My next couple of planned goals are proving to be a bit tricky!
Last Saturday was meant to be a gathering of Ian Ushers in London, but unfortunately the Ians are spread all over the UK, and travel is very expensive. There was one Ian definitely confirmed, but on my return from Paris, I found he had had to cancel due to circumstances beyond his control!
So the Ian Usher Gathering was just going to be me, and as I was still feeling slightly ill after the Paris trip, I held the meeting on my own at my brother’s house.
Tomorrow I was hoping to dive off the top board at Bishop Auckland swimming baths. My reason for wanting to do this is as follows, as written on my original goals page:
As a kid I used to go to the local swimming baths very regularly. My favourite pool was at Bishop Auckland, in the North-East of England. It had three diving boards, 1m, 3m and a high board at 5m. As kids we would quite happily jump off them all, and I worked my way up to diving off the second board, but really hurt my head one day doing that.
Since then I never progressed any further in terms of diving. I am still happy to jump off some pretty big cliffs, and love to do so, but am very limited in the height I will dive from. I know this is a pretty irrational fear, it can’t hurt too much, can it?
So, if “Bishop Baths” is still open, I want to go back and dive off that top board, it would be so satisfying. If “Bishop Baths” is gone, any 5m board will do.
Well, as I drove to Darlington to visit friends and family there, I stopped off at Bishop Auckland. The swimming pool was still there, very much as I remembered it, but oh dear, no more diving boards! They used to be at the end of the pool, where it now says “Welcome to Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre”!
So this afternoon I went to the Dolphin Centre in Darlington, and was very pleased to find that they have boards, the same as Bishop Auckland used to have, at heights of 1m, 3m and 5m, and they are open tomorrow afternoon!
It’s still on! I plan to be there at around 4pm!
