Gorgeous Morning

Drawing back the curtains this morning was a real delight - signs of a rising sun - one which thankfully wouldn't go unnoticed ... as so many did over the past few days...

At the lido the sun takes a bit longer to get over the tree line ... so it was the cloud formation which got my attention first ... fortunately is wasn't long before the pool was basking in sunshine and swimmers were enjoying the beautiful shimmer on the surface of the water and the glimpses of colourful doors one sees when swimming lengths.

I caught up with Eddie for the boo

Hilary in full swing

"Little C" (Carl Reynolds) checking the water temperature ... it showed

42 F which is 5.5 Celsius

While "Big C" (Carl Richards) was still taking it easy ... they have both swam 14+ lengths only a few days ago ... not sure what they decided on swimming today ... ?

"Little C" almost ready to go

"Big C" catching up on his sparring partner who took off a bit before him ... I was lucky to capture that phase of Carl's perfect stroke - the left arm is just about to pull back while the right hand is about to enter the water.

The two Carls swimming side by side

head on shot of them -

funny how the lovely light patter at the bottom of the pool is broken just under their bodies...

"Big C" - this phase shows the rotation of the body as the right hand has pulled all the way back and is about to be brought forward only to re- enter the water for the next cycle of the stroke

I absolutely love that shot!

"Little C" (in the background) is just ahead- both swimmer superbly balanced totally submerged in 42 F of delicious water - "Big C" has just cut into the surface of the water with his right hand.

I'm sure they enjoyed their swim immensely. I would have loved to stay on and catch more shots ... and find out how many lengths they ended up swimming ... however, by now it was past 10am ... not only was I running late ... I was very hungry!

For those who haven't seen Mike Bushell's piece on the Lido which was aired on Saturday ( feb 12th) during the morning news .. here it is.

Finger Licking Stuff

After my morning swim and a lovely chat with Nick - he shared views about his passion for Tai-Chi and Cold water swimming - I went to "Wendy's Kitchen" for another cooking lesson.

This time, Lemon Curd was on the menu. It was actually me who suggested to Wendy as far back as the summer to have a go at making lemon curd. Wendy is already renowned for making delicious jams, scones, cakes and marmalade of course! But what about adding lemon curd to her repertoire?!

Well, she had a go in the autumn and we both agreed that it was a touch too sweet and that the lemon flavour didn't comes out as much as it could.

Wendy investigated further, found another recipe - one that puts more emphasis on the lemons and bases the process on the amount of lemon juice and not the number of lemons.

So, today she had another go (under my watchful eye!) at producing home made organic lemon curd.

As expected, getting out of the water after swimming two lengths at 5 Celsius my body felt as tingly as ever and, as I was driving over to Wendy, I wondered whether the lemon curd we were about to make would be as tangy as the lido water was tingly?!

Nick extending through the water

Enough swimming, let's get going - we've got all the (organic) ingredients ready

I grated the zest of three unwaxed organic lemons while ...

... Wendy squeezed the juice out of five large lemons which produce ...

... the desired amount of 200ml of lemon juice which Wendy added to the zest by using a sieve to make sure no little pips would make their way into the glass bowl.

then 125 gr of unsalted butter was cut into small cubes and ...

... added to the bowl

next Wendy also added 400gr of granulated sugar

She then sat the glass bowl onto a saucepan of boiling water

to gently melt the butter and sugar

I gave it the occasional gentle stir until the sugar and the butter had totally melted and

.... the butter added a kind of glazed effect to the texture

meanwhile, Wendy cracked four eggs to make up the desired amount of 200ml

which were beaten (up!!) by Wendy - some recipes include only 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks instead of 4 entire eggs - but as long as you beat the eggs well so that the egg white is well mixed in and ...

... you use a sieve to pass the eggs through (to make sure no loose egg white finds its way into the bowl) you'll be fine using 4 whole eggs! and you won't be waisting 2 egg whites (unless of course you want to end up making meringue later too!)

here you can see the loose bits that stay in the sieve

and now it's time to get stirring .. for about ... at least 20 minutes but more like ...

... 25 minutes! patience is needed

just to make sure that this part, the most delicate part of making lemon curd, goes according to plan, it's best to use a sugar thermometer - at the time we put it in it showed 60 Celsius

but remember: keep stirring - gently!

the temperature crept up to 70 celsius quite quickly but then hovered for a while until it reached about 75 - it should not go higher than 80 Celsius - at 75 Celsius you could already observe that the texture was getting much firmer - Wendy did her spoon trick again and one could see that the back of the wooden spoon was covered in a thin layer (of lemon curd) and when moving the spoon in the bowl it produced thick ripples ... DONE!

time to decanter the lemon curd into glass jars which Wendy heated up before (so to avoid the glass shattering under the heat of the lemon curd)

not much left in the bowl :) - you can see the texture a bit better now

squeezing every little, last bit of lemon curd into the final jar! By now I had licked the back of the wooden spoon : Delicious!

