I think I'm coming down with a cold - my throat feels all rough and dry this morning. I hope not. Colds suck :(

Anyway, I'm going swimming again today, and I'm seriously nervous about it. Basically, without a float, I'm horrible at swimming, and apparently the huge pile of floats my local pool has just sat by the changing room door is 'not for public use'. I think they belong to the swimming clubs that use the place or something. The life guard last Sunday was kind enough to let me borrow one - but only after I'd gotten into the pool and proved just how awful I was. I'm hoping with every fibre of my being that whoever's on duty when I go today will be just as kind.

Next week should be okay, since I plan on buying my own but can only do so on Monday. But if they turn around and tell me I 'can't bring my own float' then I'll just end them with it. They shouldn't do though, because I see kids there wearing what are quite obviously their own armbands. So if they're allowed to bring their own swimming aids, then so can I.

To illustrate just how bad I am at swimming... without a float, I have to hold on to the side with one hand and sort of 'swim' along with the rest of me, and it looks embarrassing. I just can't trust the water. In primary school and right up to Year 9 of high school (that's about age 13 for those of you with different educational systems) I had swimming lessons pretty much once a week for a term every year, but I never picked it up. My confidence in general was a mess thanks to bullying and whatnot, and I think this is pretty much why I never learned how to swim; because I was too self-conscious around my douchey classmates.

I'm going to ask about adult swimming classes today as well. I hope they have some going, because I seriously need them. I want to know how to swim! I don't want to be an Olympic swimmer with perfect form, I just want to be able to plod along without floats, without holding the side, and without worrying that as soon as I let go of something I'm going to fall over and drown. Plus being able to swim confidently would be a bonus in a situation like a sinking ferry, or a flash flood, or a pool party apocalypse.

Guess what we finally got yesterday, after almost a decade of coveting it? Sonic Adventure 2: Battle! It went up for sale on the XBox Live Marketplace a couple of days ago and we all agreed that it had to be ours. Me, Nathan and Ashley are huge Sonic fans, and Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast is one of my favourite games of all time. Put it this way, we played it for years, almost every day we were on it. Between playing that and Soul Calibur, we actually played our Dreamcast to the point where it no longer works, and those things are sturdy little machines. Sonic Adventure has everything, good graphics for its time, fluent gameplay, a good mix of challenging and easy levels that are excellently designed and memorable, the characters are well animated, the Adventure Field (free roam! Yay!) and Chao Garden are both genius ideas and the music... oh man, I love the music.

So, Sonic Adventure 2 downloaded, we gave it a play...

( ... oh dear. )