Parliament Hill Fields Lido

09:45 at Parliament Hill Lido

Water temp: 24/25 degrees

I've taken the day off work as it's national spend the day at the Lido day, did you miss that one? I wake up early, the sky is blue, the colour of The Lido waters. I'm poolside by 08:30. The pool has been divided in to three lanes, the Lido is wide, a width is longer than your normal length, so the lanes are vast, four-five swimmers deep. I nab my favourite spot, it's a bit early for my favourite spot, it's in shade, well I'm planning to spend the whole day here.

It's 09:30, I've swam 16 lengths, the pool closes for half an hour while we change sessions. The sun is marching up in to the sky with real intensity and purpose. I'm hungry, need breakfast, let's check out the gastronomic delights of the Cafe, the seventies delight of the Lido Cafe, they serve breakfast these days, I fancy scrambled eggs, the lady looks confused and suggests fried. I sit at a table, eat and watch the lifeguards plough up and down the pool.

My middle sister arrives with my nephew. She's left my brother-in-law outside in the sweltering queue, she has a VIP season ticket so she strolled straight in. They're off camping soon so they only stay an hour or two. My shady spot is now in full sunshine, I try to read but I feel my skin burning, I scurry off to find another shady spot.

My big sister arrives with her mate and her daughter. We settle down for the afternoon session. The Lido is getting seriously crowded, there must be 1500-2000 lucky people here. I'm getting seriously hot, lots and lots of factor 30. We spend the afternoon gossiping and drinking warm fizzy drinks from the bottle. I politely decline the sweaty supermarket salads. Just when you think it can't get any hotter someone opens the door of the furnace another inch, I retreat under my towel, I end up wearing it as a turban, very cooling if not very cool, who knew?

Parliament Hill Fields Lido

I spend lots of time teaching my sister's friend's daughter to dive, who the hell am I to teach anyone to dive? We have lots of fun anyway. I spot my next door neighbour with her kids, I spy Sarah's sister with her kids, huge picnic and bottle of Pimms

It's nearly 6:30, I've been here nearly nine hours, I'm well and truly cooked, time for a last swim, a family tradition, we were always the last in the water, we're still the last ones in The Lido.