It's Snowing (At Last!)

Can you believe it, November 30th and it's snowing in London. In Tooting. At The Tooting Lido. Tat can only be BLISS! .. for SLSC members!

Brave Braziliean (fer)Nando giving final instructions before getting in

Nando is in and going strong ...

... He's even made it back out in one piece

Nicky getting in - giving me the thumbs up!

Nicky finding the water gloriously warm - she decided to bathe as opposed to swim!

Vince powering up and down the length of the pool .. he actually swam 4 lengths...

... under the watchful eye of Lifeguard, Sarah

Sue can't believe Vince is swimming lengths - she ended up swimming 6 widths which is the equivalent of 2 lengths ... but not 4 :)

Sarah is (possibly !) bemused by it all .. )

Sarah organising more lifeguards

to watch over the swimmers .. so that she too can go for a swim !

Perfect !

Invincible Vince

Vince pushing off on his 1st lengths

Monday morning and another amazing sunrise .. the moon , well half of the moon, was even still out to witness the display in the sky... the night has been frosty, yet again... which translated into another drop in the water temperature!

One swimmer, who ignored the drop was "Invincible Vince" - he swam 5 lengths on sunday and decided to do the same today ... 4 lengths and 3 widths which is the equivalent of 5 widths ...without having to either run up to the deep end to get in and end the swim in the shallow end or to get out at the deep end and then run back to the shallow end ... well, more to the point, the run towards the sauna!

Swimming 2 lengths which is what I did was not as pleasant as I had hoped it to be :) swimming back from the deep end to the shallow end I felt my hands freezing up more and more ... to the point where it became truly painful ... more so than on saturday ... amazing what effect the drop in temperature of one degree has!

Vince swimming into the sun ...

... and still swimming in his unmistakably relaxing style

Notice the ripples on the water, signs of that icy wind catching the surface of the water

hear all about it

Stephen's Ritual

I arrived early at the pool this morning .. and what a frosty morning it was! After signing in I caught up with Stephen and he let me into his ritual at the Tooting Bec Lido.

After putting his blanket down, Stephen summoned up all his courage ( he needed an extra potion today with the water temperature being at 5 Celsius!) and dived in the deep end of the pool

The water looks and feels heavy

Wendy looking rather pink (and frozen) after her time in the pool - she is weaning herself off from wearing gloves ... in time for taking part in the Cold Water Championships which will take place at the Tooting Bec Lido on January 22nd 2011

Frozen Foot Prints Are Back

Remember last year when the air temperature was so cold that water the foot prints people leave on the floor when coming out of the pool freeze?! Well, it's happening again ... for the first time this year!

Before the sun rise

Bernie getting in ...

... and taking off ...

... to admire the sunrise

Vince swimming lengths while Bernie is on her 2nd width

remember to stop by the audioboo too :)

Catch up time

Time to catch up with a few day's worth of photos !

Tricky after the sauna!

Nando followed suit .. well, sort of !

and one more time ... all together now!

Jonathan and Nick after their shower

What a difference a cold night can make to the day :

frozen goggles

The sun trying to do it's best and gradually rising

Jonathan feeling the heat ....

not for long though .... Nick holding on to the railing ... well away from the splash

Jonathan surfacing...

and now a couple of pictures showing the new lido sport : skipping - keep fit and stay warm

Wendy having a go

Fancy footwork!

Remember to keep in touch via my daily audio boo :)

Raindrops

The atmosphere at the Lido was so strange this morning I simply had to catch some of it ... while I was waiting for some inspiration for the audioboo blog :)

It had rained all night and the raindrops were still balancing on the edge of the wooden table

As I was doing my audio boo the sun came up, Sue was still swimming and then once she came out I had to take a shot of her glowing in the sun.

Pip and my turn to get in and swim our two lengths - Sue grabbed my camera and surprised us.

Smile ...! at the deep end - after our 1st length

And Sue also got us on the way back to the shallow end - by putting the camera under water - not easy to do! Great shot, Sue!

Very fetching of me ... thanks for that, Sue :)

Twist my arm long enough

steam coming off the water as the sun was rising

Twist my arm long enough and I'll succumb ... to putting photos up again on "unusual love affair in london" ! :) As you probably all know by now (that's if you have been checking in on this blog .. or if you are a regular lido swimmer) I am doing a regular (daily) audio blog this winter season. It's a lot of fun! It too is quite time consuming ... which means that doing two daily blogs is just impossible ...

However, the weather was so amazing this morning and the photo opportunities so spectacular that I have ended up with quite a large crop of shots today .... so why not share them and spice up a few more people's day, right ?! Besides, I had top Brazilian cook Fernando turn up at the Lido this morning which was a sensation in itself! He too demanded the return of (or continuation of) "The Blog".

So here we go : a few of the shots taken this morning between 8am and 9.30am

Lovely crystals forming on the roof of the cubicles

Bunch of frosty leaves at the edge of the pool

Nando, Sue and Tricky about the get in - the water was around 7 Celsius

and they are off

(Fer)nando on his second length (back to the shallow end)

Frosty flippers waiting for their owner!

Fazlar warming up and stretching before getting in

Sue (Rentoul) and Tricky pushing off heading up to the deep end for their 3rd length

Egg getting ready for his dive

Apparently this is Egg's last dive of the winter ... then it's down to "bombs"!

out and ...

... away

fortunately Aaron was keeping a watchful eye ... ;)

Tricky did survive ... but it was ohhh sooo tough !

Stephen getting ready basking in the morning sun before his ....

... spectacular dive

steamy Chris thought he'd swim 4 lengths but came out the deep end after 3 ... he "couldn't feel his little fingers anymore!"

yes, I swam two lengths too - Sue took the photo

And finally, some photos taken with my mobile phone, an HTC Desire HD - a fantastic toy!

Jonathan and a Tricky - a classical "contre jour" photo - 2 silhouettes

while the sun was rising and getting warmer it made the ice on the roof of the cubicals melt which produce this steam

Chris is swimming up towards the deep end while steam was coming off the surface of the water - magical!