WHERE IT ALL STARTED:

A couple of years ago I started open water swimming as a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club in Hyde Park, where in the winter the water temperature gets down to around freezing. On those cold mornings, following my swim I would wrap up, then drive in my warm car with heated seats and have coffee to recuperate while reading the papers. One especially cold morning there was a full page charity ad supporting homeless people, and it got me thinking; I choose to get extremely cold, I have the option to warm up - lots of people can’t. My temporary feeling of absolute bitter cold is with them the entire day, they have no option. I’m treating extreme cold as a hobby, for them it’s a reality.

It was this, plus a few other factors like having recently watched the 1951 Alastair Sim, A Christmas Carol, and being touched by how the Cratchit family really cherished their Christmas dinner, unlike today where by many it’s treated as just another meal in a sea of over consumption, I came up with this idea.