I hope that he will have better days ahead but what happened last Thursday has transformed the little chap’s holiday. Until then, going in the pool had meant standing in the shallow end or hanging onto his daddy’s back. I have got him kicking and he managed the odd, very brief, doggy paddle but that was it.
On Wednesday, I bought him a pair of armbands in Kardamili and the next day he wore them into the pool. It needed a bit of urging before he launched himself off the step at the shallow end. Splash. Hey presto, he was afloat, paddling away frantically but moving, actually swimming. Now there is no stopping him.
He said that his first day of swimming was “the best day of his life” and has been frantically arranging pool parties – that is to say Guardian reading loons L&G joining us for a boozy lunch – ever since.
I was hoping for a second pool party yesterday evening as Nicho the Communist had promised to come for a swim, a drink and to inspect the olives which I fear are dire so may force a reworking of our business arrangement. But I rather fear that he too was having a lunchtime event of the liquid variety as, not that it came as a great shock to me, he ended up as a no show. Thus Joshua’s third swim of the day was just with the family.