Ratamania - Early Sept. Issue
It was on the last minute before my holiday my boyfriend and I have decided to take scuba diving course. We have been discussing it for a while but with both of us working, it has been hard to find the time to take up a new hobby together. It was a good opportunity, and hot summer weather scorching London had encouraged us to make up our mind swiftly. My boyfriend briefly mentioned about being able to swim 200 meters was prerequisite to take part of the scuba course, as well as being in the good health. I thought, mmm, I have never been much of a swimmer, but I do remember being sent to a swimming lessons and actually swimming properly when I was young, and I knew I could do back strokes. I thought I can manage 200 meters, somehow. I asked my boyfriend to sign me up for the course.
FRIDAY The scuba course was starting on Wednesday, and I took the time off from Friday before. I was waiting for the delivery from a pet shop on that day. I ordered a Wodent Wheel for my new young rats, to keep them healthy, fit and entertained. Let me explain what Wodent Wheel is, for those of you who doesn't know what it is. It's a running wheel especially designed for rats, or rodents with big tails. It may not sound very exciting, but it was exciting enough for me. It was as exciting as getting a new Alessi kitchen gadget. Seriously, this product was so highly rated among the rats and their owners in US, unfortunately it was unavailable in UK until now and I have been dying to get my paws on it for over a year or so. Normal running wheels are designed for mice, gerbils and hamsters. They are too small for rats. Wire frame wheels in rat size was available from most pet shops but it was notorious for causing life threatening accidents for rats due to its poor design, and my previous rats could not stand even the sight of it. This new ingenious device is a bit like a drum of a spin dryer. It is huge (12 inches diameter), but has a solid plastic running surface and walls on either side with entry holes in one side.
Anyway, despite my excitement, my rats Sayuri, Koyuki, & Minami gazed the wheel from a distance and suspiciously wiggling their lil noses. I must say, I was disappointed that they didn't show much interest, if not they were dubious to approach this monstrosity large device with unfamiliar smell.
My boyfriend and I have decided to go to my local swimming pool to see how much I can swim, and also just to get used to the water again. First, I dipped myself in a shallow end but it was far too crowded with the kids, probably pissing themselves in the pool we have decided to go to the deeper end. 3.5 meter is terrifyingly deep for me. I was clinging to the side of the pool and approached where I was heading. Now my boyfriend was telling me to tread water. Ah, I knew I was never good at that. I started to sink after about 30 second, my arms and legs unable to move fast enough to keep my nose above water surface. He is now saying I have to do this for 10 minutes. 10 minutes?! Wow, no, no, no, 10 is too long. Apparently it is a part of prerequisite for scuba diving course. I guess if you can't float without any aid for 10 minutes in a open water, scuba will be a suicide mission for a lead weight like me. Uh, problem. I have to learn to tread water in 5 days. Ah well I'll manage.
Then we moved on to the lanes. My boyfriend briefly taught me how to do breast stroke on the shallow end of the pool. So I started swimming... my limbs seems to run out of energy as soon as I do couple of strokes, then I felt exhausted I started to sink, then I swallow water, then panic and try to find anything that I can hang on to... and around half way through the pool, I sank in style. And the part where I sank was too deep for me to stand (more panic) so I desperately doggy paddled to the side of the pool and clang to it, panting. I asked one of the pool supervisor guy how long was the pool and he said it's 33 meters. I swam about a half of it so... that makes 16 meters?! Then the reality kicked in. I can only swim a twelfth of what I am supposed to swim and I have to be able to do 200 meters in 5 days time. I freaked.
Hello, my name is Minami. 
I never thought I was THAT
bad at swimming. I was actually amazed with myself how bad at swimming
I was. I was GUTTED with a capital G. I now know why people would punch
and kick the wall when they were frustrated. I was traumatized by my failure,
instead of punching and kicking the lockers, I wept quietly in the changing
room. I really was not sure if I was able to learn to swim in 5 days. To
be honest I didn't think I could do it. Over the dinner table, I asked
my boyfriend "Tell me the truth, do you think I'll be able to do 200 meters?"
and he shook his head and NO. Ahhh, you silly, you are supposed to say
"Of course sweetheart, you'll make it!" Duh, I wish I didn't ask that question
after all. I broke down in tears over the dinner. I knew my boyfriend
was so excited about diving now he was saying he is not going do do diving
on his own. I felt I was letting him down. After all I felt like
I was letting myself down. I have never been that angry with myself before.
