Through A looking Glass 5

A couple of month’s ago i asked some folk who had been dropping into my blog to write a guest post.

I gave them the theme « Mirror » and i asked each of them to apply their Personal Mirror (whatever that meant to them) to any one of my posts, or part thereof.

These are the results.

The Mirror Series, Part Five. VICKI

I hadn’t known Vicki was a legend when I discovered her blog through a flurry of links one wet afternoon but I liked the way she wrote about her Englishness amidst the American-ness of where she lives and I started reading from the beginning.

I found out she was a legend later, when a colleague at work said Vicki!!!?!!

I used to be a legend myself in a very small corner of central London but I can guarantee that none of Vicki’s colleagues will ever mirror that cry -!!!?!!

Here is a link to her blog.

Mirror Post/Vicki When I was about eight years old I went on holiday to Cornwall with my Mum and Dad. We stayed at the Headland Hotel and I discovered surf. http://www.headlandhotel.co.uk I can’t remember how we came to stay somewhere so glamorous (think my parents might have splashed out because they advertised a live dance band at night) or why my brothers and sisters weren’t with us (I have two of each, so there were usually more kids floating around.) But I do remember surf. I think it’d be called body surfing today – you grab a sort of float, hurl yourself at a wave and get dragged into the shore. I’m not a sporty-type, but I do like messing about in water and I loved this. There was no fancy stuff like standing up or wet suits back then - no central heating at home either, so I guess we were used to the cold. I returned to the Headland when I was in my forties, by which time surfing had become a more commercial and less chilly affair and I enrolled myself for a lesson. There were two classes – the sporty girls and sporty boys. Despite my age and ineptness, the sporty girls took me under their wing. I’m balance-challenged - never learnt to ride a bike or turn a cartwheel and I sometimes fall over just walking about. But on the beach beneath the Headland Hotel, I learnt how to stand up on a surf board - in theory. They start you off on dry land and show you how to raise yourself from flat to standing in one swift move. When that proved a challenge, they took a two stage approach – crouch –> standing. Still beyond me, the instructor and sporty girls scratched their heads and eventually came up with a four stage approach – kneel one leg->kneel with the other -> crouch ->stand. Then we hit the waves. Splash, splash. Paddle, paddle. Thump (wave). Splutter. Repeat. Did I drown? No. Or swallow much ocean? Yes. And here and there a sporty girl managed to catch wave and rise to their feet and we whooped with delight. But my stamina couldn’t match theirs, so when every muscle was weak and I was battered and beaten enough, I called it a day, said fond farewells, and took my last big wave to the shore. And then it happened – splash, splash, paddle paddle, kneel left, kneel right, crouch, stand. There I was riding triumphantly to the shore with the gleeful shouts and cheers of my new found friends in my ears. Elated, I wanted to thank them all but I was way too beat to paddle out there again. And that is the pinnacle of my sporting achievements, never to be repeated, but what a triumph. Sporty girls – thank you!

LINKS

Vicki mirrored Experimental Day 25

Everything you need to know about this Mirror series

Part One of The Mirror Series here

Part Two of The Mirror Series here

Part Three of The Mirror Series here

Part Four of The Mirror Series here