Swimming at Sky Towers

The swimming pool at our apartment is amazing. It is a 24X20 meter pool.There is one lane roped off called the "circulate lane" where the obvious intention is that people do laps, but the Asians don't get the concept. At home in Canada there is a definite culture at the pool. Lane swimming is to be done in the lane roped off for that purpose. One swims to the other end on the right side then turns around and swims on the right side on the way back so you are swimming essentially in a circle. Not here! Swim up the middle and run into people on the way there then swim up the middle on the way back and run into the same people till you get disgusted because they are so stupid and then you get out of the lane. Or actually "you" means they because I persist being the lane is labelled properly and I am bound and determined to circulate if it kills me! One lady who we will call perimeter lady chooses to swim the perimeter of the pool. She swims around the pool many times and is in the "circulate lane" 1/4 of her round. This would not be permitted in Canada but the life guards here say nothing.

 In fact, they also do nothing. They read the paper until the first person walks by, on their way to the pool. Then they scurry to the pool's edge and resume reading their paper and books. There are 3 of them and they do not look up from their activities they are participating in as they cluster under the life guard chair. They do not walk around the pool nor are they alerted when someone is coughing. They have a great job...when they do it which brings up the other obstacle to swimming.

There are weather men here too who like to predict the weather. Here they call a thunderstorm alert, and when they do there is a sign to announce it at the entrance to our building. It is a big deal obviously. When a thunderstorm is announced immediately the pool is closed-for hours at a time- and our poor lifeguards have nothing to do but wait on call till the pool opens again. As long as the thunderstorm warning is in effect, the pool is closed regardless if the sun is shining or not. There could be a complete lack of rain let alone thunder but the pool remains faithfully closed. My life is once again governed by the weathermen. Gaaah!