A Soppy Solstice

Ooh! Midsummer doldrums seem to have hit...it's been a week since the Solstice already and I haven't got around to recording my oh so not triumphant swim across Lincolnshire a la Deakin plan.

The die was cast before my head even hit the pillow on the 20th - in my heart I knew that this waterblogged sister was never going to drag herself out of bed at 6 for a pre work lake swim to kick off the "planned" lake, river, lido, sea route across the county.

So, as it turned out, my swimming solstice celebration totalled just one lovely half hour half mile in beautiful Bourne, stretching out in the sun and letting go of my wildly over ambitious ideas....

...followed by an overwhelming feeling of bittersweet happiness, nostalgia and slight anxiety about the summer passing by...overall, a lot for Sister Sandra to feel good about on the longest day....thanks all xxxxx

Thames Water

Monday saw me and fellow BSS friend Lesley in London for the day.

Big day out in the Capital for two girls up from the provinces in our 'country fashions'.

The luxury and 1930's deco of Uxbridge Lido is for another trip and all the better to savour as a future treat. In the meantime we had a look at the viability of a Thames crossing. Here's some steps down to the water; yep it's as easy as that and if Matthew Parris can have a go then I'm not ruling it out yet.

Midsummer Day passed with a relay swim in Bourne Pool - I arrived late afternoon followed by Sandra slipping in before the pool closed at 7.00 pm. Sandra's ambitions of a 3-way lido, river and sea-fest fell by the wayside - just not enough time to get across the (potato) County.

tra, la, la! : )

Lessons in Life for the Waterblogged Boys

Ooh, you can SO tell that Daddy Moran is away from home at the moment...we slept in until 9.30, stayed in our 'jamas until 12.30, and finally got out of the house at about 2pm...

I was outvoted on my suggestion to go for a swim at Bourne Outdoor Pool (maybe something to do with the black skies, heavy downpours and cool breezes....???) So we set off to Bourne, but to the indoor Leisure Pool instead aka Hell with Water to this Waterblogged Sister.

Sure enough, it was worse than I remembered ... boiling hot, suffocating chlorine fumes, eardrum battering echo of kids screaming, fountains splashing, engines thrumming ..... AAAAAAGGHH!!!

To top things off the pool staff Gestapo snapped at us for having the audacity to try and buy an icecream in our cozzies .... you have to get dressed, get super hot and irritated, shout at each other and resort to sign language to try and work out whether the boys wanted Original or Sours Skittles....AAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

It was bliss to escape out into the cool showery day...and look, the sun is coming out to play...why don't we take a look at the Lido and see if it calls to us?

I played my Italian glamour trick with Ferrari/Lamborghini/Alfa/Maserati mad Felix and explained that Lido's were Italian swimming pools.

Leo was more easily bought with the promise of an ice pole from the poolside cafe!

So we tot up the scores for indoor vs outdoor swimming:

For indoor = wave machine, warm (I would say bleeding boiling!)

For outdoor = friendly staff, peaceful, lots of space, talking dustbins, ice poles, gorgeous sapphire water, sunshine on our faces, Abbey Road chippy opposite for post swim tea...need I say more?

So, my lovelies, follow me on the path to a childhood of sweet outdoor swimming memories in our lovely empty Lincolnshire xxx

A Very Jolly Jape Indeed!

Yep! The silly face says it all...I'm on The Jape and couldn't be having more fun! Lucky me got to drive over to Snowdonia with Big Kev and Keepers Luke and Trig - a girl couldn't ask for better company - if I got bored of the bloke chat about.... (actually I'll keep this out) ...then there was always the "who farted?" game to play, lots of missed road photo shots to enjoy, and having a giggle at Luke falling asleep at the drop of a hat. Not to mention the dodgy choice of CD, scoffing all the travel sweets before we'd left the Estate, or the sweaty cheese....

By the time we arrived at Pen y Gwryd (and "negotiated" two camp beds into Kev's room .... but that's a whole other story Hammy Hamster) we were all revved up (well, I was revved up -the boys were distinctly ambivalent) for a pre Jape jump into the heavenly cold river fed swimming pond - hurrah! The boys acquitted themselves with honours - manfully jumping into the clear icy water.....wondering what had happened to their manhood when they got out again to dress!!!

We enjoyed a couple of civilised beers in the bar with fellow Japers Peter & Patsy before turning in for the night to get ourselves in the zone for the challenge ahead....

Look at this! I'm well accustomed by now to the slightly blank looks on people's faces (or the slight look of panic) when I start ranting on about outdoor swimming and silly adventures.....so imagine how surprised I was to find SIXTEEN other loons standing behind me waiting champing at the bit to tackle The Jolly Jape Challenge!!!

