28 February 2008

Study and relax


When studying, relaxing is very important. Unfortunately I'm no great relaxer, rather the opposite. In an attempt to do something which would leave me no energy to think about anything other than the present, I went swimming. A colleague was supposed to keep me company during this braving of the elements (an indoor pool with lots of chlorine, yuk!), but she was stuck in a lecture. Hm.

Anyway, since I was already on the doorstep of the pool, armed with bathers and brand new purple goggles, I decided to go ahead. After a struggle with the lockers, I managed to find the 50 meter pool. There were signs at the head of the lanes saying 'slow lap swimming only'. Well, I could do slow, so I got in and started swimming. 50 meters later I was out of breath already, which was quite pathetic, so I decided to do the return 50 meters too. Then someone started, well I can't really call it swimming, moving very very slowly in my lane. Since my swimming is a bit lopsided, I found that disturbing, so I crossed a few lanes until I found an empty one.

Half an hour later I had finished 12 laps and got out of the pool. Made quite a spectacle of myself, because I could only get out halfway, after which I landed on my stomach and rolled onto solid ground. Where I discovered that the sign for this lane said 'high speed lap swimming only'. Oops. After another struggle with the locker, which refused to give my clothes back until the manager told it too, and a shower with my ears pricked up to keep track of my belongings in the change room, I was outside again feeling quite proud. Of what, you might ask? Well, at least I hadn't been thinking about my study for half an hour.

2 comments:

zoe said...

Bravo - I hate indoor swimming pools. Germs, kids, pee, chlorine - yuk.

Lucienne said...

Yeah, I hear you. There are surprisingly few public outdoor swimming pools here, probably because the sun is too harsh. And we live 2 hours from the sea, so .. (but I did not go in last week, when there was a swimming carnival with 200 teenage boys). ;-)