Downstream

everyone I meet that I’m
going to swim in the Thames,
partly because I can’t believe
I’m going to but also because
I enjoy their reaction, which
seems to be a mixture of
admiration and disgust. But I
soon find that swimming in
the Thames seems perfectly
normal in the Cotswolds. At
the bus stop in Swindon a
woman says ‘fair play’ when
I tell her about my upcoming
swimming holiday.