45 Comments

Such a sporting epistle!! Narrow boating, lake boating (number 6 capsized!), synchronised swimming, shoplifting (weight lifting with shops!), hiking.... I’m exhausted just from reading it all! Loved the synchronised swimming video and your beautiful hiking photos. Another wonderful read. Thanks so much.

Expand full comment
author

Oh, the synchronised swimming, Beth - I giggled all the way through! I'm so glad you enjoyed this letter - thanks so much for reading! 😊

Expand full comment

I'm going to try and write letters like yours and Terry's. The envelope would definitely be worth opening. Cheers...

Expand full comment
author

Cheers to you, too, Prue! Thank you so much! 😊

Expand full comment

It's very enjoyable.

Expand full comment

Another brilliant piece Rebecca - I loved the synchronised swimmers and kept giggling out loud as I watched it. Very unladylike.

Expand full comment
author

LOL - me too!!! We're two 'unladies' together in that respect - I could NOT stop laughing when I watched it! Thanks so much for reading, Rosy! 😊

Expand full comment

I have restacked recommending to read and watch.

Expand full comment
author

Rosy, that's so kind of you - thank you. 😘 I haven't really ventured onto Notes yet! 🫣

Expand full comment

Plenty of "chortles" this morning, Rebecca. Thank you!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for reading, Jim! 😊

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

An especially comical post this morning Ms. Holden! "Are you in trouble number six?" ha ha ha! And the water ballet is priceless, especially wrestling with the shark! Both just got to my sense of the ridiculous and I shared them with four others. I always enjoy the wit in your exchange with Terry. How I wish I could stand on the ridge of the South Downs trail with you. ! I would relish every bit ... of the downhill part.

Expand full comment
author

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Sharron - thank you so much for reading (and sharing!).

The downhill slope to get back off the ridge at the end of my walk was far too steep to be comfortable - but you and I would have been fine together on the relatively flat bit at the top. Man, that would have been a great walk - I really enjoy walking solo, but I'd certainly make an exception for you! 😊

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I am very quiet. I prefer solo walking, too, always have. You would hardly know I was there, except of course, you would have to stop every once in a while to let me catch up. Your legs being twice as long as mine, your age, much less than mine. Not to mention your superior stamina. Okay, maybe not such a good idea. ha ha ha.

Expand full comment
author

I'm quiet too! 🤫

I met someone on a 'Not getting lost' course who really enjoys group walking holidays. She buddies up with other single walkers and they all have a great time. 'We don't stop talking, Rebecca!' she told me. LOL - that would be my worst nightmare....!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure about that 'superior stamina' you mention, but I remember the second 10k race I ran, in which I matched every single step with L, a long-standing member of my running club. I was sooooooo proud to have kept up with her, and when we crossed the line together I was on SUCH a high.

It was only much later that somebody popped my bubble by pointing out that L is LITERALLY a foot shorter than I am! 🤣

Expand full comment
Aug 9, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

As Scarlett O'Hara would say, "Fiddle-di-dee!" That was a feat to be proud of!

Expand full comment

Sorry, but I think you have mistaken me for my twin brother. I am hereby marking this post in my inbox with Return to Sender

Expand full comment
author

There are TWO of you...? 👀🫣⁉️

Expand full comment

There's more than two, because my twin brother has a twin brother too

Expand full comment
author
Aug 9, 2023·edited Aug 9, 2023Author

Erm... no, because that would be you! 🙄

Can either/any of your twin brothers solve my puzzle, though?

Expand full comment

TBH I haven't had a chance to look properly. I've bin out all day, and got an online class in 15 minutes, and have to go to a neighhbour to collect a parcel. I'm looking forward to grappling with it tho, so thanks! And if I can't solve it, my twin brother will try.

Expand full comment
author

#excusesexcuses 😉

Expand full comment

It's true. I can't do it now either because I am suffering from an extreme tea deficiency. But I will have a look, I promise! Or my twin brother will.

Expand full comment

Where you get to walk is amazingly beautiful and I'm inspired to paint a watercolor of one of the photos in your post. The synchronized swimming video was funny; I fondly remembered my college swim team friends doing the same kind of thing in the shallow water of the lap pool. Both the men's and women's swim teams coordinated this effort, and the music was an LP playing on a turntable in the natatorium office, and there were underwater speakers so we could hear the music while synchronizing under water. Such good fun!

Expand full comment
author

I'm very lucky, Mary - the South Downs Way - well, the easterly part of it, anyway, is fairly close to where I live. In fact, I can see the South Downs in the distance from my bedroom window.

I'm so impressed with your synchronised swimming friends - it must have been amazing to watch them! Whenever I watch it on TV it always looks effortless, but oh boy, I know it's SUCH hard work!!!

Expand full comment

So much treading water and locking one's abs! :-)

Expand full comment
author

🤣 Trust me, I struggle with BOTH, but I'm impressed by them, too! 🤣

Expand full comment

Glad you could fit a walk in between the rain showers.

Expand full comment

Loved the picturesque photos of your hike. I wish we had open space like that here. Every piece of open land ends up being a shopping mall or some kind of store. Money talks.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, Matt! We're very lucky to have access to such beautiful landscape on our doorstep. Where I live in rural East Sussex - a county in what is a densely-populated corner of the country - there is still lots of open space, although our tiny village has 205 new houses-in-progress, more than doubling the number of dwellings. There will be more to come, too - a lot of farmland around us, including the field at the bottom of our garden - is up for development too.

It's not shopping malls and supermarkets, and housing is in short supply, so I absolutely understand it. And yes, money talks - on that note, we're hoping for improvements to local infrastructure to go alongside the new developments: improvements to roads, a better-equipped doctor's surgery with budget and staff able to cope with the new intake of village residents, more frequent buses, and additional school places. We'll see!

Expand full comment
Aug 23, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

Haha loved this letter to Terry, and that panoramic 😍

Expand full comment
author

Awww, thanks, Nat! 😊

Expand full comment