FRUSTRATED...

Had a long boring day at work, really dragging....swim kit in the car is beckoning me out for an uplifting quickie dip at Bourne. Just called to check they're open and it's looking seriously dodgy for me to drive 40 miles round trip on the off chance that the 3 swimmers currently in the pool are going to stay long enough for the lifeguard to hang around for little old me to turn up for the last 1/2 hour - BOO HOO!!!

New Challenge - Swim Across London

River Skirth at Billinghay ... swimming spot potential?

Hello! Enjoyed a swim at Bourne last night with Sandra - big raindrops falling on our heads and around us - lovely! I'd had a headache since midday and my drive down to Rutland for a meeting - after diving in the cool water I immediately felt refreshed. Arrived earlier than Sandra so sneaked in a few lengths on my own - heard her before I saw her! We really wanted to get on the inflatable for the under 14's fun night.

Okay - here's advance news of our August Challenge - Swim Across London. Mais Oui! And we will have Sylvie the French Femme to join us so we are going global. I've contacted a choice few wild women who I think will be up for this. Let us know if you want to join in - eithfor all, some or one of the swims - towel holders and tea fetchers also welcome, oh and photo takers too. Wednesday 4th August is the date and it will be an early start and late finish. We'll definitely do Tooting Bec and Hampstead Ponds and we should do Uxbridge since it's just been renovated back to its original glory. Watch this space for the itineray.

Driving home last night I went past our native village of Billinghay in the fens - mist was rising off the fields and I stopped to have a look at the River Skirth for swimming potential - water level high and mud level high too! Ah memories of sitting on the river bank watching the coaches going to the coast ..... wow what entertainment we had ... good job we had the swimming pool - and it's still going strong. Brilliant. http://www.billinghaypool.blogspot.com/ But of course there were the pubs too - Coach and Horses hasn't changed much. Last time I was in there I was asked to leave for 'laughing' (or taking the p*** I imagine).

HOT WEEKEND!

Gibraltar Point with the boys and friends Pete & Sue - lovely, lovely, lovely!

Everyone got into the water, except the grown up boys who stayed at base camp to "look after the picnic"!

Tide was falling fast during the afternoon so Sue and I ended up on a long hike out across the sands (and mud!) for the last swim of the day. Even then, and despite wading out for miles, I still ended up beaching my knees trying to swim in the shallow water.



We were joined by a fellow swimmer who strangely chose to ignore our cheery "hellos" despite being one of only 3 people in the Lincolnshire North Sea at that point and swimming within feet of us - tres disappointing! Nicola won't be surprised to hear that we think she was the same solo swimmer we observed back in April who upset our bravado by getting into the water before us!!




Sunday by comparison was inland delights - trip to see the Bowland Oak, the largest/oldest specimen in Europe/UK??? Some confusion over claims to glory, but it is a glorious tree ...


http://homepages.which.net/~rex/bourne/bowthorpeoak.htm


Thanks to the really friendly farming family who look after this remarkable tree at the top of their veg garden and let you visit in return for a modest donation to the Air Ambulance.

Mid Week Blues....

... I was suffering badly from the blues yesterday so decided to conduct a thorough scientific experiment into the uplifting effects of outdoor swimming.

I think the results are clear :

BEFORE:

AFTER:

OK, so I had to drive 150 miles round trip, but never let it be said that I'm not prepared to suffer in the name of cold water swimming!

Sea at Mabo was a bit murky to be honest, still rinsing out the cozzie, but lovely waves to roll around in and wave back to the lifeguards on shore - no idea what they were saying through the loadhailers?!!

Will have to check out the left bank scene one day, never knew Mabo was so arty...

Nicky looking happy too, frolicking on the silver sands....

3 Lidos, 3 Miles, 2 Women, 1 River ...

...OK, so it doesn't quite have the neat ring that the anally retentive waterblogged sisters were hoping for...but, WHAT A FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!

Clear skies, fresh breeze, crystal clear light quality to set off the sparkling blue water in these 3 great pools:

True to character we had the day planned out to the smallest detail with military precision but still showed enough flexibility to be able to incorporate a big pre swim brekkie at Little Chef and an impromptu diversion to swim in the Cam for an hour or two.

This was my first river swim and something I haven't yet recovered from (in an entirely GOOD way) Thanks again to the lovely Judith who we met at Jesus Green and immediately bonded with - she was the only other swimmer without a wetsuit and with a personality!

We dived in (bellyflop for me, overly conscious of the unknown depth and wanting to avoid getting ditched in silty bottom!) and swam upriver from Newnham to Dead Mans Bend. We coasted back down to the lawns for mugs of tea with our combined picnics - a bit of a weird mix of bread and cheese, cherries and strawberries, beetroot and pork pie! This was one of my best days of 2010, an experience which I will never forget and something I'm craving to do again really really soon..

Ok, so we got to Peterborough 3 hours later than planned, but hey ho, we still pulled in the full 3 miles. I have to give credit entirely to Nicola for this - I was deep into my river reverie and just couldn't be arsed to do my share of lengths at Peterborough, choosing instead to sit like a lizard soaking up the sun to bring my body temperature back up (yeah yeah, I know, thin excuse...)

...my performance at Bourne was even more lacklustre and had to steal 6 lengths of the one local lad who was still in the pool by the time we arrived in lowering skies after 6pm!

Nic just kept going....brilliant stamina, where does she get her energy from?!!!

Now I've just got to get the silt and chlorine out of my cozzie before next dip - when will it be?

Diving in at Billinghay - 28th May

After our photoshoot with David from the Sleaford Standard! Our technique (Tek neek) is not as good as it was 30 years ago .... poor leg action here - especially from Nic - weak splash effect and neither of us dared to 'run up' in case we slipped. Ahh...

Diving in at Jesus Green - 30th May

Wow - What a perfect day we had for our 3 Lidos challenge. The sun shone on us all day - a cool wind and a bit choppy at Peterborough but a glorious, fantastic day. This is just a brief post to capture our first lido on Sunday 30 May - Jesus Green, Cambridge. Beautiful pool - 90 metres long and unheated - glorious. Sandra will be here with a more detailed - and bragging post ... Check out the slide show above for pictures and Nic's You Tube channel - link above -for all the video clips.

And we went on to greater things with our new-found friend Judith who invited us as her guests to Newnham Bathing Club on the Cam where we swam in the Cam river - glorious -if a little fresh at 13 degrees.

More feedback on our day soon - we did all 3 lidos and a mile in each - despite being a woman down.

Thank you! x