Hot Pools

Back in May (when I was young, naive and optimistic), I wrote about The Programme and how we were challenging ourselves to stay fit and healthy despite our many "snacks".

Well a couple of days later, post Programme workout, I discovered my left foot was very sore.

Fastforward four weeks, two trips to hospital, an xray, an MRI and a ridiculous number of phone calls to our Doctor, I am the proud wearer of a moon boot. The Programme is but a distant memory.

On the positive side, my foot trouble has given me the incentive to see what it is like to go swimming in Buenos Aires. I´ve been to a gym called WellClub that has a twenty metre pool. It is solely a fitness pool, there is no playing, not a child in view. Just many people of varying ages and degrees of swimming prowess, making their way up and down the length of the pool.

Given the emphasis on exercise - as opposed to relaxation - I was therefore bewildered by the fact that the temperature of the pool is like that of a warm deep bath. If you have been swimming in the Raumati Pool you will know what it is like to swim in warm water. The water at WellClub is even warmer.

I managed to have a mixed Spanish-English conversation with another pool goer today. She explained that the temperature of the water was good because it was cold outside. I´m with her to a point. But when you´ve swum a kilometre and are considering swimming another, having hot jets of water meeting you at either end of the pool is a real disincentive to persevering.

However, I am adapting. I now know to swim in an anti-clockwise direction in the lanes. It only took causing a commotion on my first day in the pool AND being stopped by the lifeguard to cement that little custom in my mind. It was actually a relief when I realised the reason I was interrupted was because I was going in the wrong direction.

My first thought was that I was being shamed for indecent swim wear.....I was wearing a bikini I had purchased in Dunedin (end of season stock. minimal choice. limited time = hindsight. bikini possibly too small for frame).

This moon boot on the other hand fits me perfectly and I´ve had some admiring glances to boot.

Oh dear, pun too far?

Mrs R