I just got in from a lovely long stroll along the Thames. I took one of my favourite routes: down to Charlton, up to the Dome and along to Greenwich before coming home through Greenwich park. It really is a lovely walk, and the river looked beautiful. You know, I still find it stunning to think what a major facet of London’s geography the Thames is; before I moved here, I had never realised how intertwined the metropolis is with the wide, stately waterway dividing it’s north and south. I also hadn’t realised how much the Thames is used for transport: all kinds of boats use it, from the Clipper service to great big cruise ships.

Mind you, it must be said that I’ve never seen anyone swimming in the Thames. That isn’t surprising, as it’s far, far too dirty. It may be beautiful, but only a complete nutter would swim in it. On that note, when I got in I came across this quite alarming Young Turks video. The Paris Olympics are only a month away, and there are apparently plans to hold not just the opening ceremony but the swimming competitions in the Seine river. As the guy in the video says, that is a recipe for disaster: the Seine is far too dirty, and efforts to clean it haven’t gone at all well. It has cost millions, and the river is still filthy. On top of that, there have been huge protests with people threatening to poo in the river to show their objection to how much it is costing. At least London built a brand new Aquatics Centre which is still being used, but it seems the Paris Organising Committee is prioritising the potential picturesque-ness of having athletes compete in Paris’s river over the obvious dangers to their health. As much as I am looking forward to seeing how the french capital shows itself off this summer, I must say that strikes me as quite appalling.

I may be slightly biassed, but I don’t remember London having this much trouble in the run up to it’s games twelve years ago.