Saturday night dreaming

By Virginia Winder

The aquatic centre is a fine place for dreaming on Saturday nights.
While people are getting ready for social events, the lanes are relatively free you see.
I have no idea how many lengths I did tonight because I was in dream mode. That's when I go to a far away place, well only to the Bay of Plenty, and imagine what could be.
While I was swimming, I was actually racing in the Tinman. In my head, I was running around the Mount, and heading for the finish line. I was striding out, feeling fantastic and even smiling.
When I'm swimming, I often do this because there's nothing else to look at.
I also focus on style and tonight I had a bit of a chat with a South African bloke, a '63 baby like me, about remembering to bend arms and try different strokes. He also recommended looking up Total Immersion swimming on the internet for some good tips.
All up, I swam for about 65 minutes and felt fantastic.
Now, for those who don't know, I didn't do the TriWoman's race at Pt Chevalier last month. Unfortunately, I ended up with vertigo, which is a horrible illness that affects balance, so swimming or riding a bike was out. Am fine now.
In fact, I'm great. Have eaten exceptionally well today too, fruit (yes, those feijoas again), sugar-free bircher muesli, poached eggs on one slice of grainy toast with no butter, three coffees (barely any sugar now), baked salmon, brown rice salad and broccoli.
All so virtuous, but when it comes down to it, I won't be remembered for eating well. Or for being slim or even larger than life as I was before.
I hope that my legacy will be about showing that personal change is possible and living it. For having a goal and going for it. For speaking out about what matters and not staying quiet when that would be so easy to do...
Who knows, I won't be writing my own eulogy!
Went to a funeral this afternoon, which was a wonderful celebration of a man's life. It began with a clip from the Topp Twins TV series featuring this man of the land and it ended with his family honouring him and Frank Sinatra singing My Way.
It got me thinking of course, as funerals do, about legacies, love and life.
What if I could be a ghost and could pass on just three pieces of advice to people at my own funeral, what would I say?
It might sound macabre, but it's actually quite uplifting.
Today, these are mine:
Be kind to everyone, always...
Be open-minded about everything, so you keep learning, listening, growing, always...
Keep adding to your bucket list... don't ever get to the stage you've done everything, because you need to have the next goal, the next dream, always...
What would yours be?