Lazing on a Sunny Saturday Afternoon

With an impending sense of doom thanks to knowing we had to make our way to London for the 60 mile bike ride to Brighton, Kirsty, Jen and I decided we may as well not bother getting any sleep and enjoy a day in the sun! Joined by Rach and Soren, the motley crew were very civilised and had a picnic beside the river. Once we had scoffed down enough humous and crisps to feel sick, shouted out random college names at the rowers ‘playing’ bumps...we tootled off to the swimming pool to do some proper playing around.

Jen decided to lead the way, blowing up an inflatable dingy and leaping off the bank into it! Super Jen has clearly had practice at this, managing to land in the dingy every time! Next up was me...who decided to treat it more like a trampoline, bouncing off it rather than landing in it! Rach did pretty much the same on her first attempt but then managed to perfect her leap and land in it a couple of times. Kirsty also has a pretty good shot and landed in it despite having to borrow Jen’s water shoes which were too big for her (for fear of losing her flip flops!!) and then there was Soren...I think the pics better describe his efforts but what l will say is that one of his landings sounded pretty painful!

We decided to move on to the Lasher...there wasn’t much water going over it but Jen managed to slog it over and I got stuck! Deciding l couldn’t be bothered to wiggle over, I got out of my boat and used the inflatable to slide down. Rach decided it looked a good idea and followed suit...we both found it a little disappointing, well it certainly wasn’t like the rumba rapids at Thorpe Park! Kirsty decided she wanted to stay in her boat so I was very nice (it’s very tempting to push someone over in their boat when you’re wet) and pulled her down the Lasher. Soren came down the lasher in his boat but fancied (!!) getting wet and flipped over...unfortunately the lasher is quite shallow at the moment and he tried to right himself mainly using his thumb, which is now poorly.

Rach and l thought it would be a great idea to ‘plank’ on Kirsty’s boat so we took an end each and lay down...it was quite nice having her paddle us around. Then Jen and Rach used Kirsty’s boat as a seesaw. Time was flying by so we all seal launched back in and paddled back to the shed where we had supporters lining up along the bank shouting us on...ok, so they were there for the ‘bumps’ but they still shouted at us (some of those people should really consider doing stand-up comedy but only to an audience of deaf people). Once back at the shed we dried off watching the rest of the bumps... and a child stand on a nail (no it wasn’t us that put it there)...then it was time for us to face reality and get ready for the London to Brighton! *gulps*

Read about the London to Brighton Night Ride here.

- Lynds

Photos by Jen.