Saturday 9th June

I love swimming, but hate swimming pools, especially indoor ones.  The smell for a start, all that chlorine, which because the water is so heated they have to overdose on.  The noise secondly; I am sure that the body of water acts as an amplifier to all the noise, kids screaming, water splashing and even normal background talking seems far too loud – you are never alone in an indoor pool.  There used to be so many open-air pools around, lidos were especially popular in the thirties.  My favourites were Parliament Hill Fields, Chingford and Finchley, all sadly closed now I believe.  The trouble was that the climate meant they could only open for the summer months and if it was poor weather, as it is in England at the moment, they would be empty and if it was sunny they were overcrowded.  For about 6 months I once had a job buying fruit and veg at New Covet Garden Market.  I would wake at 2 a.m., read my ansaphone, work out what I needed to buy and putter down on a little Honda 50cl motorbike.  I not only loved the job, but also I finished at 10 in the morning, came home had a sleep, then would pick Justin up from school and we would spend the afternoon at Finchley Lido, which was pretty quiet and we had most of the place to ourselves.

I first swam in a lake in Slovenia in 1974, or Yugoslavia as it then was.  Lake Bled, high up in the mountains, glacial fed and bloody cold.  Since then I have loved to swim in lakes.  Recently Lago Maggiore, Lac Lucerne, and a small lake near cognac with friends Brian and Sue, and again on this holiday a few miles from Eymet at Lougasse; a lovely sandy beach and a nice slope, there is even a diving platform to swim out to.  The water is soft and unlike the sea you aren’t being bashed by waves full of sand, and no salt means you don’t get sore in those delicate places we all know about.  And here at the beginning of June the water is quite mild, almost warm, and I was the only swimmer in this lovely expanse of gentle sun-washed water.  Heaven.