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Gr E8 t!
Early November and so it must mean a return to the lovely London Fields Lido up in Hackney. THE Lovely Lido at Brockwell may be brilliant, but it's also bloody cold. The summer season finished mid-September, and without a wetsuit, I didn't fancy freezing my old fella off down at Tooting.
Which is where London Fields comes in. Hackney Council had the foresight to heat up London Fields during the extensive re-build last year. In some lido circles and this is seen as sacrilege. Outdoor swimming is all about suffering. Trust the only heated lido in London to be up in nambey pambey North London knobber land.
I say 'heated,' well, I mean tepid. There's no steam rising from the 50 metre pool, and if you don't keep your head underwater then your brain will cease to function after a couple of lengths. And so you end up either drowning, or going the way of Hans Solo in The Empire Strikes Back (yes, I had a lovely Sunday afternoon, thank you very much.)
But first there was the cycle up to E8. This is the clever part of the plan. Head down and work up a sweat, all ready to embrace the 'heated' water up in Hackney.
Brilliant! I would have got away with it as well if it wasn't for that pesky Petrol Head who almost floored me at the Great Eastern Street junction. If I'm not indicating, please don't assume that I'm about to turn left. I was within inches of coming a cropper. But hey - I was wearing my helmet, and so at least I would have met my maker as a smug cyclist, and not simply another advert for the anti-bike brigade.
Which all meant that I finally arrived at London Fields stone cold sober. Well, not quite sober as the whole point of the swim was to wash away the six pint hangover from the nigh before.
My last swim in North London was sometime back in early April. The Easter blue skies were replaced on Saturday by falling leaves in the water. But essentially it's all the same: Water and air, that's all you need. The two most natural elements for living, and both in abundance at a lido near you.
LOVE IT.
London Fields is managed by my old friends Greenwich Leisure Limited. GLL has bollocksed up Brixton Rec big time, and it looks like Clap'ham is soon to follow. But the running of London Fields leaves me with some optimism back down in the Beautiful South. Customer concerns from the re-opening last year regarding the size of the changing rooms have been addressed. The male changing rooms have now been re-housed, with enough room for an in-demand porn star to swing his thing.
Or so I imagined.
Suited and booted into my Speedos, I made the sharp dash from indoors to out. Definitely NO leading role for me in porn flick right now.
Twenty-five lengths later and I was finished. I was also sky high and hangover free following one of the most natural forms of exercise that you can take in London. My surroundings may not have been the classic art deco of Brockwell, but at least the clinical modern day build of London Fields was outdoors.
My morning finished off with a bizarre naked dance with a couple of other purified lido geezers up in North London. Nothing to do with weird local rituals, just that the automatic lights in the new male changing rooms get turned off in the absence of any activity. The Dance of the Naked Males was fun, but it didn't leave me turned on.
With London Fields open all winter this year, may I have many more strange encounters in E8 yet to come.
technorati: london fields lido
| Sunday 4 November, 2007 |
Early November and so it must mean a return to the lovely London Fields Lido up in Hackney. THE Lovely Lido at Brockwell may be brilliant, but it's also bloody cold. The summer season finished mid-September, and without a wetsuit, I didn't fancy freezing my old fella off down at Tooting.
 The Dance of the Naked Men... |
I say 'heated,' well, I mean tepid. There's no steam rising from the 50 metre pool, and if you don't keep your head underwater then your brain will cease to function after a couple of lengths. And so you end up either drowning, or going the way of Hans Solo in The Empire Strikes Back (yes, I had a lovely Sunday afternoon, thank you very much.)
But first there was the cycle up to E8. This is the clever part of the plan. Head down and work up a sweat, all ready to embrace the 'heated' water up in Hackney.
Brilliant! I would have got away with it as well if it wasn't for that pesky Petrol Head who almost floored me at the Great Eastern Street junction. If I'm not indicating, please don't assume that I'm about to turn left. I was within inches of coming a cropper. But hey - I was wearing my helmet, and so at least I would have met my maker as a smug cyclist, and not simply another advert for the anti-bike brigade.
Which all meant that I finally arrived at London Fields stone cold sober. Well, not quite sober as the whole point of the swim was to wash away the six pint hangover from the nigh before.
My last swim in North London was sometime back in early April. The Easter blue skies were replaced on Saturday by falling leaves in the water. But essentially it's all the same: Water and air, that's all you need. The two most natural elements for living, and both in abundance at a lido near you.
LOVE IT.
London Fields is managed by my old friends Greenwich Leisure Limited. GLL has bollocksed up Brixton Rec big time, and it looks like Clap'ham is soon to follow. But the running of London Fields leaves me with some optimism back down in the Beautiful South. Customer concerns from the re-opening last year regarding the size of the changing rooms have been addressed. The male changing rooms have now been re-housed, with enough room for an in-demand porn star to swing his thing.
Or so I imagined.
Suited and booted into my Speedos, I made the sharp dash from indoors to out. Definitely NO leading role for me in porn flick right now.
Twenty-five lengths later and I was finished. I was also sky high and hangover free following one of the most natural forms of exercise that you can take in London. My surroundings may not have been the classic art deco of Brockwell, but at least the clinical modern day build of London Fields was outdoors.
My morning finished off with a bizarre naked dance with a couple of other purified lido geezers up in North London. Nothing to do with weird local rituals, just that the automatic lights in the new male changing rooms get turned off in the absence of any activity. The Dance of the Naked Males was fun, but it didn't leave me turned on.
With London Fields open all winter this year, may I have many more strange encounters in E8 yet to come.
technorati: london fields lido
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