This, perhaps, should have made the trip a little more formal and organised than the usual me + Nic or me + Sharn swim trips of legend....but why spoil a winning formula? So "No Plan Moran" it was as usual as all The Japers appeared at the appointed time from various routes to crack on nice and promptly....shame that 9 of us were still happily troughing our big preparatory breakfasts at the Pen y Gwryd...

Anyhow, we all rendezvoused at the insanely busy Pen y Pass carpark and set off just one hour late at 10am....straight into a hail storm and, to be honest, more bloody steep rock steps than I personally had been hoping for in the first few hundred metres!

The "team" quickly established their various levels of fitness, competitiveness and ability with George, Rob and Luke sprinting up like sprightly little goats in an impressive 1.5 hours....meanwhile me and hypoglycaemic superhero Kev battled our way up in 4 hours. I had cleverly preset a Jolly Japers text group on my phone - the vague thought was that I could text the pick up point when we scrambled mountain rescue...this No Plan Moran backfired a little when my texts to the team about Kev's heroic struggle were greeted with a response from the Big Man ..."I'm behind you!" ... after that I had to delete him off the group text messages!!!

However, the staple foodstuff of previous Waterblogged expeditions did not fail us .... the famous Lincolnshire Plum Loaf and Cheese did it's wonders and propelled a very wobbly Kev across the summit (there was a very strange point at which I found myself hand feeding dates to Kev.....never mind the moment when he found himself too weak to chew a Rowntrees Random and walk at the same time...quickly beccoming one of the trips catch phrases!)

The team had done us proud by waiting in wind chill with no food other than 1kg pasties to sustain them and waited at Glasyln for us landscape gazers to finally join them...

So, here we go, for me the absolute highlight and raison d'etre for the trip - to swim in icy Glaslyn under the summit of Snowdon. All credit to enthusiastic George and Rob who waited patiently at the gabbions - they were first in and their screams of ecstasy (?) at the cold water filled the cwm as the rest of the team descended to join them. Luke and Trig were super chilled by this point after waiting for over 2 hours for us to catch up - thanks SO much for your loyalty and support xx. Thanks too to George for motivating me to prove I'm tougher than boys in their 20's...I felt happy to swim across to the opposite lake and enjoyed the amazing feeling of super achievement to be swimming under the shadow of Snowdon's summit in crystal icy water - a true life experience. Thanks to all the Jolly Japers for helping me get to this swim. Megz, Will and Kev also put on a beautiful display for the passing walkers as each of them made their own impressive entrance - I hope you feel so proud of what you did;so few others would be so brave.

So. we're towelled off and head downhill to Llydaw where Luke gets the chance to road trial his revolutionary new swim socks design on the slippery rocks- very helpful for slippy me when trying to stand up on the infinity pool effect rocks....we crack off a width of the llyn at the narrow causeway point as trailblazed by Barney and his group a little earlier in the day

No sooner are we half dry-ish then we're headed off to Llyn Teryn to complete the Swim Back Down....once again, the advance party of George, Rob and Luke forge ahead and enjoy a lovely loud swim as we amble along in the late afternoon sun. Megan, Will and I are sufficiently fired up to take on the trek downhill through bog and thistles to contemplate a third undressing within the hour...and we're in (again) Teryn is a different kettle of fish to the other 2 lakes - much more unpleasant access but also much warmer once in...I lay on my back to watch the clouds, circling buzzard, and Snowdon summit in the crystal skies,,blissful. I spot the zen look on Will's face as he falls in love with outdoor swimming - welcome to a whole new watery world Will. Megz is swimming in great if slightly idiosyncratic style in a Gunners shirt over her cozzie and leaves a tribute to the lake in the form of her bog captured flip flops ("at least they have each other for company")

wow! Check out that post swim hair!!!

So. we wend our weary way down the track back to the pub for one of those beers that last about 30 seconds...very Ice Cold in Alex!

A bit of food, a bit of drinking, a bit of laughter, a bit of groaning, a bit of snoozing - that sums up our our lovely post challenge evening in fabulous company and all of us rightly feeling great about what we'd achieved during the day - Hurrah Jolly Japers!

Now there's just the massive discomfort of a 5 hour rain lashed trip home in the rain...oh well, chance to catch a few winks.....check out the pics of my snoring face on Kev's facebook!

And lastly, here's to absent friends... Lisa with tonsillitis, Justin with a very new baby, Danny with Jack to look out for, Sharn with JLS...we look forward to your company on whatever half arsed plan comes to fruition in 2012