Nightswimming

Well, evening swimming, if I’m being pedantic. When the Leisure Club reopened after the first lockdown, you could either be a gym member or a swim member - previously, our membership entitled us to use either the gym or the pool - and we were put into the “gym” category. If we wanted to go for a swim, we had to pay extra and, even then, there had to be a free slot available after swim members and hotel guests had booked.
It all seemed like too much hassle and we decided just to concentrate on the gym. After all, things were getting better and we were going to be back to normal by Christmas - weren’t we? Obviously things didn’t work out as planned and we were back in lockdown after Xmas.
This time, when the club reopened, it was still the same types of membership but - significantly - no guests were expected until 17th May. We soon started getting a daily email advising that they had swimming slots available throughout the day and, as active gym members, we could book these on a first come first served basis, for no extra cost. It seems some of the swim members had decided not to come back and this, combined with the absence of hotel guests, meant there were long periods of time when the pool was empty.
Last Saturday, Mrs C damaged her back and wanted to try just walking up and down in the pool to see if it helped ease the pain. As she can’t drive at the moment, I would have to take her there and back so I thought I would join her in the pool and swim a few lengths. As you can see, the pool is divided into four lanes, but you can share a lane if from the same household. As it happened, there were only four of us in there for our 45 minute session and we remarked that we actually preferred it with the lanes as opposed to the free for all that happened in the past.
Considering I’d not swum at all for fourteen months, it actually felt like it was only a week or so since the last time. Mrs C seemed happy with what she could manage and I enjoyed doing a different type of exercise.
I’m sure we will go again in the next week or so, but we’ve been warned that once there are guests back in the hotel, it is highly unlikely there will be any of these swimming slots available. I guess it will then be a case of waiting for social distancing restrictions to be fully relaxed so that we can go back to how it was before.