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Tag Archives: lido

The Last Saturday of May

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Neil Clasper in Diversions, Music

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Charlton, lido, northern soul

Awake at an ungodly hour – even before daughter –  cursing our continued failure to sort out blackout lining for our bedroom curtains; exactly as per last summer and the summer before. A morning of pottering around the house, failing to make a cyanotype print (either it just doesn’t work indoors on a cloudy day or the paper’s gone off), listening to records (including multiple plays of a newly arrived Northern Soul 7″ of the sort that I really must not start collecting) and giving too much inconclusive thought as to why I just can’t bring myself to love The Band’s Music From Big Pink in the same way that I love, say, The Basement Tapes or The Band.

Then, as the clouds shifted and the temperature went up, off on my bike to a surprisingly quiet Charlton Lido for a slow-ish mile’s swim. Then round to the Old Cottage Cafe in Charlton Park and had a not-nutritionist-recommended coffee and cake to recover.

Spotted one of the bonkers ‘Legal Name Fraud’ posters off Charlton Rd – whoever is behind them must have a lot of cash, or the billboard advertising industry really is on its knees. Later an exciting trip out to buy a non-symbolic new broom (Dad tip: B&Q is alway quiet at 5.30 on a Saturday).

In between I’ve been listening to the New Daniel Romano album as prep for Monday night’s gig in Oxford. It surprises me that reviews of his recent work don’t all mention Lee Hazlewood straight up in the first paragraph, which is not to be critical: more artists in that kind-of-Americana world would benefit from looking at songwriting and production from a Hazlewood angle.

A reasonable way to start a Bank Holiday weekend, all in all.


Charlton Lido; March 2015

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by Neil Clasper in London

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Charlton Lido, lido, outsdoor swimming

Regular readers (both of them) will know that I’ve been swimming at Charlton Lido most weekends since it re-opened after refurbishment. Over the winter I’ve managed to squeeze in a mid-week, evening swim; a particularly amazing experience when the moon and stars are visible. So I’ve been feeling a bit fitter as a consequence, and while the ambient temperature still isn’t warm, it’s warmer than it was in January.

This morning the whole pool was in direct sunlight at 9.15, and the sky was a mid-blue: not the deep blue of summer, nor the pale washed out winter skies of the last few months. Spring has arrived.

Whether it was the sunshine, or the fact that I hadn’t been out late playing rock’n’roll guitar on Saturday night unlike the previous couple of weeks, I felt inspired to push on from my usual 1km and swim a mile. And in the end it really wasn’t too bad – a reminder that much of the perceived tiredness in my swimming is actually just the process of getting warmed up. I’m not sure I’ll do it every week, but I’m very glad to know I can do it.

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