SWIMMINGPOD - HELEN EDWARDS’ RIVER-BASED EXHIBITION IN OXFORD ‘BREATHING OF LIFE’
Helen Edwards is an ecological artist, dancer, and swimmer. I am with her at her solo exhibition at Oxford’s North Wall Arts Centre,...
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LXVswim
Apr 23, 20234 min read
SWIMMINGPOD - POOP POLLUTION POLITICS BY STANLEY ULIJASZEK
The gorgeous rivers of England are sick, and I am sick too. Of the politics, of the discharges into the rivers. Of the effluent, both...
LXVswim
Jan 2, 20234 min read
I’M SORRY, SAY THAMES WATER, FOR RUINING YOUR SWIMS
I could feel it all over again this Christmas, the sense of deja-vu, of raw sewage running between my fingers and toes. The Oxford DODO...
LXVswim
Dec 21, 20222 min read
SWIMMINGPOD - A WINTER SWIMMING BRIEFING, GIVEN BY STANLEY ULIJASZEK, FRAMED BY JEREMY WELLINGHAM
Cometh December, cometh the DODO Swim, in Oxford, at Port Meadow. From the Dodo Tree, now reduced to a stump after being struck by...
LXVswim
Oct 30, 20221 min read
MOON-SWIMMING AND SWIMMING IN MOONLIGHT BY STANLEY ULIJASZEK
If you haven’t already swum outdoors in full moonlight, you must. It is one of life’s priceless un-buyable treasures. There are twelve...
LXVswim
Sep 9, 20222 min read
SWIMMINGPOD – JULIET TURNBULL AND ‘OPEN WATER – SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE’
It is September, and time to take stock of the summer season of open water swimming. While countless thousands have enjoyed the water...
LXVswim
Aug 18, 20221 min read
SWIMMINGPOD - WILD OPEN SWIM, WITH KATH FOTHERINGHAM, FIONA UNDRILL AND DARRIN ROLES
The Wild Open Swim Blog is the organised work of Kath Fotheringham, Darrin Roles and Fiona Undrill. This now sits under the Swim Oxford...
LXVswim
Jan 20, 20226 min read
THE SECOND GREAT STINK? SWIMMING RIVERS IN A MESS
‘I can feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes’ – ‘The water’s all around me, and so the feeling grows…’ Waking up from a dream, me...
LXVswim
Oct 15, 20212 min read
SWIMMINGPOD – SWIMMING, LEPTOSPIROSIS AND ME – A ‘NIGHT AT THE OPERA’, BY STANLEY ULIJASZEK
I am back in the water, not without anxiety I have to say. The experience of leptospirosis was a bit of a drama for me, and I don’t think...
LXVswim
Oct 8, 20211 min read
SWIMMING, LEPTOSPIROSIS, AND ME, BY STANLEY ULIJASZEK
If you are an outdoor or open water swimmer you probably don’t want to know too much about leptospirosis, or its more extreme form,...
LXVswim
May 7, 20216 min read
THE EYNSHAM WAVE AND SWIMMER ROSS MACKEN
‘Who knows what the future will bring?’ These words echoed through my mind as I cycled down to Eynsham Lock to swim with Julie this...
LXVswim
Apr 30, 20213 min read
SWIMMINGPOD - DARRIN ROLES AND THE OXFORDSHIRE LOCK TO LOCK SWIM EVENTS
Darrin Roles is Eynsham man and boy. I have lived in Eynsham only since 1999, and have met him a number of times, increasingly so in the...
LXVswim
Apr 13, 20214 min read
SWIMMINGPOD – JULIET TURNBULL SWIMMING AND SINGING THE THAMES
‘She came in through the bathroom window’- the song welled up from the deep as I stumbled to the bathroom this morning, before any tea...
LXVswim
Nov 22, 20204 min read
SWIMMINGPOD – KRISTIE WALLER AND JUDY PEARSALL, WOMEN WHO SWIM TOGETHER
It is November, and Lockdown Two, which thankfully permits outdoor swimming as long as it is not at a venue. Hardwick Lake is closed for...
LXVswim
Nov 12, 20205 min read
SWIMMINGPOD – SWIM THE THAMES, WITH SEF PENROSE, JEREMY WELLINGHAM, CHRIS DALTON AND SHARON CURTIS
Most good ideas start with a conversation. This particular idea started with Sef and Jeremy mulling over swimming into the River Thames....
LXVswim
Nov 2, 20203 min read
SWIMMINGPOD - HELEN EDWARDS AND DIP-A-DAY ALL YEAR ROUND SWIMMING
Woman for All Seasons Helen Edwards has insinuated herself on my psyche almost by stealth. I honestly can’t remember when I met her...
LXVswim
Oct 12, 20203 min read
POSTSCRIPT TO 65@65
So in the end, the 65 swims at 65 years of age started with breakfast and finished with lunch, with burrata in both cases. This...
LXVswim
Sep 13, 20204 min read
65@65 SWIM #63 - COOKHAM, RIVER THAMES
When I took part in Swim the Thames, Cookham featured twice – the kilometer or so from Bourne End to Cookham, then a kilometer or so...
LXVswim
Sep 3, 20208 min read
65@65 SWIM #61 - KEW BRIDGE TO HAMMERSMITH, THE RIVER THAMES IN LONDON
That’s life. C’est la vie. So das ist das leben. It amounts to the same thing, which Scottish poet Robert Burns summarised as “the best...
LXVswim
Sep 1, 20205 min read
65@65 SWIM #60 - HAMPTON COURT, THE RIVER THAMES
“As long as I gaze on Waterloo Sunset, I am in paradise” – this Kinks song from my early adolescence, was running through my head. David...
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