Unexpected offer

I went for a walk on the beach today, for the first time in ages. It wasn’t sunny enough to sit or nice enough to stay but if I keep waiting for a Summer’s day it’ll be October before I know it and I won’t have left the house.
There was a guy swimming while I was there, and when he came out and got dried, we got chatting. He was in his fifties and he looked pretty fit so I said “you must swim quite often”
“Yeah”, he replied, “I try and hit the sea every day from late April until early October. It’s been bloody hard going this year, I can tell you.”
Then he said “I prefer swimming abroad, really. Then no-one blinks if you’re naked.”
Being a curious, and perhaps naïve, soul, I allowed the conversation to continue in that vein and he told me he’s a naturist. He said more people than I might think are advocates of nudity as a lifestyle choice, and that he’s campaigning to have a large section of the Norfolk coast set aside as a nude-only beach. He’s even started a local organisation called Norfolk Naturists, although as far as I could ascertain he’s currently the only member.
Over the next ten minutes or so he did quite a good job of convincing me that it wasn’t as weird a thing as I might have thought. He used phrases like “not all naturists are perverts” and “it’s only a taboo because society refuses to unrobe itself” and “if you can get over the fear of letting people seeing you naked, just imagine what other fears you can conquer?”
By now he was dressed, and I was hungry, so I said it was nice to chat and wished him well with his campaign.
He said “Keep an eye out online for our petition. And if all goes well, you might even see me naked in the Press soon!”
I chuckled, and so did he, and that’s when the afternoon suddenly turned a bit sinister. Because the next thing he said was “If you can’t wait that long, my chalet is just behind the dunes here” and he tried to hold my hand.
Needless to say, I declined the offer (at least, I hope it’s needless to say..)


By the way - any puns in this blog based on words like ’member’ are totally unintended, I assure you.
I’m off for a shower.

RC 20-7-12