Christmas swim

Today is Christmas Eve!! Which not only means Santa is coming tonight, but also that even though it's Tuesday, Brockwell lido was open for all to come for a special festive dip. Ho ho how nice.

What's more, the wonderful lido café, despite being closed for hols, had very kindly furnished us with coffee-making facilities (and I'm talking good AllPress coffee and sturdy cafetieres, not an instant granule in sight) plus a bonus bottle of Prosecco! If only we had somewhere to chill it...

A stroke of genius

Just time for Marcus and Peter to pull a cracker before their swim...

Tim's slightly sinister take on Santa

A caped crusader flies in for a visit

Clare wreathed in festive decs

I'm now fully converted to diving as *the* mode of entry, especially when in formation with several of Brockwell's choicest Icicles. Plus with the water temperature up to 8.2 degrees (?!) it's hardly even cold anyway.

Thanks to Tim for classic dry dive footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=retl8o4Ryfg&feature=youtu.be

The excitement is all too much for Marcus

Hot showers, civilian clothes and then time to launch ourselves on the festive spread...

First up: the ceremonial popping of the cork by Peter - into the lido of course.

And then the customary piles of cakes plus mince pies from the lido staff - how spoilt we Icicles are.

Peter Bradley takes the plunge

Happy Christmas!