On my mind

I was swimming this evening. The outdoor pool at The Park Club is one of my favourite places to unwind. But as the steam rose off the pool in great clouds, completely obscuring the swimmers at the other end of the pool and giving the water an eerie green glow from the flood lights above, I realised, as always that my brain doesn't always want to unwind. You'd think it'd be tired after a ten hour stint at the office, organising, motivating, project managing, emailing, typing, talking.

Instead it was still thinking. I find the twin urges - the first to try to relax and not think of anything - to free the mind, and the second to try to think over as many thoughts as possible so that I eventually will be able to relax - difficult to balance. Sometimes I have to leave the pool and go home just so I can write down all the things which are swirling round my head and somehow capture them so they won't disturb me all evening. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now it's later and I'm trying to jot them all down... here's what I was thinking about:

• The relative difference in future, potential, value between a growing dot com content company with a high multiple vs a consultancy company in a growth market. Whether I want to choose between either.
• Ideas for a new dot com site and how to make it work cheaply and effectively with very few staff. Breaking the sites I know about down into their bare essentials - the minimum required to make a successful dot com - supply, demand, content, traffic, SEO, critical mass.
• How to build my sister's wedding website and give it to her as a present for her birthday next week
• The relative merits of front-crawl versus breast stroke and how my crawl technique seems to have improved since I first started swimming here. It feels almost graceful at times.
• Holiday. I have a holiday coming up and on the one hand I'm really looking forward to it, on the other I know I'm going away on my own and secretly don't relish the prospect of that. Where should I go?
• How strangely satisfying it is to swim an entire length of the pool underwater, holding my breath and yet swimming as fast as I can. Exhilarating.
• How beautiful the steam looks rising off the pool

Good thoughts. Now I can relax.