16th November. Belief/Doubt...Whatever.

I was absent from this armchair for two hours to undergo another round of Thursday night swim club (£1.00). Frequency of going to the leisure pool has increased to three times a week, (as if there weren't more important things to do). Mr Whatsisname the trainer has promised me that three sessions a week for two months should result in the ability to swim 1.5 km and not be the last. Tonight though he was bandying around a figure of four months.

On other nights, members of the public adopt a far more relaxed attitude to lane swimming compared with the punishing regime imposed by Mr Whatsisname on the club members. Wednesdays, for instance, sees the same three middle-aged men spending most of the time taking up the shallow end of lane one discussing things like interest rates for deposit accounts at the Alliance & Leicester, before putting in a few more leisurely lengths. They are never going to manage 1.5km in a river. Unlike me, I tell myself. According to some schools of Psychological thought whether or not one believes what one tells oneself doesn't actually matter... I tell myself.