Numbers

 It's all Greek to me. This is the week that I have been obsessed with numbers. Every morning I check Amazon books to see where my book is the rankings. When it was first published on the site it ranked over a million down the rankings. Amazon has that many books for sale! I would never have guessed. Over the days it has gone up and then slipped down again. Imagine my delight when I saw it had reached number 2 in Middle East history/ biography. This leads me to ask the question: how many people have bought my book for it to reach that rank? 

Before the swim

My support team

On another string of thought, I have been preparing for the Brighton 5k open-water swim that was postponed from July. Last July I was raring to go. I was ready to do the swim and confident that I could complete it within the time. Now not so much. The last two times I have tried to do 5k in the pool, I have had to give up because of agonising cramp. Added to that, I have a dodgy earache and a sniffle. I promised myself I'd give it my best shot...I did. However, I failed. I missed the first buoy I was supposed to turn at and had to go back and round it, then I overshot the one at the far end of the course by such a long way that a nice young man on a paddle board told my to hop on and he'd paddle me back to the course. I did and instantly got griping cramp in my hamstring. He phoned the safety boat that then towed me close to shore and I swam in from there. I only completed 2.5k. 

Even worse, my cramp was so bad, I couldn't stand up so I got out of the water on all fours and was helped up the beach by two of the organisers. I can happily say I wasn't the only one who needed help and I wasn't the first one. Two of the competitors who were out before me had become overly cold and then at the cut-off time, there were still twenty swimmers in the water. Hopefully with all this going on, they will have forgotten about the old lady with cramp!

The car is finally fixed. The wing mirrors fold in and I am happy once more. The funny thing is, I still use my left foot on the clutch that isn't there and try to change gear when I slow down. The previous hire cars had seven gears so I was going up and down through the gears all the time on my jaunts around town. Silly me. Why I can't unlearn what I have been doing while my car was being repaired, I'll never know. 

While we are on the topic of numbers, I am pleased to see so many countries supporting Palestine. It should have happened years ago. We just need to support them getting their land back and giving them stability, security and safety. My biggest concern is that Israel has gone above and beyond in promoting a future "Hamas" through its barbarity and disproportionate response to the initial attacks. Sons and daughters seeing their families killed will find it hard to forgive and move on. Also, Israelis around the world have been complicit in not speaking out against the actions. They too will be looking over their shoulders for some time to come. For Netanyahu, there will be no victory, however many Palestinians he has killed. He is a war criminal of the lowest kind. He is the loser just like I was in the swim this weekend.

Eating squash flowers at Anne's

Coffee

Sammi in his Community Garden!