London Fields Lido

Valentina Salsa Picante

How I ended up here I don't know. The girl on the door asked me to pay on the way out as she was dealing with a membership enquiry, yeah right. The sun is shining and the pool is virtually empty compared to previous visits.

For one reason or another I'm not feeling quite right today, however, I set myself a big target of 45 x 50m lengths, that's more than 2 chlorinated kilometres. I eased my way in to the fast lane, well, a crap dive that sent my oversized, leaky goggles skewiff. There are usually some seriously macho swimmers here, some with beards, today is no exception. I get lapped and lapped as I lap up the lengths. I move in to the middle lane when I feel squeezed out of the macho lane, what a wimp. The salmon and cream cheese bagel in my bag spurs me on.

I move off from London Fields in a hypnotic trance towards Old Street and a Mexican shop in Bethnal Green which sells my favourite salsa.