At the moment we are regular visitors to a local swimming pool where we take the grandkids for swimming lessons. We just sit in the spectators' area, drink coffee and do an encouraging wave every now and then. Apart from kids having lessons and all the usual messing about in the main pool, there is generally an example of the long distance female cruiser.
These are woman past the first flush of youth who swim sedately up and down the pool using a slow but highly economical breast stroke. Even those with grey hair look as if they could swim for miles and for all I know some of them do.
They don’t splash like everyone else, but merely create a modest bow wave in their stately end to end progress. Often they don’t even need a swimming cap because there is no possibility of emerging with wet hair at the end of the session. I saw a good example of that the other day, a woman cruising up and down the pool with completely dry hair and to my inexpert eye full makeup too. Maybe the makeup was waterproof, but it didn’t need to be.
5 comments:
My stepmother was renowned for that - I've seen her swim out from the shore (in Spain) with full make-up, a lit cigarette in her mouth and curlers in her hair, to emerge from the waves, still with the fag in her mouth and make-up and hair dry. She was 88 at the time.
Perhaps older women float higher in the water?
Have you heard them hum 'I'm gonna live forever'.
"These are woman past the first flush of youth"
:)
I used to be a regular swimmer until I realised that it is the most boring-snoring pastime with the exception of golf! So after a couple of times up and down I would then retreat to a corner in the shallow end and carry out some exercises in the water. After half an hour and being totally knackered, I would ask one of the more attractive female pool attendants to help me out of the pool! Such fun!
Ed - that reminds me of one of Victoria Wood's stories about women doing side-stroke in the swimming baths so they could keep their cigarettes dry.
Roger - they don't make a sound, not even a ripple. It could almost be spooky.
James - oops :)
David - ah, so that was the attraction.
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