Memories of winter and promise of spring

When arriving at the pool this morning I saw Jonathan sitting on one of the poolside benches, notepad and pen in hand. He must have been having a creative moment because when I asked him what he thought the water might feel like, his poetic answer described exactly how I experienced my swim! It even made me increase my swim to four lengths!

This is what he said:

"The water bears the memories of winter with the promise of spring"

How true!

Lucy Scott Petrie taking the plunge into 8.8 Celsius this morning

and Lucy crawling in beautiful style

but what's on earth is going on here? it's Lucy performing a tumble turn of course!

Spring is here - the daffs are truly out now!

New faces, new toys

Never mind the rain, the water temperature was up! That must be a good sign! In fact, today, the temperature has reached this years all time high: 8 Celsius - now that's what I call progress!

One could really feel the difference too while swimming - long may it continue up and up the thermometer - at least as far as 10 Celsius that would be a great incentive for doing more lengths and for taking my camera into the water again when I'm actually in, as opposed to holding it in from pool side to take underwater shots...

Meet Nicola, and her daughters Mabel and Hettie

Nicola getting Hettie ready for her cold water experience - their normal swimming lesson got cancelled so Nicola thought of introducing her daughters to the Lido in winter .. well almost spring ;)

Hettie still showing a bit hesitant ... but...

... not for long - look at that , she's in!

In addition to last week's flippers, Mandy is swimming with her "new toy" on her hands

take a close look and you'll see it on her hand - it helps get more pull under water

Sue powering up and down - unassisted:)

Gus swam even more lengths than Sue .. not sure how many - but impressive all the same!

Now you do, now you don't

I was in a bit of a hurry this morning ... I had to be back home by 9am (which if the truth be known .. I didn't manage!) why? well the water was too lovely! and I got carried away chatting ... as usual! Nevertheless I got to my appointment albeit a touch late ...:) and also got a few photos!

This what I saw when coming through the gate at the top end of the lido today ... but who is it?

ah ok, it's Sangeeta! she quickly interrupted her swim to come and say hello ... before ...

she was gone again ...the series of shots I took reminded me of "now you see (her) and now you don't (see her)" !

The water and air temperatures are creeping up daily now! Water was even up as "high" as 7.2 Celsius this morning! Spring must be here ... more proof - spring has finally sprung! well, some have (sprung) and some haven't quite yet!

Less is more

What a lovely day again ...

Whose cosy, cap and shower sponge is that?

James came to the Lido specially to be featured on the blog ... assuring me that he reads it every day and that he even voted for me - thank you james - I simply had to take a shot of him! Sadly he must have had his dip while I was in the sauna which meant that I couldn't get a photo of James in action ... he wanted a shot looking over the cubical door - those who know James will know how tall he is and that he didn't even have to make an effort to look out the closed door!! however, I think next time I'll have to catch him swimming :)

Steven, looking very relaxed and happy after his early morning swim

Jonathan leaving the Lido .. but not before ...

... taking a photo of Rixa, Steven and myself ... which he assures me is "a great shot" ... yes, but you cut half of Rixa off Jonathan! "no, no, it's perfect" he insisted .. as for Rixa .. "that's fine, I don't mind having less hair" ok then, I'll post it, (under the motto :less is more") Jonathan! let's see what other people think of the photo?! :) comments welcome!

Twiddling toes

Who's the beauty posing on the Lido fountain? ... keep looking, the answer is at the end of the page.

We were warned since yesterday that due to maintenance the sauna wouldn't be on this morning ... hence when I got to the Lido at 8.15am I saw lots of people standing around ... people - and I mean swimmers :) who are normally in the water as opposed to outside that time of day :) they had fun though - everybody seemed to have a song or melody on their lips - see what the slightest hint of spring can do!

And why not?!

Besides, the sun was out, the water must surely be benefitting from the rays too and therefore be getting warmer, right?! I came prepared - At least I cycled to the Lido with that thought in mind and prepared myself - at least mentally - to do another PD : swim 2 lengths without taking refuge in the sauna straight after!

Not quite sure what the others had in mind other than stand around and wait for better days?!

ASs it turned out, all wasn't gloom because lifeguard Sarah greeted me with "we have just switched the sauna on, they have finished working on it". Hey magic! However, it does take a good 40 min to an hour for the temperature to reach the right temperature ... so I was still intending to stick to my original plan! And so I did - 2 lengths ... then I had a shower and then I did sneak into the sauna ... crafty hey?!well I wasn't going to sit in my wet cosy sitting in a lukewarm sauna .. that just didn't appeal...

one swimmer (jonathan) twiddling (no not his fingers) but his toes - by the looks of it :)

To be fair Vince (although delaying his swim) made a move shortly after this picture was taken and boosted by the thought that the sauna could be warm enough he even swam 4 lengths - however the sauna was nowhere near warm enough to do the trick ... let's hope Vince has warmed up by now:)

Batch waiting too, cup of coffee in hand - he too went in for 4 lengths and a lukewarm sauna :)

Sue arrived as fit and ready as ever!

Simon had a better idea and got ready to tackle the 5 Celsius in his wetsuit...

... Which Betty finds hilarious! Betty actually never goes in the sauna after her daily swims - she was up to swimming one length

Here we go, the beauty is: our own, very special BBC personality nominee, Doreen - You must see this photo in real -it's absolutely magical!

