25/10/14 – Quelle Horreur ! ….. todays blog is bought to you by the letter Q

Hi All, ZZZ Zab the alphabet savant with you again today reporting for Team Omega at the leisurely end of our pack ie the Z end.

Todays blog is brought to you by the letter Q. Qqqquestions about our qqqqquotidian qqqquest, a qqquiz question, qqqqquiet achievers, qqquintessential Pink Cappers, etc etc

Well it started off looking like it might be qqqquite a qqqqquiet morning. Pete, Megan and Sarah were happy and raring to go early

 

Our yoga buddies were getting their zzzzen on in the qqqquiet of the dawn. How fantastic, yoga at sunrise on the beach – and free! you wouldnt miss it for qqqquids. It helps your qqqqqui or life force flow.

 

Of course it wouldn’t be the B&B if we didn’t see family members coming down together. Here are Anna and her Dad, Marcel, who are often here together.

 

This qqquintet includes two of ‘the Robbo men’ -Andrew and his Dad Bruce – aka The Gun (another of our Pink Caps to have represented Aus in world triathlon championships) along with Peter, Derek and Clive (the Russkie). These guys cycle down from St Ives to swim with us, probably a lot of fun whizzing down but perhaps less so pushing uphill on the way back with a wet towel and wetsuit on board.

 

Bruce said I wasnt allowed to tell you he is Australia’s best legal representative and probably best bloke – ok so I better not. So don’t qqquote me on that but he was responsible for introducing me to the Pink Caps and I am grateful almost daily for that.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people cut it so fine and arrive just in time for our 7.00am “let’s go”. This is the mob at 5 to 7, but numbers swelled significantly in the next 5 minutes and eventually almost 200 of us swam today.

 

This weeks Qqqquintessential Pink Capper is Bob – what a legend. The first day I swam – nearly 6 months ago now -Bob wandered across the road in his budgie smugglers, ugg boots, B&B hoodie and straw hat. After the swim he and Greg were sitting at the benches and invited me to join them – a friendly lot from the very get go our precious swimming squad.

Hooray half-way Henry was looking forward to his swim. Management made an announcement that many of us,if not strong swimmers, might be better off coming in at half-way because the rip was very strong near the point. We might not have trouble getting out but getting back might be a different story so if you were a weaker swimmer opt for half way on the way back or go a fair way north before heading back in to the beach from the point.

 

Todays Qqqquiz Qqqquestion: whose pink booty is this?? – talk about funky trunks – they sure are!

 

Todays Bond Girl in the uber cool Bond girl wetsuit is Mariah, very happy to be undertaking another B&B swim

 

And here is our resident loved up couple – correction, trio… and baby makes 3 early next year

 

Who is this late arrival practicing Just In Time management for the swim ?

 

Aha !!!! Its Matt [I usually swim under the radar (or would that be sonar in the water?)] Hayes

 

I see you Matt!! I am not going to let you escape the bloggers camera today. Matt is one of the Qqqquiet Achievers of our squad. He qqqquietly comes down and goes about his business day after day but he is rarely featured in the blog.  I aim to make up for that today.  He is 77th on the Pacific Challenge. That means he has swum a hell of a lot of kms over a hell of a lot of days. Matt is a former Olympian and represented us in sailing – go you good thing. These days he runs Sydney by Sail (yep there are discounts for Pink Cappers) and is a broker for upmarket yachts. So if you want to buy a beautiful boat, Matt is your man.

One of the great things about the 7.00 am swim is that the early birds have been in and can give us a heads up on the conditions. Thanks guys ! Its always peak hour on the ramp at 7.00am with traffic going both ways. Here Attracta returns as the masses head for the water.

Then there was a very interesting sight this morning. Check out this series of pics – thats Storchy on the right of the first pic.

 

Then watch what happens… what is the explanation????

 

 

And as for our resident Russian…. I approached with trepidation, thoughts of Bond movie villains swirling in my head. Imagine my relief when, with a charming English accent, he introduced himself as Clive. Oh Clive!…. we already met him this morning, he rode down with The Gun. If he is in The Guns posse he must be a good bloke. I for one particularly like his attire. I too wear my LSA inspired neoprene hood though whereas I go for the neoprene ninja /neoprene niqab look Clive is more circumspect. Still, neither of us is going to have ear troubles and with our rashies on we arent going to have our arms stung by a certain lot of nasty blue mofos either!  Good for you I say Clive. Sadly for Rusty our other jolly pom he has lost the crown of coolest swimming trunks !

