Back on the agenda

Happy New Year everybody ! I know it's a day late ... I have been away in Austria over Xmas and New Year and only came back late yesterday, January 1st ... this also meant that I didn't only miss the customary Xmas day dip, I also missed New Year's day swim ... and believe me, missing is the word! I can't even start to express how badly I missed swimming at the Lido :) 9 days without a splash was pushing my withdrawl symptoms to the limit :)

But all good things comes to those who are patient:) and what a beautiful day to come back it was! Glorious sunshine, an iced over Lido and a whole bunch of friendly faces! Real winter swimming was back on my agenda again:)

Fortunately the deep end was clear of ice and after a while the ice layer at the shallow end moved on up towards the middle of the pool which meant that we were able to swim widths closer to the sauna (which is always welcome!)

David was just measuring the water temperature, no surprise there: 0.5 Celsius - easy we've been there before this winter!

Two widths later I found myself in the sauna - more friendly faces and lots to catch up on! "Is cold water swimming really healthy?" was one topic :) apparently it's never been proven! But ... the general outcome of the discussion was that "it definitely releases some kind of hormone that gives you a real high!"

And on a high I was! two more widths after the sauna only reinforced the theory!

Annie beamed from ear to ear after her 4 widths

The baby pool was totally frozen - lovely patterns on it