By: Blonde Two

Outlandishly Outsidish 5 – Canuting

Once you have decided that you are allowed to make words up, life is so much more fun. “Canuting” of course, refers to the king who got wet.  I wonder how Canute would have felt about this had he still been with us (presuming we could have dragged him off the beach).  There are lots of things that monarchs can be famous for – multiple wives, celibacy, chopping people’s heads off, all good noble pursuits, but getting wet must surely be the oddest.

Imagine the commemorative stone committee trying to decide what to inscribe:  “On this spot, in 1016, King Canute got wet.”

Anyway, down in Cornwall, the sea always seems to be a lot more fierce (and cold) than up here in Devon.  It is always a sign to be careful with your swim when everyone else on the beach is wearing jumpers and heading for the cafe.  The waves weren’t enormous but it quickly became clear that actual swimming wasn’t going to happen.  Canuting, however, is great fun.  All you have to do is take your clothes off (not necessarily all of them) and stand waist deep in the waves with your arms stretched out.  You don’t need to do anything else, the sea will do the rest.  The result is always the same, you get very wet, you lose a shoe or two and you remember that salt in the sea is not the same as salt on your fish and chips (which are, by the way, a very good antidote to Canuting).

Canute wasn’t silly, he knew (and was demonstrating) that the waves were in charge. I have recently decided that sometimes in life, Canuting is actually the only option.

Feel-Good-Score:  9/10