SATURDAY I woke up early to make a call to my scuba school. I wanted to ask them if I can do back stroke in the 200 meters test. It may not be the most practical method of swimming, especially if I can't swim in a straight line or see where I am going but I was more confident with my back stroke than any other method of swimming. Well, I can't really swim in any other way for long enough. I was too embarrassed to say "Yeah, I signed up for a lesson but realized I can't swim". I would sound like a MUPPET. So instead I rephrased it as "Oh, hello... I am interested in taking a scuba course but I am not a competent swimmer...". The scuba guy replied that I can swim in any style as I like as long as I swim all the 200 meters without any BREAK or TOUCHING THE SIDE. I said I don't think I can do 200 meter and the guy on the phone actually said "Don't worry, after all these years of teaching scuba, I have never met anybody who couldn't complete 200 meters!" and he laughed. I laughed along with him thinking "Oh S**T, this is not a laughing matter". Well, he is about to meet a scuba diver wannabe who can't swim! HA HA HA!
I guess if you can't swim at all, you probably wouldn't enjoy marine sport anyway, so why would they want to learn to scuba dive? Well, the whole point of me doing scuba is, so that I don't have to be afraid of drowning or run out of breath when I am under the water!
As for the running wheel, only the method of teaching rats how to use it is positive association. The basic principle is; "get in the wheel" = TREAT, "do a bit of walking in the wheel" = TREAT! , "how about if I run in the wheel" = TREAT!!!, Ah-hah. But how would they know that this humongous device allows them to run it it? All three rats, Sayuri, Koyuki & Minami sniffed around the wheel very suspiciously, occasionally sticking their head in it.
"Did you say Treat?"
Koyuki
Koyuki was courageous enough to approach it, and spin the wheel, but not from inside. She would stand on her hind legs next to it and manually spin the wheel. OK..., so she knows it spins. Good effort, but eh-hem, it's not quite what she is supposed to do... But it's a good start she gets some treat. Problem with handling all three rats at the same time and get one of them to do a trick, is as soon as you open their treat box, all three gather around it and fight their way thru to get a mouthful of whatever they can get. It's kind of mean not to give anything to the remaining rats especially when they look at you with "why is she getting some treat and NOT ME? WHY, WHY, WHY?" eyes. Once they are determined to get some treats, a rat would not leave you alone. They know you are hiding THEIR goodies.
I tried to push Minami into the wheel but she was absolutely mortified. She was refusing to enter into this unknown objects just like how a cat would refuse to get into a kennel before going to a vet. Sayuri was simply excited to see other rats excited and starts to run around. Mmm, they seemed to have left their concentration span somewhere. I was quite disappointed that the rats haven't figured out what the wheel was for after all the hussle of ordering and waiting ages for being out of stock, but my boyfriend said "By the time you learned to swim 200 meters, they would have learnt to use the wheel". He probably meant in a positive sense but I wasn't sure if I can ever do 200 meters. Would the rats every learn to use the wheel, I dunno.
I swam 33 meters in one go on that day from one end of the pool to other with some semi-panic attack moments. My neck felt very stiff and tense from being all nervous. I would swim around 7 meters in breast stroke, then couple of meters in doggy paddle then my limbs feels like lead out of energy, and I start to drown. I quickly have to turn on my back to do a back stroke and try make it to the other end. I could hear some kids had just jumped into the water and the ripple was going to splash on my face into my nose... oh my gosh, panic, panic! My breathing gets faster and irregular and I was praying that my next stroke would take me to the end of the pool. By the time I reached to the other end of the pool I was breathing very heavily, so short of breath.
I was practising treading water and it felt like forever. It was probably only a few minutes I managed to stay afloat like a poo nuts. But poo nuts always sink eventually. I sank too.
At this point, the idea is
not to swim the distance. I simply had to swim from one end of the pool
to other without bailing out. And there was a slight hope that may be I
could do it, as I swam almost the double of the distance I swam a day before!
My next day's task task was to swim the double of what I swam today, 66
meters, a third of what I was supposed to swim. By then, I was determined
like a rat.
SUNDAY My today's task was to swim 66 meters. I am so glad that I'm not in a Big Brother house and swimming is not my weekly budget task. I'll probably get nominated to screwing up the food shopping money. Still, for those of you who know me well, I am determined (or some may say I am a bad loser), and once I have set a task to do something for myself I'll do it no matter what happens. Determined like a rat.