 

Now an exceptionally strange turn of events today….. Your zig-zagging zedder scribe was not the last in to Shelly this morning! This very rarely happens but here is the proof. I took this pic on arrival and there are others still arriving. A hearty welcome to Team Omega to you all!!! I am of course still in the bottom Qqqquintile -and proud of it. The Team Omega zedders operate at the leisurely end of the pack. But dont think we dont work hard on our fitness. In fact we are all training much harder than you lot because we have a much shorter recovery at Shelly before we continue on. BOOM!

 

Some might think always going to Shelly and back is a Qqqqquixotic Qqqquest. Not so !! we arent tilting at windmills. Yes we go to the same place and back, day after day (well pretty much, depending on those blueys) but just like those who rode on Bernard Boland’s Rose Bay Ferry even though you always end up at the same place you can be free. After all its all about the journey, not the destination.  Every day at Shelly is different – check out today.  There might be Qqqqquiet contemplation…

 

…..conversation, chatter, laughter….

 

…family bonding….

 

…. or blog tarting!!!, there had to be some !!! It just wouldn’t be a blog without blog tarting. Our QQQQueen of the Tarts LSA takes pride of place in a number of pics today, as usual, but not this one which features Gayle, HH Henry, Sarah, Michael and Peta.  Michael furnished our Qqqquote of the week this week when he announced ” I really like curves” at breakfast at Bluewater! mmm, maybe you had to be there. It was nice to see him joking around rather than his usual Qqqquerulous mood. Oh, just joking Michael, we love your company and non-stop banter and repartee.

 

Before you know it and before Team Omega have caught their breaths its time to sing Happy Birthday. Today to Melissa and it was also Richard’s birthday but both managed to escape the bloggers camera. Then..”lets go”

 

and we are away…  homeward bound, now that really is an impressive sight

 

Now I tried very hard to get some underwater photos but being a novice blogger and first time photographer and given how murky the water has been all I can offer is this pic of the beautiful vegetation near Shelly. I always think of it as a flower garden I am swimming over

 

and I did get a few pics of fish – here is the best of them, which of course explains why I wont bother sharing others!

 

Heeding Ian’s warning many of us got out at half way

 

 

 

 

But meanwhile, around at the point Qqqqquelle Horreur !!! (translation Holy Sh*t !!!!) a qqqquasi-crisis that left many of us qqquaking in our thongs afterwards at the mere thought of it.

One of our most experienced members found themselves in trouble. You can see the rip here – the calm water ie no whitecaps -water flowing away from the beach with a very strong current today

 

The Bottom of the Blog has Safety Tips and it says there are no prizes for pushing past your comfort zone or skills. It stresses that anyone can get in to trouble and it might happen any time, even close to shore and that a big part of survival is staying calm.  Thank goodness our beloved Jane knows all this and what followed was a textbook recovery from what would have been a devastating situation for all of us.

Coming around the point Jane didnt even have time to start heading north away from the rip when she got hit by a big dumper. Then she got hit by three more dumpers in quick succession. As often happens in these frightening situations she lost her breath and then felt like her legs wouldnt work. Sensibly she called out for assistance and Richard who was nearby came to help. THANK YOU RICHARD. He said, hold on to my arm and I will help you in but the rip had other ideas and that wasnt possible so they called for help. Then our very honourable Bruce Baird, Kat (yes the same heroine from last weeks blog) and Richard (the other Richard) held Jane up and safe. THANK YOU BRUCE, KAT & RICHARD (and profuse apologies if I have missed one of todays heros). Extremely quickly the lifesavers were there with a board but still couldnt get her in so the rubber ducky came to the rescue. THANK YOU SO MUCH LIFESAVERS FOR AN EXTRAORDINARILY QUICK APPEARANCE & RESCUE.  Jane is happy for me to tell this tale. Here she is back on dry land after the ordeal, still managing to smile – what a champion.

