High Tide	04:05 (2.40m)
Low Tide	10:25 (0.80m)
High Tide	17:08 (2.30m)
Low Tide	22:46 (1.10m)

Sea temperature: not taken - too rough
Sea conditions: wild
Weather: undecided about what it wants to be today
Joined by: everyone except the eponymous DK and The Pirate
Topics of conversation:

The water - it was pretty powerful and we all tried to swim but didn't really succeed. Here are the Wild Women trying to get in and the tide taking the dunes.

Jagger's training has taken a step back, all was going well for the little dog, who grows bigger by the day. His 'sit' and 'wait' were pretty much there and following a visit from the trainer he was ready for the next phase but he doesn't seem to get the 'leave that paper on the table' command, either that or he has decided that the he's beyond the training sheets, because he ate them.

High Tide	03:10 (2.50m)
Low Tide	09:19 (0.80m)
High Tide	15:48 (2.40m)
Low Tide	21:40 (1.00m)

Sea temperature: not taken - too rough
Sea conditions: see above
Weather: scudding cloud, sun breaking through, warm but windy. However, by the time I'm typing this the temperature has plummeted, the wind is almost an '87 gale and the drive home from Norwich was treacherous with flooding and bits of tree all over the road.
Joined by: The Usual Suspect except The Pirate
Topics of conversation:
The Pirate - he has been banned from getting his head wet due to an ear infection, the first time he's been afflicted, and he'd have been furious if the water had been swimmable, but it really wasn't. The current was furious itself. He'd been to the new doctor, who recently joined our local surgery, and being used to people thinking it's brave to swim all year round he was surprised when she just nodded and told him he needed to start wearing a hat. It transpires that she swims on the other side of the river each day and is a channel swimmer. Good to know.
It wasn't just the current that was extreme, the tide had scoured the beach, filled the marsh and taken dunes back out to the depths. There was still water sitting on the backlands between the dunes and the river which frustrated the dogs, who couldn't reach the village elders across the water - they know they keep gravy bones in their pockets. 

Wayne McGregor's Random Dance - The Shaman and I had been to see Atamos at Sadler's Wells on Wednesday night and it had been very impressive. Not perfect, flawed but beautiful and as powerful as anything I'd seen for a while. Last week he'd held events giving access to the process he uses to create his work, specifically this piece. 'The Becoming', an eleventh dancer, has been generated from frames of a 1980's sci-fi movie and the troupe of 10 dancers work together with it as inspiration and individually to create the final performance. He constantly alludes to this movie but never names it. The music divided The Shaman and I as it became very discordant at one point forcing her to put her hands over her ears. There's a great review with an interview on The Guardian website, where Judith Mackrell nails it for me:
"So abstract is all this, however, that it's open to any interpretation – or none at all. For those wanting overt emotion or drama, it will disappoint, and, like most of McGregor's full-length pieces, there are sections where the tension of Atomos turns momentarily slack. But for those fascinated by sheer invention, there are dance ideas, too many to count, which are simply extraordinary...."
you can see it in full here: Atamos  and Drowned in Sound on the musicians here: A Winged Victory for the Sullen The Poet asked if they were 'dancing like Higgs Boson', so this is for him: Higgs Boson Blues
Other cultural highlights of the trip included meeting artist Laura Facey and seeing her exhibition, my much anticipated visit to Tacita Dean's new film work, JG. and a quick fizz around the Mira Schendel exhibition at Tate Modern, that needs more time. A record below for posterity and because The Shaman and The Viking weren't able to join me for various things, as planned, both having had accidents. Counting my blessings.

