Went to "ladies only" swimming on Wednesday night

Not just at your pool, thats why i stopped going to mine. i used to deliberatly kick people as i was swimming past them?

Nope. Thats all pools. Sometimes they do one length and then stand and chat for 15 minutes. Always full of women swimming with their glasses on not getting their hair wet.

There have adults only sessions at my local pool 8-10 on a night. Some nights it's fine but there are regularly women who do as you say, chatting whilst lazily going up and down the pool taking up loads of space and frustrating the life out of me! I don't understand them. It's like the women who read books on exercise bikes at my gym!

Was that at Hitchin?

I know what you mean!

When I used to go I'd get there for 8pm on the dot and bagsy a place by the rope and then swim up and down in the same place (in the last bigger lane)

They seem to range from slow slow chatty dears to speedy people in hats & goggles oh and don't get me started on the aquasize, I'm sure half of them are there for a chat too!

No Biggleswade. May try Hitchin again, but stopped going as I used to go straight after work and there were two many children.

Did you know they're building a new sports centre in Stotfold/Arlesey (well if there's any money now they've stopped building the Stotfold development), and it's probably going to have a pool

When I went to ladies night, I was the youngest there by about 30 years, couldn't swim a single length and I couldn't get into the jacuzzi. ?

<snigger>

can't they rope off some lanes for people who want to swim rather than socialise? might be worth asking

The last time I went swimming at my gym's pool, there were three of us in the "medium" paced lane doing lengths at a decent pace and there were a few older ladies in the "slower" lane meandering up and down. Enter three girls in their 20s in bikinis who decided to opt for the "medium" paced lane. They got in and proceeded to do what can only be described as "aquacise" moves about half way along the lane. This didn't last long once they realised that with our heads down and doing crawl, we couldn't see them and collided with them a few times. I think they gave up at that point and opted for a jacuzzi instead. ?

Suffice it to say, I haven't swam since.

That would be nice but as you say all house building seems to have stopped at the mo so doubt we'll see that for a few years maybe at the same time they ever get round to building the new centre parcs

Stevenage is just as bad, used to go on a tuesday but gave up in the end!

I wonder why they still do ladies only nights? You'd think that it would be disallowed for discriminatory purposes wouldn't you.

There used to be a few ladies only sessions at the Aquatics Centre in Manchester. I never went, but I did hear of a session where they forgot to put the blinds down, which pretty much defeated the object. ?

I must admit, I thought ladies only sessions was for women who were unable to swim at other times because of religious beliefs.

In defence of the slow arses (although I'm not one myself) some people do swim for pleasure, just to get a bit of light workout. We can't all go flat out. ? And if they don't put a slow lane in they have to go somewhere.

I don't have a problem with slow swimmers (I don't go underwater myself - not for hair reasons, just cos I am a fraidy cat!) but I do take issue with those who take up a lot of space and just spend time gabbing. There is precious little time to get in my pool without the kids in it as it is, so having to find gaps around Irene and Rita whilst they talk about their next holiday to Spain gets on my tits!

I don't think it has anything to do with religious beliefs - because more often than not there's a male lifeguard on anyway. I always just assumed it was a marketing thing - some women don't like being seen in their costumes, so there's a market for restricting the audience!

My pool is the same - the 'dry hair 2-abreast' brigade! I do think good on 'em for getting in. It works at my pool because it's a lanes only session with slow / medium / fast - so you can pretty much avoid them.

I don't mind the slowness (even if I do laugh at the heads above water thing!) or the resting at either end. As I say - good on 'em for going. But the 2-abreast thing is rude. As is getting in the flipping way when resting - how hard is it to keep to one side of the lane?!!

And whilst I'm ranting...

If I am 'considerably faster than yow', have lapped you but can't overtake because of others, then PLEASE just stop at the end for a second and let me pass. It's only good manners.

And... (oooh, I'm fired up now!) If you have just rested for 10 minutes gassing to your mate, and I am just coming in to turn, again at a rate that is 'considerably faster than yow' why can you not just rest an extra TWO SECONDS and let me turn first?!!!

It really annoys me (can you tell?) because I'm frequently the slow one in the medium lane, and I do everything I can, timing rests, pulling in, changing strokes, to make sure I don't cause a bottleneck. And it's not that hard to do!