Less talk-more pictures :)

I have only just come back from a busy day today ... so appologies for the very) late blog entry... its almost 11pm .. but were Ok it's still the 16th ...:) so I decide to show you

the morning in pictures

a splash on the waters surface with no one in sight!

Simone was having a great time today - I think he must have broken the record for todays endurance swimming by swimming 4 lengths, sauna and again 4 lengths! And he seemed to enjoy every minute of it! here he is submerged while doing a lovely relaxed breast stroke

Egg on the other hand did what he does best : performing a bomb :)

more arty shots ...this time of ...

...Marianne

Everybody was enjoying the sun ...

Fiona and Lucy engrossed in conversation

Best splish

Today, I got the shot I was waiting to get for a while .. .well, ever since I saw the way Nick usually gets into the water - Before today, however, I have never been in the right place to attempt getting it ... there was either some one else doing something I was focusing on getting, like Jonathan performing a beautiful dive ;) or some one else jumping in, or someone swimming .... but today there were no other attractions or should I say distractions around :)

To give you a bit of background, Nick usually sits at the edge of the pool, kicking his legs around like mad .. but it's hard to tell for how long he will do that! Today, I positioned myself behind Nick and took my chance by anticipated the moment he will actually take the plunge forward. Having my little canon IXUS 70 in the waterproof housing means that there is an even greater time delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera actually taking the shot, than digital compact cameras notoriously have ...

Taking photos with it (specially action shots) becomes quite tricky - so I'm a bit "happy" with that shot, really :) cause just imagine asking Nick to get into freezing water a few times "just for the sake of a photo" :) simply put : he'd never!

Nick taking a plunge resulting in the best splish!

Peter is back!

wonderful reflections of the sun - I love all the different grades of blue!

Bettie above and ...

... bellow water cruising along at a leisurely pace - She was sweet because she couldn't really see why I putting my hands in the water and asked "what are you doing there?" well now you know, Bettie! I was hoping to get "more" of you in shot though ... but it's tricky to get the framing right when I'm actually not looking through the camera...

Flippers

It was so wonderful at the Lido today! The air temperature was much more pleasant than all these past days and the water was great. I think it's probably psychological because the water was still "cold" :) Anyway, there was lots happening at the Lido: a film crew was present filming a promo for the London Triathlon and lots of members were swimming lengths to the amazement of the poor (filmed) guys who hadn't swam in water temperatures as cold as our water - mind you, one guy had a wetsuit on - which actually doesn't help a lot, as it's still the hands and feet that suffer most! They only managed about 5 strokes before getting out again ... just proves how hard it can be if you are not a regular cold water "nutter" !! or sorry I meant swimmer! Anyway, we all had a laugh together before the crew went on to film the same guys running and cycling while us Lido swimmers had the pool to ourselves again.

Psyched up by the weather, the commotion, seeing Mandy power up and down the pool with flippers and basically because I felt really well, I swam two lengths myself :) followed by a trip to the sauna, followed by two widths and sauna again before finishing off with another width :) Boy did I feel fit, tingly and happy!

Mandy in full swing - she was even faster than she normally is - which is FAST! But today, there was really no stopping her :)

and here is why - look, flippers!

not as easy to walk in though :)

I know this swimmer ... but I don't know his name:) he kindly congratulate me on my blog only today ... let's see if he goes on it regularly and recognised himself?:)

a bit of traffic, David (red cap) and "a mystery man" - can anybody identify him?!

Experimenting

Today, I woke up fully energised and (very) ready for the day! Why am I so excited about it? Well, because if the truth be known I haven't been feeling "on top of the world" for the last couple of days ... even my sleeping pattern felt disrupted. I blame it on the prolonged - some may even may even say never ending - winter we are having ... Let's face it enough is enough ... I'm sure you'll agree, we want the sun to come out, stay out for a good few hours and warm us!

Nevertheless, last night, I slept like a baby! I woke up with good news (and stuff) to share with my "chums" at the Lido and with all the faithful followers of my blog! Remember the Dorset Cereal campaign for my blog? well, I don't know whether (when you voted for my blog) you've explored the rest of the Dorset Cereal website? If you have, you would have come across the photography competition they are also running. Anyway, I entered a few photos - I think of the Lido but I can't really remember :) - and low and behold, I won! Dorset Cereals rewarded me with 8 boxes (each containing 8 sachets) of Dorset Cereal Fruity Porridge! Since Sue Rentoul was the one who nominated my blog on the site and therefore introduced me to the prospect of exploring the site, it was only natural for me to share "the proud moment :)" this morning ... and to surprise Sue with two boxes of this lovely porridge!

I can also tell you, on arriving home this morning all I could focus on was to try the Dorset Cereal cranberry and raspberry porridge. It definitely gets the thumbs up. It warmed the (cold) spot and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Let's hope Dorset Cereal come on board and sponsor our Cold Water Championships next year by providing competitors with their delicious and wholesome food!

Still at the pool I felt like experimenting a bit and took some interesting shots of Nicky

Nicky on her lengths

another shot of Nicky

"another" Sue coming out of the water in the shallow end

Less of an experiment! simply Jonathan coming up for air after having jumped in :) or was the experiment whether he'd come back up for air?!;)

PS : by the way, you could vote for my blog again this month. I just found out that the competition for the blog runs every month! All votes for February have disappeared - so please vote again and let's see if we can win in March! we'll need quite a few more than we managed to collect in Feb.. :) so tell all your non Lido friends about it too! Thank you :)