It hasn’t really felt like winter’s as I remember them, but then again I do remember some pretty grim winters. Miner’s strikes cutting power to damp cities, shoes that never seemed to dry out, England and I are in a better place now.

The thing that has really exorcised the ghost of winters past for me has been my daily swims in Tooting Bec Lido; the realisation that our bodies not only survive more extreme temperatures but can actually thrive, the support of people when they see you going through this process, almost religious but without the dogma, a healthy cult where the pay-off is seeing that light of realisation, of trust in oneself and the environment. How lovely, how truly and simply lovely.