Swimming for Sanity.

Like Digging for Victory, only... well wetter. And less productive/nationalistic/dated.

Yesterday was Jesus Green opening day! Lins and I went down at lunch-time, just like we did in our first year - what goes around comes around, I suppose.

Characters:
Crazy Tracy with her TINY bikini, hoop earrings and full face of make-up.
Excitable man with camera talking about the comparable temperature of pool (15*) and river (15* last week, dropping).
Octogenarian, F., with improbably fantastic legs.
Octogenarian, M., doing a fantastic little warm-up dance.

Dived in. Probably shouldn't have, there followed a strange feeling like a piece of cheese-wire being drawn around the crown of my head, or being scalped in slow-motion. Swam ten lengths in all, half crawl, half breast-stroke; crawl is very, very hard in that beautifully clear water. Or, it is if you're me. Others were ploughing up and down without batting an eyelid, hats off to their strength. Is it only the cold that makes the difference? Or does the absense of either salt or chemicals make the water less buoyant? I don't remember struggling like that at Sea Point last year, for example.

If anyone knows, do reply...

I love the colour your skin turns in the water at Jesus Green. Kind of reddish-brown from sheer cold. And I love how Lindsay's incredible pre-raphelite hair looks when completely and utterly soaked.

I don't love the showers, which were much much too hot - and some blokes came in to fix them, which made it worse - they had us running in and out under scalding jets of water for some time:

'OW!'
'Is that better?'
'No!'
'How about that?'
'OWW.'

But then we had sausage rolls from the bakers, so everything was okay in the end.

On the subject of Sea Point, I may be heading back there in a week or so to swim with Holly and Jenny. And have a break.

Gotta get my finals out of the way first - expect more posts, Cambridge, Brighton, Ireland - after next Monday.