Laura Facey

Laura Facey

Laura Facey

Laura Facey

Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean

Mira Schendel

Coffee and butter buns

High Tide	01:02 (2.60m)
Low Tide	07:01 (0.70m)
High Tide	13:17 (2.70m)
Low Tide	19:26 (0.60m)

Sea temperature: a difference of a degree was finally agreed by DK yesterday, it's between 14.1 and 15.1
Sea conditions: good
Weather: good
Joined by The Usual Suspects and Terri with an i
Topics of conversation:

Apple chutney - The Pirate's Wife has had some of our cooking apples and today I reaped the benefits, she's been busy making apple chutney and kindly gave me a jar in return. It looks pokey, there's lots of mustard seed in it and it's got a lovely golden glow. It's probably best to wait till their son's deli is open again tomorrow so that I can get some decent cheese to do it justice.
Homeland - DK knows I'm a fan and he also knows I don't watch it till Tuesdays so he teased me all morning with giving away plot lines, I spent some time with my hands over my ears going lalalalalalalalalalalalalala, I'm avoiding all spoilers, so I may have missed a number of topics of conversation... The Bridge Captain hasn't seen the first series and so we all recommended it to her, but she simply can't start straight in to series 3. DK is also a huge Breaking Bad fan and has got ahead of me as I've been giving it a break, I remembered I'd promised to put this up for him. Hopefully it'll cheer up The Viking too as he's laid up with a nasty Achilles injury, there was lots of cringing and wincing as we discussed the pain he must be in.

The LE was delighted that one of her sisters, Terri with an i, had made it to swim with her this morning, she didn't squeal too much as she went in either, they're a hardy bunch.

The beautiful morning weather chased away the Black Dog

Not the Black Dog

DK and The LE had not been able to hang around on Sunday but the rest of the group really made the most of the weather, eating leftovers from The Artist's party and drinking coffee on the beach. The Norwegian was here for the weekend and swam with glee as she did last visit. We've given her the responsibility of bringing nice weather, which she always seems to do and have requested a visit mid February. It was so unseasonably warm that I had a second swim at about 11am, then lay in the sun thinking this might be the last chance to get some vitamin D. The breakfast menu was pretty spectacular: 
Smoked salmon blinis, brown shrimp, broad bean puree and boar pate crostinis, figs wrapped in palma ham with goat cheese and applekake.
The Bridge Captain's visiting dogs were hoping they might be included...

Low Tide	03:46 (1.00m)
High Tide	09:58 (2.50m)
Low Tide	16:13 (0.70m)
High Tide	22:45 (2.40m)

Sea temperature: not taken
Sea conditions: Shallow, quite rough, but calmer then the last 2 days
Weather: sunny, windy
Joined by: The Usual Suspects
Topics of conversation:
The palm oil spillage - this happened 2 days ago and it has taken a while to confirm that the orange waxy lumps are indeed palm oil emulsion from a boat about 30 miles of the coast. The lumps are soft and squishy and revert back to an oily liquid if you rub them in your hands. Our local vet has issued a warning to say that the oil can cause D&V in dogs, if they eat it. So this morning was fun... Bosco is a labrador and therefore anything which is not a stone or sand on the beach is edible. I haven't swum for a few days as it's been so rough that it's kept all but DK and The Poet on dry land, and I still don't fancy colliding with a lump of palm oil so I stayed out again today, which meant Bosco was under scrutiny.

There have been similar cases in the south, where the tanker has been taken to court a couple of years ago:
 "The court heard how an investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency discovered the tanker had off-loaded a cargo of palm oil and had been anchored off the Isle of Wight. Prosecutor Oliver Wilmott said the ship was "at the right place at the right time with the right substance on board". He told the court the ship had been having problems cleaning its tanks and pipes after discharging palm oil in Rotterdam and Hamburg. He added the investigators had found lumps of palm oil on the ship when they went on board a few days later.

The prosecution alleged scientific tests linked the substance found on board with the yellow lumps of wax washed on to the beaches. But defence barrister Ian Lawrie QC questioned that analysis. He told the court that slop tanks on the tanker had plenty of spare capacity for waste material.The case continues."