I swam first few meters in
breast stroke, the doggy paddle, then the back stroke. I could now do the
length of the pool much easier, but the return was hard. I guess I was
so nervous of drowning my neck & should was stiff. Then I discovered
that swimming towards the deeper end was more daunting than swimming towards
the shallow end. It's purely a psychological game, thinking, I am in a
shallow enough part of the pool so there is no way I can get drowned and
for this reason I can swim more relaxed and confident. Deeper the pool
is, more nerve wrecking task the swimming becomes. I asked my boyfriend
to time me how long I can tread water. 10 minutes is a very long time.
I started and sank after 4.5 minutes. That's almost a half of what I was
supposed to complete. It was the most exhausting task to stay afloat.
Koyuki "The Long Face" (L) and Sayuri "Da Phat
Face" (R) 
As for the running wheel,
Koyuki had shown some good improvement. She got in a wheel voluntarily
so I span the wheel for her and she did run in it! Only for a couple of
rounds, still that's a improvement! This are looking better and better!
MONDAY It's a day for Notting Hill Carnival. All I can remember from last year's Carnival was that it was a lot of fun, drinking Vodka straight out of bottle and being very drunk and desperately needing to go to a toilet. It's OK for men, to find some hidden corner for pee, but for girls it's a nightmare. Anyway, this year is the same old story, a lot of fun, music, dancing and drinking, not to forget the poor toilet situation. The entourage was densely packed like sardines in to the area of trendy Notting Hill, tooting horns and wondering aimlessly in this drunken mayhem.
Anyway, my today's task was
to swim 132 meters. This was double of what I swam yesturday, and even
a quadrupul of what I swam the day before that. What a dawnting task. But
I have promised myself I will do it, there was no way back. And, I
swam all 132 meters. Unbelievable. Though, by the time
I reached to my goal, I felt so breathless and weak.
Well, I'm getting
there! That's four length equivalent.
And treading water was still the problem. I only had today and tomorrow to do 10 minutes floating. Mind you, if I can do a double of distance over night, why wouldn't I float a just a bit over the double of time too? I started to tread water, alternating between treading and floating. I was focusing on relaxing and taking a deep breath to have better positive boyancy and maximising the oxygen intake. After 6 minutes, it was excruciatingly painful to stay afloat, my neck and shoulder is aching. Then 7 minutes (I am not going to make it...) .. 8 minutes...(ahhh I am sinking)... 9 minutes... (oh, 1 more minutes, I might just make it...) and I started to watch my boyfriend take count from the last 15 seconds and 5...4...3...2...1...0 !!!! I floated for 10 minutes! HULLAH! All I have to do is 200 meters.
Koyuki has been getting in the wheel and out, and she can now walk in the wheel whenever I spin her. And Sayuri the Chubby bear face (she really has a round face, big jaws, short nose and small ears) has been watching her sister getting all the attention and treat. She did not like this. Of course, it's all about ME, ME, ME in the world of rats. So she burges into the crowd and shows what she can do. She gets in the wheel, she gets the treat. I spin her she walks, she gets the treat. Now she gets the taste and she starts to jog cautiously on her own. She gets the treat! I think I saw a little light bulb lit on her head! Ta-da!
This is the Wodent Wheel
TUESDAY I tried 10 minutes treading water first, and I managed to do it with much more ease than yesturday! This was my last day of challenge. I insisted that I have to do all the 200 meters despite my boyfriend suggesting we should rest before we start the course. I have to know that I can at least do 200 meters for sure in the practice session, then I know I can do 200 meters in real thing. Otherwise I will give up during the real thing if I get too tired thinking "I could never do this anyway". Hey, at least it's not the double of what I swam a day before. It's six length of the pool, and I knew the last length will be the hardest but as long as I do it in my pace my breathing and control my hyperventilation, I'll do it. Plus, the last lenth is also swimming to the shallow end, which is so much better than going towards the deepend!
And guess what, I did it! When I could feel that I was almost reading to the goal, I was euphoric. Now not only I can tread water for 10 minutes, I can swim 200 meters!!!! Hullah! I can do the suba course now!
And Sayuri has turned into a wheel mistress. She would go into the wheel and starts to run, but recently she abolutely charges herself in the wheel. But the funny thing is, she will some times do couple of runs, pokes her head out of the wheel and see if I am getting up to give her the treats. If she does see me with a treat, then she will stop and run towards me. If she thinks I am not giving her any treat, then she does couple of more runs, stops and watches if I get up to give her treats. Funny thing is Koyuki now knows that she might get some lucky odd bite on treat if she is around when Sayuri is getting her treat. So guess what Koyuki learned: she can still get her treat even if she doesn't do the wheel thing. As soon as Sayuri starts to spin in the wheel Koyuki comes rushing waiting for the treat to come!
Lil cheeky Koyuki