Monday 31 October 2011

Gloomy Light Above And Under The Water


A rather gloomy day above water as well as under water! On brighter note however, October 31st and the water temperature has paradoxically risen .. it's now 12 degrees Celsius (as opposed to the 11 degrees we got accustomed to over the past 12 weeks) ... one could be forgiven for saying that it's going the "wrong" way ... well for sauna lovers (anyway...) but what it did also mean for me, today, was that I was back to swimming 6 lengths ... and not feeling cold at all - not during swimming, not during taking underwater photos and best of all : not after swimming!

Peter has also taken to wading sideways through the water!

this is what it looks like under the water

Alex noticed me taking his photo and gave a good look - I love that leaves that surround him.

I finally caught a better phase of Alex on his tumble turn

once he had pushed off the wall he was away as quick as flash ... the water was rather murky which made for duller photos than I had hoped for ... seeing that we had "supposedly" gained an hours of morning day light ...

let's hope the morning sun returns soon!

Saturday 29 October 2011

The Pink Trademark


All my camera got attracted to this morning while walking down the line of cubicles was this wonderful pink "thingy" hanging above one of the doors of a cubicle very close to the ladies showers. I knew immediately who it belongs to! Do you?!
The sky was still grey which, I think, is why I was longing to capture a bit of colour! maybe I chose to come too early to the Lido this morning...? about 20 minutes after I arrived home (was must have been @ the Lido well over an hour) the sun came out - colours galore and action to capture, I'm sure .. but hey it wasn't to be.. today anyway!

Pink wash "thingy" :) ... well, what would you call it?!

Here we go, Maureen and her (pink) trademark!

Gail and Wendy on their sixth and final length of then day - Not sure I have seen Gail swim freestyle before?!
Looking good Gail! Wendy, swimming breaststroke, was a more familiar site ... :)

Friday 28 October 2011

Sun, Fun and Jumps

I swam a bit later than usual this morning .. 9am instead of 8am and it made all the difference! The sun came out!

The combination of yesterday's rain and todays sunshine made a big difference to the tree just by the entrance of the Lido. It brought out those beautiful autumn colours!

Laurie drawing in Daddy's cubicle

Jane giving her cosy a good rinse after her swim

I left my camera at the edge of the pool - Chris grabbed it and took a couple of shot of me (without me knowing!) Here he caught me at the end of my second length just about the turn around and push off again.

After my swim( and back in control of my camera!) I got Hilary as she got in and started her swim

Gus, still enjoying half term, was swimming with Sue and Chris this morning. Looks like he was "puffing" a bit to keep up :) I couldn't keep up, that's for sure!

and he even pushed off again .. while...

Sue ...made her way...

up the stairs and out

Kit has along journey to get to the Lido ...train, 2 different busses, walking and finally a well deserved swim!

a hot shower and to seal it all off, drying her hair

Fernando's daughter Olivia, and her friend (whose name I immediately forgot the minute she told ... me please don't take this personally!) dis cussing tactics

running ...

and jumping in was the deal ..! but only Olivia jumped!

and jumped again and again

Now they are all jumping (even Fernando's son .. spot the bubbles!)

enjoying the water


Thursday 27 October 2011

More Popular Than You Think


Hey, imagine this : people find and read "unusualloveaffair" ! And, I mean people outside of the SLSC members! In the summer I got approached by a company who sell swim gear on line. They liked the blog and wondered whether in return of a £50 voucher I would review their website?! Before agreeing I had a good look at the website, surfed around for a good hour. I found it very comprehensive, well presented and easy to surf. I even saw items I hadn't seen on other swimming sites. But, before taking this offer further I wanted to make sure that every SLSC member also benefitted from this exercise and agreed to reviewing it on my blog only if our members were also guaranteed a discount when shopping on the swim site. The man in question, Chris Corfield, was very happy to offer every SLSC member a 10% discount. Next I had to inform Chris that I could only go ahead with this in October as no one is allowed to take photos while the Lido is open to the public and that my blog would only restart sometime in October.

A few days into October and my rib now to 98% healed, I had another good browse on the site and bought a lovely cosy made by ZOGG - I really like the cut on it - I also got a micro fibre towel (thinking of Alex I had to go for a orange one!) - the size is a bit disappointing, mind you. And Margy tells me that they are very good but I'm better off using it in the sumer months!
The piece de resistance, I bought, is definitely the mini dry bag by HEAD which I also christened today. It's just the right size and has a great clip to close it with - You just fold the opening once or twice over and use the clip to keep the bag closed - the wet stuff is stored away - so, no risk of getting the other things you may have in your overall bag wet.

