Thinking Allowed: Forever Overhead

The Canberra Olympic Swimming pool has never hosted the Olympics, but it does have a soaring dive tower, a remarkably deep pool, and a liberal scattering of duck droppings to squoosh underfoot as you orbit the pool. It was a beautiful hot sunny morning when we met Aurora's friend Eva under the (of course) eucalyptus tree by the poolside. Even Tova was soon jumping off the diving board, aiming straight for her father's head. She looked very foreshortened as she pounced cat-like from a metre above me, in the hopes that by driving me under with her knees and elbows she could keep her head dry. It seemed to work pretty well, for her.

At the far end of the pool loomed the tower. It has a Star Wars 70's design, with two 3m boards flanking the 5m tower and (eyeballing it) 13m tower dominating the pool. Eva, it transpired, had never been off a normal diving board, much less the 3-metre version. But within ten minutes of immersion, Aurora and Eva were already eyeing the high dive, Sophia angling to be included in the older girls' plans. There was a steady stream of kids hitting the water with an impressive splash after a solid two seconds of air time, plus the occasional unmistakable slap of a bellyflop which would instantly draw winces from around the pool, some prepubescent boy with a red welt and brimming eyes hauling himself painfully to shore.

Sophia, as it turned out, went first. She decided that, if I would do it, she would do it. Although I've never had a head for heights, Soph is not the sort of kid you can let down, certainly not a time like this. So up we went, and I strode (somewhat) unhesitatingly out to end of the diving board, made the mistake of taking a good hard look down, and it really does look tremendously much further from up there, the whole pool stretches out in front of you and the perspective is all out of whack. But I was rapidly getting a strong sense that thinking about this any harder would be a terrible idea, so deep breath and hop and fallllllllll gasp splash. Easy peasy!

Sophia scuttled out to the tip of the diving board and looked down at me, her little face twisted up into a blue knot. Her body language is exceptional at conveying fear, little shoulders way up, hands tighly balled up near her ribs, knees knocking together. "G-g-g-g-g-g!" she said. I did the usual encouraging things, but she wanted me to come up and jump again. Hmmm, parental dilemma. I caved as always, jumped again (much easier this time) and then turned back to my little six-year old subject. And, to my great surprise, she did it. Lower lip quivering like jello, making her little gibbering noises, she just stepped out into the emptiness and fell with a terrifying crash into the water. Three heartbeats passed as I stared into the swirling white vortex of foam, then up she popped. "Again!" she shouted, "that was fun!!" And she happily hopped off the high dive twice more with Aurora and Eva gawked.

So then it was their turn. I'd rashly promised ice cream to kids who exhibited bravery and fortitude, but even that was not enough. The two nine-year olds spent a full half-hour up on the tower, agonising over the jump. Crawling on all fours out to the end, then backing up inch by inch to the safety of the concrete. Literally wringing hands. Coming down twice in defeat before, at long long last, first Eva then Aurora summoned enough gumption to just go for it. And, of course, this led to another discovery that scary can be fun, and many return trips to savour that second of free fall.

And later we savoured ice cream. Our day also included a random Scrabble encounter: the Queanbeyan market had a giant Scrabble board set up, and my favourite-word submission on their Facebook page was good enough to be chosen. So me and three others sat down around a good-size cloth board, maybe the size of a three-person tent, to compete for the $50 grand prize. This one guy started with MILDEWS for 84 points, and it was looking bleak. But soon I got INCITES, then later GORAMI (which turns out not even to be a word, just GORAMY or GOURAMI, but nobody challenged) and MILIEU for a bunch of points, and that was that. After handshakes all round, the winnings were spent on a bouncy ball that flashes neon, and a bottle of hot sauce. Planning to quit my day job soon if this keeps up.

And we went to the climbing gym with another of the girls' friends, where there was much bouldering and chatter. The girls have wangled their way out of excessive climbing by inventing a game in which one kid hides a coin high up on the wall, and the others clamber around looking for it. My back was feeling pretty good so I challenged Sophia to a climbing competition. Came out with a whole spine but bruised ego, it is a bit humbling to be whupped at anything by a six year old.

Last night Tova and Soph slept over with still other friends, so Tamar, Aurora, Zadie and I did a three-hour Rogaining outing on Mt. Ainslie and Mt. Majura. It was a really fun event, just bushwhacking our way across lovely brambly hillsides from control to control. Tamar tore a chunk out of her leg when she stumbled on a stick, I cut my shin to the bone (roughly) when forging through a thorn patch, and Aurora mostly ate Starburst and valiantly kept up. Zadie was awake the whole time but totally content. We got back at 8:58PM in the pitch darkness (we had headlamps, although my head torch had been banned due to fire hazard).

Fun weekend, really!