I am slow on the uptake

I have been living here for thirteen years, complaining about how far away we are from the sea, and I'm only just starting to realise that we've got quite a lot of river, and some of it is swimmable.

This afternoon, as part of a colleague's leaving do, I went on a walking tour of Oxford, and then back to said colleague's house for some eating and drinking. Her house faces the river (we were picnicing on the grass right beside the water), it was hot, and we'd done quite a lot of walking. I didn't have my swimsuit with me, but I quickly decided I was prepared to swim in my shirt and pants*, so while my colleagues drank beer and ate pringles on the bank, I swam in a little bit of the Thames alongside the riverboats :-)

*Speakers of American English: I mean underpants.