Off one more time, to get very wet indeed.

Last trip of the summer (though we're wondering if we can fit in an Autumn night away as our Christmas skiing holiday seems so far away) this weekend.

And it's The Great North Swim. I've been preparing for this challenge since March, when we entered, mainly by swimming half a mile before work almost every day since then. But I have also done some longer swims, and have swum the distance (a mile) twice with the Oxford triathletes. I'm still really nervous as the water will be a lot colder than I am used to (even with my wetsuit). And it is quite a big deal to me as I'm doing the swim in memory of a friend who committed suicide in 2005, so there are a lot of emotions attached. We've raised quite a lot of money too for Mind, so I can't let all of the sponsors down.

Have some Lake District themed reading packed; we're taking Christina Hardyment's Captain Flint's Trunk which is about the places which inspired the Swallows and Amazons books. My boyfriend has a book about Fell Running, and I still need to get hold of a biography about Beatrix Potter as we're hoping to visit her house on the way home. Haven't managed to find any watery reading though.

I'll let you know how I get on and whether or not I've drowned next week...