SWIMMING AT NIGHT IN THE OPEN AIR

My reason to be cheerful is swimming outdoors at night.

Daytime is good too, but there's something very special about swimming in darkness. However, there’s a qualifier to achieving 100% cheerfulness: I’m squeamish about unidentified objects beneath my feet, so the swim must be in a well-maintained pool with a nice smooth base, not a lake, river or sea, or an old crumbling pool scattered with yucky Band-Aids.

One of my all-time favourite swims was in the Hilton Hotel in Toronto, where the pool is several floors up and has a plastic curtain which allows you to swim from the inside out into the winter. The first time I scooted through the curtain it was just starting to snow; I could peer amongst the flakes into nearby offices, still lit for people working late, and watch billboards flashing red across the street.

Another year I swam every night for a month in warm Los Angeles at the Hotel Del Capri, circling slowly around the small blue space scattered with floating pink petals and staring up at the apartment blocks towering above.

Until recently, I swam outdoors at least once a week at a leisure club near my home in Leicester. Most nights I could keep the moon in my sights. But as the evenings got colder the steam above the pool became more dense, until it became impossible for the lifeguards to watch us through the misted glass. Now I have to wait until the Spring swings around again and we are allowed to swim outside once more.

Sue Thomas


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