So, one of the ways to help yesterdays little problem ‘Tis The Season Day 13 – Afterdrop is a nice hot drink. Getting the heat inside to stave off the chill to your core is essential.
Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, ribena, honey & lemon, bovril, soup, whatever floats your boat. Morning swims mean tea, mid mornings come with coffee, evening are rendered possible with a spot of hot ribena. I’ll occasionally throw in a hot chocolate if I’m feeling decadent or just really, really cold.
I have numerous mugs for such offerings over winter. It needs to be well insulated against the cold when I leave it on the bank and leakproof so it doesn’t spill on my kit or accidentally spill on me when I pick it up with useless numb hands. Sometimes a flask gets added too.
If you’re lucky enough to go to an organised winter swim you might be handed a brew as you come out. Oh the joy, to be able to use it to not only warm you from the inside but warm your hands too.
In the summer we might treat ourselves to a pimms or gin in a tin post swim but that’s still not quite as satisfying as a warm drink, wrapped up in all your toasty clothes, clutched by mitten shrouded fingers.