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April 24, 2007
The Swimming Lady
Swimming training is always an interesting event... and yesterday was no exception. I swam continuously, only to stop twice and took my space at the far end of the pool where no-one normally swims, so that I wouldn't have to fight anyone for space. I don't know whether others took this as a sign to swim there as well, but the pool got fairly busy fairly quick after I got in. An older woman joined me in my lane, which wasn't much of an issue as I counted my laps and did various mathematical calculations with each lap number. Its a way to keep my mind busy without thinking too much about other things which causes me to lose concentration on my swim technique.
Right, back to this female swimmer. She was swimming breaststroke all of the time and as I approached my second length past her, she stopped (thankfully it was in the shallower side of the pool) and tapped me on my shoulder (first of two stops). I stopped and then nearly fell over again.
"Could you please not wet my hair as you swim?" came the request from the woman. Astonished at the fact that someone could come to the pool (which is a TRAINING pool) and make such a request I looked at her for a second and without realising answered with a "You do realise this is a pool?" which was probably a little cruel. Probably more blunt than I should've done, but she stormed off with a "I'm going to speak to the lifeguards.".
I carried on swimming and during a short break saw the lifeguard talking to this woman with a suppressed smile on his face. Shortly after she stormed off again (I can't describe it in any other way). It was about 6 lengths later that I received a tap on the shoulder. The manager of the pool requested that I don't splash her - if I felt like playing around I should go to the part where there are no lanes. I in turn, informed him that I didn't splash her, that I was merely swimming in the lane and as I passed her during my training, some drops of water inevitably was going to make it to her hair. For a few seconds it looked like he didn't know what I was talking about, but then a lightbulb went on and he looked at her.
"You DO realise this is a pool and that you ARE going to get WET? She is on the training side and if her training requires her to swim crawl, she doesn't have to change to swim breaststroke just because you don't want your hair wet?"
The manager said a few more things that were slightly more blunt than anything I could've said, but he clearly felt that she wasted his time and I'm sure he was just returning her attitude that she displayed earlier. She took off again and went to the desk where I'm pretty sure she tried to cancel her membership. I'm not sure I could ever understand anyone that goes to a pool and think that their hair wouldn't get wet. If she wanted it to stay dry so badly she could've gotten a cap or something, but she striked me as someone that always got their way in some way or another and couldn't accept that she didn't get it here.
I also spotted a particularly hairy man in the pool, but that's a story for another time.
Posted by karinm at April 24, 2007 7:31 AM
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Comments
Haha, that's rather funny, but a bit weird. The woman was probably irritated by someone else being there and tried to use that as an excuse. Very weird.
Posted by: Andrew at April 24, 2007 3:42 PM
Good grief! Have to say the manager would have wound me up if he stopped me for such a ludicrous complaint.
Posted by: Angela at April 24, 2007 7:42 PM
haha, we have the senior folks at our gym on Saturday mornings that insist on own the lanes as well.
Posted by: Deene at April 27, 2007 3:07 PM
That has to be the complaint of the week! I loved the look on the lifeguard's face when she explained it to him.
Posted by: Tea at May 1, 2007 12:56 PM