Left is right but right is wrong...

I ran my hand down my piano teacher Sue's silky green arm and asked 

Did you knit this? It's beautiful

Yes alpaca wool. Why don't you knit one I'll give you the pattern

With the help of my crafty friend Chris, who had encouraged me to knit in hospital, I sourced the wool from the internet and began clicking with my new bamboo needles. 

But months later when I held the back of my bluey green cardigan up to my chest I groaned with dismay. It was big enough to fit the alpaca who had shed the fleece. So, sitting in front of the fire I unravelled the back and left front and started a smaller size...

Then we got an allotment and my second attempt, like an unwanted baby alpaca, sat abandoned for almost a year...

This week feeling guilty I pick up my needles again and for the second time finish the back and left front. But when I start the right front my needles end up in a twist. Ten rows done but without the essential buttonhole. I unravel. Ten rows done but I have missed the extra plain stitches before the moss starts. I launch wool and needles at the wall. It unravels as it hits the floor. Eight rows done... wrong... I ring Sue. 

My left is right but my right keeps going wrong.

Sue arrives in her knitting rescue outfit. Unravel. Explain. Restart...

Never, never, never give up - Winston Churchill

Rule 5 in Taming my woollen Tiger: The tools are all around you - Jim Lawless

Now that's what I call progress

..last Wednesday, like a poolside conductor Bill waves his hands...swim to the middle on your back, OK now try and stand...chin down, knees up, bum back...let the water do the work...oops keep your chin on your chest.  I lie back and with a wet smile try again...

Each week I add a new trick to my swimming bag, last time like a floating log I learnt to roll from my front to my back while still moving. Bill has rehearsed the minutiae of today's trick; rolling from my back onto my front. I stand hip high in the water to follow his instructions...

...bring your left arm straight up above your head, turn your head to the left....then bring your right arm over your chest.. we look like we are at a waterside rave... then submerged I try. And try. And try...by the twentieth try I have it in the bag!

OK are you ready to swim down to the deep end and back up?

Yes (aha my plan....)

Slowly. Breathe. Don't rush Bill says as the darkening water reminds me I am now out of my depth. At the end I clasp the rail. I tell Bill. I want to swim back up on my front but I'm not sure how to let go without the Tiger of fear pushing my head under water.

 I am desperate to tame this tiger. Today! (Rule 1 - Act Boldly Today)

OK deep breath, get your shoulders below the water, then you'll stay like that, head too high and it will go under, 

I stare ahead and nod

Bill adds; now push forward from the wall with your right leg...

On the way home, a bus ride in the rain cannot straighten my grin. I am now sure that in the early days of my recovery; hydrotherapy would have sped up my progress. But it was never mentioned and I never thought to ask...

Never, never give up... on becoming a ballerina!

Mr H look at me....look now.....Nooooow

What

Watch my feet

I stand in front of him on the lounge floor. A grin pirouettes across my face as with outstretched arms I slowly rise onto the balls of my feet...and count...

...1...2....3....before, like a wobbling weeble, I dive head first into his lap.

Mr H has a tear in his eye as he says  When did you realise you could do that? 

Just

I thought my ballet and tap dancing career was done and dusted but as I Tame another Tiger, Rule Ten roars: Never, never give up! 

"You are writing the story of your life. You are holding the pen. Is the tiger roaring yet? You have a choice-what are you going to do next?" Jim Lawless

Yes that's Me!

Buy ballet shoes....