Tag: adventure

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Life(style)

[LIFE] Thinking about #WildSwimming #OpenWaterSwimming

I really enjoyed watching this film about Wild Swimming with Alice Roberts:

There’s been a spate of articles recently (or maybe I’ve just noticed them), here’s one from the New Yorker, ”The Subversive Joy of Cold-Water Swimming‘

The vogue for outdoor swimming has been fuelled, in part, by the Internet. It’s easy to collect “likes” by posting a photograph of yourself waist-deep in a craggy loch. The British press provides travel advice about the most romantic swimming locales. The Guardian recently gushed about a spot at the foot of Mt. Snowdon, in Wales, noting, “Take a dip here and you are swimming with the Torgoch, a rare type of Arctic char fish that has survived since the ice age.”

A couple of other articles (I’m sure I’ll find more):

this made me smile:


and this made me laugh:

My Swims

I’m collecting videos on YouTube:

Equipment

Ah swimming, so simple … just you and a costume (this is no-wetsuit swimming!)

  • Swimming costume
  • Neoprene boots (how to remove)
  • Neoprene gloves
  • Towelling robe (and any extra towels)
  • Crocs-type shoes (with warm layer)
  • GoPro (fake version)
  • Some form of DryRobe (this is the bit I don’t have yet – do I go DryRobe, SmocSmoc or Charlie McLeod)
  • Bathmat – to change on
  • Hot water bottle for after
  • Thermos for hot drink after
  • Warm socks
  • Hat x 2 – one for in the water, and one for after
  • Decent bag to carry it all in (and you may need some hiking boots to get to the swimming spot)

There’s a few tips on warming up post-swimming – see ‘Pass the Salt‘, and afterdrop and the subtle art of warming up

(Photo by Marcis Berzins on Unsplash)

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Life(style)

BBC: 50 Places to See before you Die

50 places to see before you die, according to 20,000 viewers of the BBC’s “Holiday” programme (2003?). See also interesting article “things to do-before-you-die-ism“, and my travelblog(I never quite finished the text – I blame the chest infection I got on Europe Tour! Decided to make myself feel grateful for all the opportunities I have already had to travel – and you can pretty much assume if I haven’t been somewhere, I want to go there…

  1. The Grand Canyon, USA
  2. Great Barrier Reef, east coast of Queensland, Australia Been here!
  3. Florida and Walt Disney, USA Been here!
  4. South Island, New Zealand Been here!
  5. Cape Town and Table Mountain, South Africa
  6. Golden Temple at Amritsar, Punjab, India
  7. Las Vegas, Nevada
  8. Sydney, Australia Been here!
  9. New York
  10. Taj Mahal
  11. Canadian Rockies
  12. Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia Been here!
  13. Chichen Itza, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
  14. Machu Picchu, Peru Been here!
  15. Niagara Falls
  16. Petra, Jordan
  17. The Pyramids, Cairo
  18. Venice Been here!
  19. Maldives, Indian Ocean, 450 miles SW of Sri Lanka
  20. Great Wall of China
  21. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
  22. Hong Kong
  23. Yosemite National Park
  24. Hawaii
  25. Auckland, New Zealand Been here!
  26. Iguassu Falls, Argentina and Brazil Been here!
  27. Paris Been here!
  28. Alaska
  29. Angkor Wat, Cambodia Been here!
  30. Nepal, Himalayas
  31. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Been here!
  32. Masai Mara, Kenya
  33. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
  34. Luxor, Egypt
  35. Rome Been here!
  36. San Francisco
  37. Barcelona Been here!
  38. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  39. Singapore Been here!
  40. La Digue, Seychelles, 1000 miles E of Kenya.
  41. Sri Lanka, S of India
  42. Bangkok, Thailand Been here!
  43. Barbados, 100 miles E of the Caribbean chain
  44. Iceland
  45. Terracotta Army, Xi’an, China
  46. Zermatt, Switzerland
  47. Angel Falls, Venezuela
  48. Abu Simbel, Egypt
  49. Bali, in the Indonesian archipelago
  50. French Polynesia (Bora Bora), 165 miles NW of Tahiti

List from here, wonder what it would look like in 2010. I am looking at going to Amsterdam with Fiona at Easter. Here is some of the places I have said I want to go, what do you think I’m missing?!

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Life(style)

(Slightly belated) Happy Christmas 2009… but on time for Happy New Year 2010!

After taking 15hours to move about 4 miles along the M20 in Dover, finally made it to Lauterbrunnen where I’ve been cooking for 50 people all week (along with John P, who is in charge!). Christmas Eve was my day for skiing – didn’t quite work, so just enjoyed the train ride/apple fritters in Brandegg on Christmas Day, before we came back and cooked up a storm…


Heading back into the UK 27/28 December, so here’s praying you had a great Christmas, and are looking forward to 2010 – who knows what it will hold. For those of you who have lost track of what I’m up to, and are interested, I am doing the following (I was going to do this on my blog, but the database seems to have a problem, so I can’t get in…), mostly at the University of Winchester:

  1. 1 day per week promoting e-learning (permanent, but not enough to live on)
  2. 2 day per week Modern History Lectureship (til June 2010)
  3. Hourly (but around 2 day per week) teaching Media Studies (til June 2010)
  4. Completing my own studies: PGCLTHE (trying to finish by Febraruy 2010…)
  5. Setting up the socialmedia strategy for Super Fun Days Out (love some blog entries if you have time!), alongside ownsocial media consultancy.
  6. Other bits & bobs…Getting myself in the New York Times was probably a bit of a highlight for last year!
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Life(style)

A real Super Fun Day Out!


Whilst checking out social marketing material for Super Fun Days Out, I came across this YouTube video… this has to be one of the best things I’ve seen in ages! Guess it’s using the Wallace & Gromit stop-motion technique… I hate to think how long it took these guys to set this up, but I am LOVING it!

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Life(style)

Cricket: 20-20 at the Hampshire Rose Bowl

I’ve never been to a cricket match before, although I played once at school (I scored a six, got one run, and was then out!), read the full match report. Hampshire Hawks, 183; Middlesex Panthers 155! Woo… (and we had a very nice picnic!)
Wonder where the ball went?!