This beautiful pic of Tooting Lido was taken on 20/11/11 by @JPDBuckley.
A work in progress.
(I've updated this once, but please carry on contributing your suggestions, either via comments here, or tweet me @jennylandreth and I’ll
add them if I like them, and they’re not illegal.)
‘You’re SO DIFFICULT to
buy for’ is usually nonsense. It translates as ‘Just tell me. I’m too lazy or
stupid to have picked up clues or to apply my brain. If we’re honest, I barely
know you, because all the time you were talking, I was dreaming about Sarah
Lund’.
And just because I can
swim doesn’t mean I want another copy of Wild Swim, nice as it is. That was
last year’s glut. Then there’s the swimming stuff that will never scream
GIFT. Buying someone nose clips or
mouldable ear wax is like buying a woman Tampax. It’s necessary but never a
treat, not even for someone with a worryingly irregular cycle. It doesn’t show
you’re intuitive and resourceful and have been taking careful notes. It’s a
sign you forgot, and went to the late night chemist.
So, I’ve made a start on
a list of things that swimmers might like for Christmas. If you’re buying for a
swimmer, it might cut out the possibility of that gritted-teeth ‘you know me so
well’. If the swimmer in your life
is you, give this list, appropriately highlighted, to someone who either loves you, or is cashed up
sufficiently to pop a little summat under your tree.
