Gary Oldman

Current favourite quote; Gary Oldman on swimming in the Hampstead Ponds in current cinematic beauty Tinker Tailer.... “It was deathly cold, but I couldn’t complain because there were these 80-year-old geezers swimming beside me. I couldn’t say ‘God, I’m cold’. It actually took me a whole day to warm up. I will never forget Hampstead Ponds.”

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/actor_gary_oldman_on_his_chilly_baptism_in_hampstead_ponds_1_1068906

MG

West Bay, 20 October 2011, 11.30 am

A perfect swimming day and a perfect swim - calm, clear, sunny. Although it was only 10deg in the shade (and 12 deg in the house..) it felt so warm on the beach it was like it was still summer. The sea being flat calm was extra inviting and we were in after only minimal whimpering and complaining (our initial reticence was noticed by some dog walkers - wearing satisfyingly big coats - who gave us some verbal encouragement).

The sea had cleared since yesterday and we swam out past the pier, marvelling as always at the view back to the cliffs. Now that the temperatures are dropping we thought that this might be our last long, calm, sunny swim of the year so we made the most of it and swam out further and for longer than we would normally. Even after much brain freeze from all our diving and swimming under water it was impossible to get out. We stayed in a bit too long and even returned for multiple dips but the heat of the sun helped to reduce our shivering to dress-able levels.

Twelve hours later I got a text from MG who was still feeling cold - despite now being in a warm, modern flat. I was still freezing too but was blaming my lack of heating and scrooge like resistance to lighting a fire. Maybe a shorter swim next time...

SW

Hive, Wednesday 18th October, 9.30 am

I have been away for a week and the temperature seems to have dropped dramatically. After much catching up we both headed rather tentatively towards the sea. The small grey waves were offset by the amazing blue sky and warm sun.

The water definitely felt cooler. Still lovely but with a bit of bite now. After 10 mins I was all for getting out but luckily MG encouraged me to stick at it and we spent another 10 minutes diving and swimming. As our temperature dropped we noticed the now freezing seeming wind and it started to feel much warmer under the water than above it. Eventually we had to get out and shivered our way back into our clothes and our waiting car heaters.

SW

Sunday 16th October

OG/MG to follow

Listening Extras

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b015p862/- Some nice musings on our attraction to water( plus the River Usk), also a bit about fishing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b015pb04/- More Water based Radio( plus a little Hugh for M.G.)

(I heart Hugh - MG)

J.J.

Brighton, tues 12th oct 2011, 6 pm

Late evening swim at low tide. I met a friend, AL, who is a keen swimmer but today was suffering with a cold and a dodgy knee and so stayed dry (apart from her feet and shoes which got soaked by a freak wave).

The sun was just coming out after a day of heavy cloud creating a beautiful erie light. At low tide the seabed is flat and sandy, great for long rolling waves but too shallow for good swimming unless you go a long way out - and then you would be at the mercy of the lightening fast wind surfers. Staying in the safer shallows it was great fun and invigorating playing in the waves, the perfect antidote to a day in a hot, stuffy classroom.

28th-30th Sep- Holme, 01 Oct - River Nar

 After a stuffy day at work the absolute bliss of an evening swim, the beach is deserted the incoming tide slowly covering up the foot, hoof and paw prints zigzagging across the shore . With not even the tiniest hint of swell the water is mill pond flat flocks of birds swooping over the surface of the water. The sea is cool with slightest hint of evening chill. I float around first looking east into the night and then west into the red haze left after the sun has dipped below the horizon. Getting out and standing in the balmy night air it seems inconceivable that M.G. and I were only a few weeks ago standing shivering on chilly Yorkshire river banks inconceivable and grossly unfair but that's the joy of a British weather for you. After another dip vainly waiting to see the first star of the evening I get out to dress only to discover that the sand bank we swim off is cut off from the shore by an extremely high tide. We wade back through the water covering the small bit of marsh,  feet alternately sinking into silty mud or crunching Samphire under foot. 

I manage another swim on Friday after a long hotter day of frayed tempers and slammed doors which is cooling and calming the pictures all look exactly the same as for Wednesday so I wont bore you with more flat seas and red sunsets.

We used to visit a ford in the River Nar at West Acre when we were children, perfect for paddling with lots of lovely grassy shady banks for lolling around post lunch. A friend had said that in various places it was deep enough to swim so we packed a picnic and went off exploring. The ford was full of children exactly the same as twenty years ago, we left the screams, shouts and barks  headed off down the foot path which is part of the Nar Valley way. After various false starts, climbing over a fallen tree, through a hedge and some barbed wire. We found a secluded spot, off the path in full sun and deep enough for dipping. The water levels are not as high as they would normally be as Norfolk is in drought. We dipped and then baked a bit in the sun and dipped again surrounded by masses of water cress and further down stream some curious cattle cooling their hooves.

J.J.

October Heatwave, Dorset 1st-2nd

Heatwave, hottest day in October ever recorded - brilliant swimming, poor blogging. I rushed home on Friday night after three sweltering days in London, and toppled immediately into the sea with SW on Saturday morning. Strangely disappointing as SW had warned - he'd had a few days of impossible condiditons; waves and scum, despite the perfect external conditions. My support team said it was something to do with the new moon and the equinox (?! For reasons I have never fathomed, she seems to know all sorts of interesting and useful things like that) but  whatever the causes, the Saturday sea was soupy and murky. Then we were nearly turned into shark-fin soup by a boat full of fishermen. Very unpleasant all round, but a swim none the less, and a high standard of banter involving a long and fascinating story about my breakfast. Not to be put off, I got in an evening swim that was pretty perfect - far better conditions and in the fading light the scum and murk were less noticeable. And the happy beach obscured by a fug of barbeque smoke at 7pm on a Saturday in October was an extraordinary but cockle-warming sight. Nowhere I'd rather be. Sunday morning found the whole team together; almost perfect conditions (though still murky) and a long, brilliant swim. Breakfast at The Hive was planned but rendered impossible by a queue almost out of the door by 10am. It was a foretaste of what was to come; snatching an hour at lunchtime I could barely squeeze my car into the carpark; there must have been 200 cars there. But the sea offered the peace and stillness as always and swimming 15 times further out than anyone else, I could look back at the beach and marvel at the wonders of the weather: no one does a heat wave like the British seaside, and this feels like the closing of the bracket opened in the April paradisical conditions.

That was US, were where you JJ?!