I'll put the details for the website as well as more comments on the website at the bottom of today's blog entry.
Enough blurb... now for some pix:

The cut on the ZOGG cosy (I christened this morning) has a lovely back and the leg has a medium cut which I also prefer to the high leg cut. Photo was taken by Alex- he kindly offered so, although I had finished my swim by the time Alex got in, I waited until he was ready to get in, dived in the deep end and swam towards Alex who was waiting at the bottom of the pool! check out his blog too!

great addition to my swimming gear : Mini Dry Bag by HEAD (I never knew they did anything other than Skiing and Tennis equipment!) It's looks a bit bigger in this photo than it actually is:)

The orange on his last stretch before coming to the end of his first length.

Pip pushing off the wall - fully stretched out

Alex, glinding after having pushed off the wall and just about to take his first stroke
(watch how his right arm is about to come back)

two way traffic : Fiona (closest to camera) just starting off and Pip on her last length

Pip swam 6 lengths before doing 2 widths of running through the water - anything to keep fit (and warm!)
Vince - showing a perfect arm movement - ending all the way back, past his hips

Here more about the website : it's called simplyswim

They also have a video section for items which is very helpful and certainly a "first" for me on such a site. It makes the site instructive and very user friendly - I think the guys put a lot of thought into creating the simplyswim site.

They also have links to other swim related bodies which is great too.

The only disappointment, I felt was that a great number of items from swimsuits to towels are sold out - always disappointing when that happens ... sure the most popular sizes will sell out first .. but it's always rather frustrating when looking through such a great number of items and one finally finds the colour and style one likes .. only to find out that the item is sold out - same applies to items that are on sale .. one's hopes get lifted (who doesn't like to shop in the sales :) ) again, only to see that there are actually only ridiculously small sizes left in that particular item...

Chris has given me a voucher code for the 10% discount but by copy and pasting it into the body of the blog it didn't work without a certain plug in ... technical stuff I'm a bit clueless about ... so bear with me on that one... I will try and find out how to do it and post the 10% voucher on another blog entry .. SOON !

On a more positive note, I find the delivery charges reasonable.

I just had another idea maybe all we need for the 10% is the code itself instead of the banner I was sent - But I will double check - But for now:

TRY putting this code in - it may work: SVC22



Wednesday 26 October 2011

Rain,Thunder, Lightning And A Bit Of Sun



October at it's best ... rain, thunder and lightning and a bit of sun thrown in for good measure.
As I arrived, Sangeeta was just leaving ... I almost bumped into her in the tunnel - me pushing my bike, Sangeeta striding out ... with a smile on her face and a story on her lips :
" you know how it was raining this morning ?! and I love swimming in the rain - well, I got changed - ready to join swimmers already in the pool ... my toe had actually hit the water when a mighty thunder was rumbling, lightning probably not far off and the guards started frantically waving their hands, telling swimmers to get out. So, all I had this morning was a (hot!) shower ....!"
Poor Sangeeta deprived of her swim this morning ... I can so sympathise with her disappointment! Luckily by the time I arrived, the storm had moved on - water temperature still at 11 - will it ever go down ?! :)

hanging leaves

Alex approaching at speed ...

tumble turning and ...

swimming off at speed again!

no one else around to take photos of other than ... leaves

leaves ...

and leaves! in particular this one which caught my attention!

ouppsssieee, there he is again ... another tumble turn this time at closer range!

Pip, an addition to the pool - going in her usual manner

Alison enjoying her swim too

the sun came out

mugs for all - seems like a great idea
I love the reflection of the doors in the outer mug :)

Nick making a splashhhhh! and swimming two widths ... to get into "Margy's good books"!

Margy swimming her two lengths - she is adamant not to overdoing it in the cold water


Tuesday 25 October 2011

The Secret's Out - More Like False Alarm



moody shot ... towel waiting for his owner (Jonathan)

closed but not closed

Sangeeta's freestyle is coming along nicely

in fact more than nicely :) this is a perfect stroke!
and : she is still not wearing a cap ...!

what's Alex doing now? a headstand? no...

a tumble turn ... of course !

Chris on his usual ritual

While Sue was doing breaststroke ... catching up with Chris

Yes, the secret is out!
this is the sauna .. and it has been switched on!
Sadly it wasn't hot enough around 8.45am (when I finished my swim)
I took my camera over to check it out once fully dressed - it was hot enough to steam up my camera lens and as no one was in the sauna ... I took a shot from outside!
Can't wait until tomorrow when I will be inside, soaking up all the heat!

STOP PRESS:
4pm and I have just been told that the Sauna will not be on tomorrow as the water temperature has not come down to 10 Celsius .. yet ! Today engineers were testing the sauna .. that 's all! so yes, it was on but not for long ... rest assure, sauna time will come .. but not just yet ! :)
Sorry for the false alarm (and false hope..)!