Happy New Year (1/365?)

[white_hart]

Happy New Year, everyone. Let us hope it's an improvement on 2020.

I am thinking about trying to do the daily posts thing, in an effort to actually get back into writing/talking more about stuff and engage a bit more with the community here. It may well not stick.

My year started with the coldest swim yet (probably 4.something degrees; my thermometer said 4.9, L's said 4.0, various other people had something in between because apparently the number of different estimates is equal to the number of thermometers present). I have a new wetsuit jacket, which is thicker than the old one and has long sleeves instead of short, but I'm not sure I felt any warmer than I do in the old one. It was also really, really busy, hopefully because lots of people wanted a New Year's Day dip rather than because they're all planning to swim regularly, because it just felt like Too Many People. I'm glad we did it, though. (One of my three had persuaded another friend to swim with her, so we had two twos, mostly keeping separate other than brief exchanges of greetings in the water and baked goods out of it.)

Only two more days of holiday left and the prospect of work is starting to loom rather :-(

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

That sounds bracing

[callmemadam]

My daughter thinks a Neoprene swimming cap would keep her head warmer when swimming outdoors but she was complaining today that they're out of stock everywhere because so many people have taken up outdoor swimming. I admire you all!

[mountainkiss]

I'm so pleased you are still getting to swim. It has been a magical silver lining of a horrible time.

[caulkhead]

I wonder if perhaps you're not in long enough for the thicker neoprene to make much of a difference? Pure uninformed speculation, though; while I did go in the sea when I was visiting my parents last Christmas, I don't normally swim outside May-October.

[oracne]

Ugh, work. Trying not to think about it too much.

[sfred]

Happy new year! If swimming in the indoor public pool isn't feeling safe by spring, I think I need to find an outdoor place that feels okay to me. (Ironically, I think this would have been easier in London!)

[norfolkian]

Back when I was swimming in a regular pool, there would always be one weekend early on in January when the pool was absolutely heaving. And then all the people would just disappear again. My conclusion is that people rarely stick to their New Year's resolutions for very long.