The Artists's London Gallery Birthday trip - yesterday was The Artist's 80th birthday and so the female swimmers took her on a birthday trip. She wanted to visit the Australia exhibition at the RA and a friend was having a private view in Spitalfields, so the four of us went to town for a girls day out, it's not often one of the swimmers turns 80. There were many lovely components to the day, the art, the relaxed company, the meal at the OXO tower with cake and champagne and the spontaneous input from strangers. Our first taxi driver heard us discussing the birthday and when the LE told him she was 80 his response was "Well tell her I'd take her home!" The waitress at the restaurant decided she was going to go the extra mile and looked after us like royalty, but best of all was Ed, the student busker (@renegadejazz), who serenaded her from the shore of the Thames. 

High Tide	04:06 (2.30m)
Low Tide	10:10 (1.00m)
High Tide	17:13 (2.20m)
Low Tide	22:20 (1.20m)

Sea temperature: not taken (see below), but my thermometer is fixed.
Sea conditions: What has become known as 'a Mertz sea' - i.e. rough, but not too rough, perfect for body surfing, which The Poet attempted a couple of times
Weather: stunning sunrise, followed by biblical sky
Joined by: The Usual Suspects
Topics of conversation:
Golf balls - The Bridge Captain was in a rush as she was off to play golf on a posh course. As Mertz now plays again I think I should try to use the right terminology - I got very strange looks when I said he was playing at the Halesworth 'court', which I now know is 'course'. I asked if it was good form to wish her luck with her 'game' or 'match' and DK told the story of Ike Eisenhower (who used to have his golf balls painted black in winter so that he could play in snow) and his wife's good luck charm. Apparently she was quoted as saying, in all innocence, that she would always kiss his balls before he played.
Talking of quotes - The LE has been in the habit recently of noticing lines and phrases spoken on the beach in the mornings which, when taken out of context, sound peculiar. We thought we should start collecting them. This morning's was "I feel much braver now that I am wearing a hat."
30's outfits - The Artist is holding a 1930's styled soiree to celebrate her birthday with friends in the village and so The LE and I have been discussing outfits, she has a number and I have something hiding in the attic, which might do. She has found a cigarette holder for The Artist too. The Architect had suggested we should all just go in knitted bathing suits... I think not.
The Spitfire - yesterday afternoon there had been a Spitfire doing acrobatics over the village and the sea, the sound was unique and it was enough to stop The Artist and I half way through a class, everyone was looking skywards. We speculated about what it was up to and this morning I found out, whilst on a mission with The Ferryman. He had been rowing the ferry yesterday when a family had boarded, they were travelling over the river with the ashes of a relative who they were going to scatter from the lifeboat. They had chatted and The Ferryman had spoken to one family member in particular, a woman who made the return journey just as the Spitfire was starting it's flight. At this time another passenger asked him if he knew anything about the plane and he told him that all he knew was that it was based at Martlesham and was owned by a lady, who might be the pilot. The woman politely interrupted and said "actually it's not her flying today..." which surprised them both. "How do you know?" asked The Ferryman, "Because my boyfriend is the pilot today, and he's got a passenger up there." At this point The Ferryman said it was as if the pilot could hear them; he ramped it up and began performing rolls and loops over the sea, as if he were performing for her - he said it was one of the most romantic things he'd seen.

Othello - I'd been to see the NT LIVE showing of this last night. It had been my A Level play so I had mixed feelings about it, but came away thinking that if I'd seen that production all those years ago the exam would have been a joy. The Poet is off to see it next week so I've asked him to pay particular attention to the accent Rory Kinnear employs as my Film Club buddy and I couldn't work it out. The Pirate came in on the tail end of the conversation and joked with the Bridge Captain, asking her if she realised what a pseudo intellectual bunch she had joined, and how it was like a Radio 4 convention. Er... she's the BRIDGE CAPTAIN....

