sea-swimming in Tynemouth

Josefine had challenged me. "I want you to go swimming in the sea in the winter. Take pictures. I want to see it." Something like that. Well, thought I, why not? Let's go. Ian had already consented that he would come with me. Soline said she would come too, Ahmed was also looking forward to it and I knew Joshi would be mad enough to go with me.
We set off on November 29, a sunny Sunday: Soline, Sam, Emmanuel, Ian, Joshi and me. Ahmed had a visitor and couldn't come. In the end, Soline seemed not to have been serious when she said she would come too and not to have believed us crazy enough to be serious. So it would only be Joshi, Ian and me. Ok, no problem. Changing on the beach was a bit difficult, but we managed and guess what! Cold? Not at all! There were quite many waves that made us wet even before we realised that the water was cold indeed. By the time Ian was actually in the water, Joshi and me were already swimming! How well that felt. About five strokes was more than enough. Come on, Ian, it's not too bad! Although he didn't swim he was nearly as wet as we were, simply because of the waves. Let's do another five strokes and go out again.
Coming out of the water was, as you can see on the picture, one of the nicest experiences of my life! We weren't cold at all, for the water had been so cold that the air felt quite warm (although Soline was warming herself up with my towel on top of her coat and Sam and Emmanuel stood quivering likewise). Helena, my landlady, worrying about me a bit (although I see no reason for that) had urged me to take hot chocolate and sweet biscuits with me. What a great idea that was. Joshi and me enjoyed the cookies and hot chocolate endlessly.
Getting dry and dressed on the beach was in fact the biggest challenge, but, after half an hour, we managed. This was now my account of our winter (not quite, but surely cold enough) sea-swimming.

(I am sorry for the rather dry tone of my account, but i'm getting a bit frustrated about this post: for some reason I cannot upload any images. They were sent to my by email and I copy their URL address in 'Beta Blogger Upload Images' and what he gives is only a square with a little square with a cross inside... GRR! Jonas, maybe you can help me??)