Wendy tells me that one should't make too much lemon curd at a time as it only keeps about four weeks (in the fridge) - little does she know that I could eat this by the spoon and that a jar that size could easily be gone in no time at all :)

Thank you for this marvellous treat Wendy and for sharing in detail your method of making this finger-licking lemon curd!

Make sure you catch Wendy and Nick on the boo too :) !

Meeting Mat The Mummy

The wind almost blew me off my bike this morning when cycling to the lido. It's been three days and three nights now that the wind has been blowing with such force that one feels quite vulnerable on the bike - Driving to Brockwell Park yesterday, to explore the coffee shop there - the pool is shut over the winter months - there was a huge de-rooted tree lying across Rouple Road denying cars access - It always looks dramatic and very sad to see de-rooted tress, specially big old magestic trees ... I can't stop but feel that they could certainly tell a few stories...

Fortunately, I arrived safely at the Tooting Lido, ready and for ever hopeful for a possible increase of the water temperature ... well it's 5 celsius, David measured it and told me that (apparently) the forecast says that it's getting colder this eve ... we shall see.

Anyway, two lengths it was for me.

When I came out of the sauna, Mr. Bubbles was getting ready to grab a shot of my plunge back in ... well, he missed the first one .. the camera's delay between releasing the shutter and the shutter actually going off can be just that bit too long on these small digital cameras ... so I did another plunge .. but he missed that one too... it's tricky.

"So what you do, I advised Alex , is you prefocus on the subject, look trough the lens, follow the movement and release the shutter all the way at the moment you want the action captured and you'll get me"

Bingo, 3rd time lucky!

"I'll put that one up on my blog later this evening."

" Great, I can go and take my shower now!"

As I was getting changed "The Mummy" was swimming up and down the pool - I quickly grabbed my camera, took a few shots and managed to get a few words out of this living mummy:)

a full lengths of the pool still ahead

full attire - wetsuit, gloves, socks, neoprene cap and goggles

face and a bit of neck exposed to 5 celsius ... Mat swam 12 lengths today.

he loves the exercise but his job takes him away weeks at a time so his body can never really acclimatise to the winter temperatures of the pool.

Mat (Whitecross) is an award winning film director - you may have seen his 2006 part drama part documentary film "The Road to Guantanamo" for which he won numerous awards together with Michael Winterbottom

or you may have seen his 2010 film "Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll"?

This week he's off again to film Take That.

Brave Wendy

Admittedly the water temperature has slowly climbed up the thermometer - ready to assist and reward brave swimmers ... Wendy showed what she is made of by swimming one lengths and back up to the first step .. wait for it... without her usual creature comfort accessories i.e without her gloves and socks :)

well done Wendy! no gloves and no socks...

ready to get out after one length +

feeling so much better for her (glovesless) swim :)

Maureen clutching her hot coffee and her towel :)

remember to check in on all the action by visiting the audio blogg

Warm yes ... but Still Cold too

How wonderful for the air temperature to have risen! All that needs to happen now is for the water (temperature) to follow suit!

Believe it or not the first signs of spring are here - I'm sure you recall last year seeing the big tree in front of the 1st gate to the Lido being surrounded by magnificent bunches of daffodils! Well, the daffs are pushing through the grass - and soon we will be greeted by bright yellow flowers on the way to our daily fix!

After marvelling at the magnificence of nature for knowing exactly when to wake sleepy flowers, I wondered what the water temperature would actually be ... the thermometer at the deep end was no where to be seen .. but (lifeguard) Sarah assured me that it couldn't be much more than 2.5 celsius.

Mr Bubbles was in the pool when I arrived which inspired me to return the favour - he has been taking so many lovely shots at the lido lately (also of me ..:) and take him in action - specially as he was braving 2 lengths! Besides, I felt that there was no better way to check the water temperature than by putting my hand armed with my underwater camera in .... cold... yes indeed... but, what else is knew?!

first I only got Mr. Bubbles hand reaching into the water - swimming freestyle up to the deep end on his first length

and here he is - note the bubbles (!) - on his way back - lovely to have leaves back too - the wind has just driven the remaining dead leaves back into the pool.

a closer study

followed by a (rather interesting) blank shot ... no Mr. Bubbles but leaves!

A foggy Alex .. the water temperature was so much colder

than the air temperature that the camera lens fogged up as soon as I took it out of the water!

so I put the camera straight back into the water and (just about)

got Sue skimming the surface of the water

that's better - it's quite tricky to gage how deep to immerse the camera into the water without looking through the lens to get a well balanced image

just as I was leaving the pool - yes, I also swam 2 lengths and it was tough! - Rixa and Sangeeta decided to dive in the deep end - Alex took a shot above water and I tried my luck again by just putting my hand in. Amazing how different their diving techniques are ... Sangeeta (she just made it into frame!) dived right to the bottom of the pool while Rixa performed a racing start!

fortunately Sangeeta surfaced again! sadly the lens fogged up again ...

shk

hks