High Tide	02:05 (2.50m)
Low Tide	07:58 (0.80m)
High Tide	14:21 (2.50m)
Low Tide	20:22 (0.80m)

Sea temperature: not taken - my thermometer is playing up, DK and I discussed replacement batteries but I am nervous about opening the back in case it is no longer waterproof. 
Sea conditions: mill pond 
Weather: grey but warm
Joined by: The Usual Suspects, all of them at once, which meant 10 of us on the beach this morning and 7 dogs (including Trigger, who is staying with The Bridge Captain). The Pirate and I muttered darkly about it feeling rather crowded, but it's great that the weather is holding out long enough for everyone to get the benefit of these beautiful mornings.
Topics of conversation:
The LE arrived with Alf, and he's not hers. She often takes him on the lead to The Pirate's house on the way back to save him the trouble, it's the newbie's job (I graduated last year, when The Poet took over and now it's her turn - obviously DK is too grand for such trivialities) but today Alf made it to the beach before The Pirate with a great big grin on his face. When we all looked perplexed The LE led us to believe he'd been for a sleep over with Jagger, who still isn't allowed out. She's making up for this by feeding him tripe and seemed concerned that there was still a whiff of it about her, not the case, and we know as the girls went in arm in arm in our matching black swimming hats, doing dance stepping in the shallow water.

Stay

Who do you think you are (the series) - someone, I forget who, had seen Marianne Faithful's version and Sara asked if she ended up finding out that her family are Jewish as she has a friend who works on the production, which they refer to as "Jew do you think you are"! It's true - so often this is the case and following the episode of Simon Shama's 'Story of the Jews' this week, in which he looks at the influence of Jewish writers, cinematographers and musicians, it seems rather inevitable. I'd particularly enjoyed an episode I'd seen with Minnie Driver, whose unconventional life pattern was found to be reflected back generations. 
The definition of true Autumn - The Pirate and I discussed this and tried to decide if it was when the clocks go back, the Equinox or September 24th - Michaelmas - as this is when the cows come off the fields. It's also when you are supposed to stop eating blackberries and our reasons for doing so highlighted our different upbringings. His Mother always used to say you couldn't eat them after Michaelmas eve because that was when the Devil spat on them, whereas my Grandmother told me it was the witches who wee'd on them. 

The Artist's sartorial elegance - it's been apparent recently that The Artist enjoys dressing up, we should already have realised this by her beach attire, which isn't what you'd call conventional (this morning she swam in black thermal base layers, with long sleeves, turquoise gardening gloves and a sequinned beret) and this morning I discretely told her that she hadn't removed her mascara from the night before, it was running onto her cheeks. "Darling" she cooed "this is left over from Saturday night - I simply couldn't bear to remove it, because I liked my glam look so much!" The LE was reminded of a quote about Barbara Cartland - Clive James spoke of her use of boot polish for eye make up and I checked because we weren't sure of the exact quote, Twitter reliably informs me it was "Twin miracles of mascara, her eyes looked like the corpses of 2 small crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff"

High Tide	01:28 (2.50m)
Low Tide	07:21 (0.70m)
High Tide	13:39 (2.70m)
Low Tide	19:49 (0.70m)

Sea temperature: not taken but it felt warmer again
Sea conditions: mill pond calm
Weather: misty, warm
Joined by: The Usual Suspects
Swimming hats - Sara has a a new blue one, which she's pretty sure she didn't order and I have the first one I've ever own as an adult. They are very different from how I remember the ones we had to wear at school, much lighter and more effective, although they are certainly less flattering, which is quite an achievement. I was surprised how everyone sounded so quiet but my voice sounded so loud. The main reason for buying one was to see if I could keep my head under for longer this year, especially as The Arctic Princess has sent me the details for the Cross Channel Swim challenge. Even if you are only doing a relay swim you still have to have swum for 2 hours in the open water, at temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees, and there is no way I could do this without a hat as my ears get really cold.
DK and I spent so long talking about the current 'Sound of the Cinema' season on the BBC that everyone else was in before us. There is an exceptional series, presented by Neil Brand called The Music That made The Movies, and last night I'd seen an episode in which he'd been talking to Angelo Badalamenti about his relationship with David Lynch where they'd discussed Laura Palmer's Theme, we  slowly hummed and the geese flew over, it does become slightly uplifting as it builds.