Wild swimming is actually going to happen!

Some see this as evidence of mental instability, but for the last couple of years  I have looked at lakes and thought wistfully about swimming in them. Three things have got in the way:

1. fear of drowning (people do - apparently the cold water can make your body go into shock and stop breathing) 
2. fear of being run down by a boat I hadn't spotted, being very very short sighted, and not feeling that wearing glasses would really be the thing in the water
3. what they call in these parts 'being totally nesh', meaning absolutely pathetic about getting cold. I have swum in a shortie wetsuit in Tooting Lido, although to be fair I wasn't the only one, but it also didn't seem the right thing to wear in the Lake District. Too beachy somehow, and not, well, long enough.

However I have now sorted all of these obstacles: I've booked an introductory session with people who know how to do this safely and who also hire proper full swimming wet suits, not the same kind as surfing ones apparently, and ordered some prescription goggles. No, this is not a bargain basement experience but my philosophy is that money spent on experiences lasts longer than money spent on 'stuff'. Actually the goggles are 'stuff' but they make the experience possible so they don't count as 'stuff', I reckon.

I am now even more excited about my August trip to the Lakes!