 

As her B&B shirt, festooned with badges, shows Jane ( pictured here with Sarah and an injured Sparkles) is one of our very able swimmers. So its a cautionary tale to all us and thankfully this time with a happy ending thanks to level heads, helpful fellow Pink Cappers and the wonderful lifesavers.

 

Meanwhile, still in the water others fought the rip or swam north and around it then back in to shore

with the warmer weather and our growing numbers the qqqqqueue for the showers is getting longer

 

Here is Pip, a brand new member of the canine arm of our family. With another of our world class triathletes for a ‘mum’ its lucky Pip has both kelpie and whippet in her – those legs will do a lot of running – and can she swim?

 

Bonnie was there today – another Bonnie

 

A Pink Capper?

 

you betcha, and jauntily worn like a Tam O Shanter or such. Is Bonnie a Scottie?

 

I havent forgotten my qqquest to lift the profile of our Qqqqqquiet Achiever. Here he is drying off apres swim

 

It was a great morning for sitting around and warming up in the sun at the benches after our swim. But wait who is that in the bottom right corner?

 

You guessed it, its our Qqqquiet achiever, Matt. He is so often there but flying under the radar. Not today buddy !!

 

Ahaaa says Hooray-halfway Henry “thats thats the Qqqquiet Achiever”

 

We are a qqqquality lot in the B&B and a qqqqqquaint and qqqqqquirky lot at times – the indefatiguable Sarah our Qqqqqueen of the blogtarts and our hearts and the irrepressible Storchy equally loved by all

 

Well I am sure you have all had your qqqqquota of qqqs for the day. Any more and you might start feeling qqqqqueasy and I am just about out of qqqquips

So its time to make like our Qqqqquiet Acheiver of the day and leave it all behind. Just for today!

 

Sorry about my tardiness – training wheels!

Zig-zagging Zedder, Zab

 

Special Event – Guest Speakers!
The next B&B monthly dinner will be on Tuesday 11th November at 6.30 pm at Bluewater Cafe and will be our last for the year. Our special guest speakers this month will be two of our most knowledgeable swimmers, Dr Rainer Noack  and Professor Nick Dawkins, who will provide a follow up presentation to their previous dissertation on swimming etiquette, titled:

“How to get ahead in the B&B”.

The learned gentlemen have assured us that the content will be both informative and amusing. Don’t miss out on this important event – book early!
To mark this occasion, we have a new and improved menu with more choices. The cost has increased slightly to $25 a head and includes shared entrees, a selection of mains to choose (incl a vegetarian option), corkage (for byo wine only) and a little thank you for the staff. Glasses of beer or wine and desserts are also available at the special price of only $5 each. This is still outstanding value. Numbers are limited, so bookings are essential.  To secure your spot please BOOK HERE NOW, 

 

BOULDERDASH – Starts on 27th October
The Boulderdash will start officially on Monday 27th October and will run every day until the end of Summer. The start time is just before 6 am at Manly Surf Club, and the route goes from Manly to Queenscliff and back (3 km total). You should be back at the Club just in time for the 7 am Shelly swim. If you are intending to do the Boulderdash, can you please swim with the group at the correct starting time (random swims during the day do not count). The main aim of the Bold and Beautiful is to provide a fun group activity, so we request that the “regulars” please welcome any new swimmers who wish to try the Boulderdash for the first time. They will feel much more at ease if they are swimming as part of a group.

Wet Patch

The recent gorgeous weather reminds us that summer (and Christmas) are just around the corner and the inevitable question, have you started your christmas shopping yet?!  Wetpatch® makes Christmas shopping easy for Bold and the Beautiful members, offering $10 off the RRP. Wetpatch® car seat protectors are the perfect gift for that loved one who enjoys swimming and other outdoor activities (or you could just buy one for yourself!!!!)

To redeem this offer call 0419 975 683 to order

 

Staying safe

Remember that there are no badges for scaring yourself silly! While it is great to extend your boundaries, it is important to know your limits. Do read these excellent tips on staying safe in the surf. To read, or even download, click here.

 

STATS

Swimmers 190

Newbies 13

Temp 18.9

Rescues 1 and thank God for that

 

BOTTOM OF THE BLOG