (Sunday 26th June). See My People page.

Watch the trailer for A Small Act by clicking here, or watch it through my Videos page.

But I leave you with a thought from the A Small Act website :

'Each of us has the ability to create change. Each of us has the power to do something small. As seen in the film, one small act can ripple out to affect countless lives. So what can you do? What’s your small act?'