By Debbie Olujobi

Swimming is a sport that looks deceptively easy; it employs hitherto lazy muscles to labour and the water tricks the joints into acrobatics that is impossible other wise. I find moving underwater the most fun and I stay under as long as possible but I come up for air because I don’t belong there. I am a creature whose primary domain is land. I walk and swimming is but a break form walking.

Swimming is a sport, an escape and even with all the sore muscles and joints, its a break from the norm. I however love the weightlessness of being under water or floating; just drifting without a care in the world. I find I can achieve the same feeling in the bath; I hold my breathe and stay under water for as long as my lungs will allow but I inevitably have to come up for air; back to the realities of my thoughts and life.

Every day life falls into a routine at one time or the other. We wake up, clean up, eat, work, sleep and the next day we begin again, doing the exact same things and the days roll into weeks and into months and years pass by in almost in a blur. I have come to think of holidays and other such escapes as the time bubbles where we stop routine, just like being under water, being weightless and for want of a better word free.

My brother came over for breakfast during the week and when I asked why he looked skinny he said he was tired of his kitchen. “Same thing comes out of that place everyday and I am tired of it all”, he said. He is in fact so bored and tired of his every day diet that he has taken to skipping meals and drinking Complan (a milk based food substitute) instead.

Given that he has a kitchen staffed by a cook and 2 other helps, it begs belief that everything would be the same. The problem is the blandness of all the dishes since he has become diet conscious. It got us all talking animatedly and the subject was how routine life gets in middle age. Most times you eat and can’t even remember the taste of it; its just routine! I remember the days when we used to hunt food down and we would go Buka/canteen crawling looking for exotic dishes in places we would be a tad ashamed we knew!.

Growing older has meant that safety and health are major considerations in all activities so our choices have become very tame and boring. Lately it seems that there is a conspiracy to label all things delicious unhealthy! Which one of us ever had to worry about blood pressure and cholesterol when we were younger? Now we eat oilless. pepper less, saltless and often tasteless food; no wonder Complan is a better option than a meal. Horse meat contamination in pork and beef has been in the news in Europe lately and I just laugh!!

Most of us in this part of the world have eaten in some dodgy Bukas/canteens in the past that we can only pray and hope we have not eaten humans!!! Horse meat would be a relief  compared to the vast array of dog, cat, snake, alligator and camel meat we all may have consumed! Besides who remembers the good old days of Go-slow shopping? Butchers used to hawk all sorts of meat to drivers and passengers stuck in the evening traffic and only God knows the origin of said meats!!

So back to routines and boredom, I think a break from the comfortable and the familiar may be just what we need to add some bounce to our sluggard steps and some colour to our grey lives. My work gives me the luxury of a flexible calendar so I can (family allowing) take off on the spur of the moment. I was away for a week and even that short time gave me an extra appreciation for my life and its routines.

I remember telling my husband that our house was beautiful on my return! He had looked at me puzzled; after all I had only been gone a few days and nothing had changed. Nothing changed; that was true but the familiar has its allure. Routine means order; that my life has taken shape over the years is by a combination of God’s blessings, hard work and even sacrifice.

Being away is a break in that routine and is just like submerging under water or floating weightless without a thought but its only for a while. Coming up for air will be a return to the established order and routine that is everyday life. I, just like you would crave that routine if it was dislodged or disrupted. Having a routine is like air and every swimmer knows that you can only hold your breathe for a while; at some time you’ll come up for air. Our hearty discussion ended on a note of gratitude.

Canteen crawling suggests you don’t have food at home; thats a far cry from being bored because your personal cook is making safe and healthy dishes. Comes down to the fact that we all need to take a step back from our everyday routine so we can appreciate all that we have. Routines are a luxury for those who have had their very survival threatened and over turned by tragedy, wars, and disasters. What we call boredom they may call paradise…