I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I had some instability in my digestive system, which I was worried about. We had to be up relatively early for the Hampshire Schools Swimming Championships.

As is becoming usual, Chris came round  to load the car. We couldn't manage without him. When we got to The Quays, there was a veritable army of people to help us unload the car and get things onto the balcony. It is somewhat frustrating sitting in a corner, watching others set up, but I am getting used to it.

The set up went very smoothly. I did withdrawals and initiated the printing of heats lists. Apart from that Chris has everything in hand. I am doing the web results at the end of each event. In don't think that Chris needs me to do this, but at least I feel useful. We have been here more than 3 hours. the competition is well underway with no real problems and I am still comfortable.

I have had time to sort out a number of things relating to my dinner next week and started to work out how I can use the steam-train experience ticket that I got for Christmas last year. I kept it until the summer in the hope of taking at least one grandchild with me. My illness got in the way, and most of steam lines are closing down shortly. It looks like the Bluebell Line has a service next week.

Just coming up to 3pm and I have only just remembered my lunchtime medications. There was nothing that was particularly time critical, so 3pm is fine.

We have 14 heats of 50m freestyle and 1 heat of 200m butterfly, so should be finished with session 1 at about 3:30 which is on plan. These schools championships are now a major success. When Sue took over, quite a number of years ago, this was rather a sad competition, with teams representing parts of the county competing against each other. Since changing it to an Open Meet format and adding some distance events, the competition has gone from strength to strength. This year we had to reject about 30% of the entries and sessions are still running at their maximum length.

By 4:45, session two has been going for around half an hour.  By now, I am getting very tired and the prospect of another 2½ hours swimming, plus clearing up was rather daunting. At least I was comfortable sitting down. I found myself searching for things to do to fill the time. I think I need to go for a short walk in the fresh air.

At The Quays, options for a short work are limited. I walked down the stairs and then did one tour of the car park. That worked wonderfully. I came back much more awake and proceeded to set up the entry system for the upcoming Bluefins Club Championships. Suddenly, we only have about 45 minutes of swimming left.

This has been a long day, but I am glad I came. I have got through the day with no pain and a minimum of discomfort. The biggest problem, swollen feet.

The swimming finished almost exactly on schedule at 19:10. Sue can be very proud of the success of the competition, which is down to the quality of the preparation. Now, all I can do is sit and watch as everyone else tidies up. Chris' set up worked perfectly, with our referees touch screen on pool side.

The next important question relates to dinner. Will it be McDonalds or TGI Fridays. It depends on how long it takes us to clear up and how long the queue is. When we got to TGIF we were told that we would have to wait 30 mins. We decided to wait and it was less than half that.

By the time we got home, it was 10:30, so another late night. We sat down in front of the TV for an hour. I promptly went to sleep in my chair.

So, another day when I should have been very tired. Seemingly, keeping active works as an antidote.