Skip to main content

Cold water immersion, one year on

A year ago, some bright spark decided we should dip in the sea for fun. I blogged about it here. A year on, what have we learned?

This is what we'd learned three weeks in - let's update!

  1. We have learned that you need to boil the kettle before setting off to swim. Yes, that's a habit now. We have two cups of tea (she a lemon and honey tea, me a Dorset).
  2. You need a hat afterwards, Ms Humdrum needs to remember! I haven't worn a hat for a few weeks, but yes it is important to keep warm. Even when you think the sun is out. We also have rugs, courtesy of my mum, to keep our legs warm. "Old lady slipper boots" are excellent too. Whatever the weather. 
  3. You need gloves as it's FREEZING and your hands hurt like HELL. Luckily, my friend bought us gloves and we have worn them ever since, except in high season. No more pain.
  4. You also need to remember, from yesterday's swim, not to gossip too much on the way and have to make a triangular reroute on the way back because you didn't realise you were drifting. Not really an issue at the moment as we are only in for minutes. But we still drift. We need a yardstick and a dipstick... our sons have played those parts for us, but they are more likely to swim in the summer.
  5. And don't forget the tide comes in quickly so may wet your towels. Her dry robe won't help with this! I did have to nip back onto the beach recently as a rogue wave wafted up too close to our stuff for comfort.
  6. We also learned that whilst we felt impressed with what we were doing, we saw the old ladies who were dipping in just swimsuits! Whilst we are not old ladies, we do now dip without wetsuits, because we've got used to it. I'm sure soon, when we want to swim for longer, we will get them out again.
New things we've learned:

  1. Not to just go in blindly; watch the swell and those double/triple waves, plus the shelf. We nearly couldn't get out of the water only this year and it frightened us. 
I'm sure we'll be adding to this list as we go.

Popular posts from this blog

A walk from Portchester Castle to Salt Cafe

Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we

Would I Lie To You board family game review

Would I Lie To You? "The game of believable lies and unbelievable lies ", linked into the TV show of the same name. Purchased:  December 2017 in Waterstones, for around £20 In a nutshell: These TV show-affiliated games usually show themselves up (Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Top Gear) but this game is fun and easy to play (if a little modified) as a family. You don't really need specialist knowledge to play, just the ability to lie! Every year for Christmas, I like to buy a board game to play, even though no games better either Ludo (in which my dad is the reigning cheater-champion, and argues to high heaven over the rules about doubling up or how to place your counters in "Home") or Rummikub (which we can now play with two packs of cards lest we forget the game). This year, Would I Lie To You caught my eye in Waterstones (other emporiums - emporia? - for book lovers are [locally] unavailable). It's a game, it says, for 2-8 players; however we dec

Ms Humdrum reviews: B Afternoon Tea Bus Tour around London

Family and friends, tasty tea, cute cakes, succulent sarnies, scrumptious scones… what more could you ask for? Some sightseeing around Central London please. Oh, and on a vintage red double decker bus, if you don’t mind. What I’ve described is exactly what you get from the B Afternoon Tea Bus Tour. Priced at around what I paid for the Ritz afternoon tea some five years ago, you rock up at Victoria bus station and check-in to board the bus. The waiting staff guide you on and you find your booth. I manged to get a photo before anyone arrived.  The tea is set up for you and is sort of stuck down on the table with a little bit of material! Note the nice touches of the flowers adorning the sides of the bus and the tables with natty bus and shopper images. You settle in and order your first (of many) drinks. I had in my head that I’d be supping loose tea using a strainer out of a bone china cup and saucer. However that just isn’t going to work on a bus, I realise. So you are given