1 year, 272 days since the start of the 1st lock down in March 2020.
Happy New Year!
At least it feels a little more positive than this time last year after a very quiet Christmas! Some time ago Mum had asked if she should get us tickets to go for a New Years swim in the Jubilee Lido... as they were free I said yes but with no promise to actually go swimming. I was actually a hit nervous as the last time we had been swimming was in Portugal and hen it was a hot sunny day and the water must have been around 20 degrees plus. Today the recorded temperature of the sea water filled lido was 10.9 degrees although it felt a lot colder. We wore our swimming gear under our clothes and stripped off as soon as we arrived, waiting for the 11.00am whistle. There were quite a few people and the water felt freezing. It took me a long time to get my shoulders under although needless to say, Mum, Hester and Brian were right in there swimming immediately. This photo is evidence that we went swimming on New Years Day - spot myself and Hester synchronised swimming and Mum trying to escape by disowning us - lower right corner!
My arms started to go numb like they had when I swam with dolphins in New Zealand but this time I realised it was because I was not breathing properly. I did manage to swim a bit and my skin was zinging when I got out. It was such a mild day that to be honest it was definitely warmer when out and the hot chocolate certainly aided recovery.
We headed back and showered and changed and had lunch. Later in the afternoon as the light started to lessen, we walked along to the Wharfside to look out for the large murmurations of Starling. It took a while for them to appear and we wondered OMG we had missed them but sure enough, large flocks started arriving and swirling around the tree. I tried to photograph them but it was quite a challenge in very low light and at such speed. It was very impressive.
Finally we walked through the town back home exploring little back streets and alleyways. A good start to 2022.
