Poolside Percy

Birthday treat away with DT down in Cornwall. Resort has own pool and waverider machine. That's me swimming in the 18m pool.

Big Birthday Swim. 44 lengths of London's only heated outdoor pool. Job done. Place is well full-on-on-Sundays.

Score: ۞۞ ۞۞۞ I got my Vespa back from the garage today. Thought I'd give it a short run somewhere. What was a good idea on a sunny afternoon was quite a chilly one come 6:30pm. Anyway, finally found the place after driving around in circles for half an hour. Pretty basic and shabby entrance and freezing cold changing rooms (you know where you are with Barnet Council). Not really impressed with the decor and concrete roof. Big 33m pool. Two lanes for swimmers, rest of the pool for mucking about. Lovely warm water. Tunes playing somewhere in the distance. Really deep pool - 3.8m. Must have been a diving board here once upon a time. Busy fast lane was pretty empty by the time I'd swam the obligatory mile. At 8:30pm the pool was still really busy. Loads of people just having fun and splashing about. There was a really nice atmosphere, something lacking at Prince of Wales Baths these days. Good on you Southgate. Flew home in minutes to dine on Higgildy pie and lots of veg whilst wa...

Funny old morning. Woke up feeling a bit rough after the fizzy lager the night before. Had to get to Paddington to catch the train to Reading to go to me mate's birthday. Went to Carnaby Street to try and find him a target mug. No target mugs in Carnaby Street. Went swimming... Not enough time to swim a mile so thought I'd take it easy with me poor head still feeling poorly. Chlorine up the nose really hurts. Concentrated on pushoffs and pretending to be a fish at the bottom of the sea. Ended up floating on my back in the slow lane. I love Marshall Street more than ever. Settled on a pair of Lambretta pants for me mate and hightailed it off to meet me girlfriend at Paddington. Great party.

Early evening Friday swim. All nice and chilled out, especially after the over excitable swimmer left us. If you need to overtake near the end of your length and there's people in your way, just turn around and swim back the other way. Easy. Cycled back up Highgate West Hill. Met J and D for pints of fizzy lager in East Finchley. Dined on Halloumi cheese kebab. Woke up on the sofa about 6:30am. Photo courtesy of b.haverich

Another Sunday afternoon swimming extravaganza in London's West End. Cycled down with my girlfriend. She works for Westninster, so she got in free. I bought a new Gogg's swimming hat. Tight as a nat's chuff. You should see what the chlorine does to my hair. No, you shouldn't. Place was pretty empty. Was easy to spot my aquamate in her pink swimming costume. Swam like a champion, well you have to sometimes don't you. Still amazed at the beauty of this place. Photo is from Marshall Street Baths - Soho memories

5:45 session today. Pool was fairly busy when I got there. I got in to nice rhythm with the other swimmers in the middle lane. A pretty good workout. I had the middle lane to myself for the last few lengths. Felt bad about leaving an empty lane so I sat in the shallow end and gazed at the ceiling until I was relieved of my duty. Managed to pack my son's socks. Going to a party in Reading in a couple of weekends time. I hope they have a decent pool. Another great photo from barreto.co - that's the old cafe overlooking the little pool. My Mum took me swimming there when I was well little. Must have been a duckling. I still have my 10 yards certificate. I took my soon there when his was a baby.