Catastrophe at the pool

[shewhomust]

The pool was closed yesterday - well, naturally, you don't expect leisure facilities to be open on a public holiday, do you? - so we went swimming this morning. So there I was, just starting to swim up and down, reflecting that the adjustable depth had been set to shallow again, and that the water was on the cold side (which was quite pleasant after the initial shock) but that at least they seemed to have decided against having music in the changing rooms (I beg its pardon, Changing Village), so on the whole, things were going well.

Hah. And that's when the music started, in the pool.

I got out and asked the pool attendants / lifeguards if anything could be done about it, and the young man said, quite properly, that he couldn't leave the pool, but that when his break came in ten minutes time, he would ask reception to turn it down.

I don't like background music at any time. If I want to listen to music, I want to listen to music, and if I don't want to listen to music, I don't want to hear it. And I find strong percussion peculiarly upsetting. I don't know whether this particular music had been remixed to give a strong beat, or whether it was just the nature of the amplification that brought out the bass. Either way, I have my own rythm when I'm swimming, and this wasn't it.

I struggled on, stopped, started again, and eventually gave up and left the pool. (I half hoped there'd be someone I could talk to in the changing rooms, but there were no staff visible at all, so I cut my losses and got dressed).

At reception I asked to speak to whoever controlled the music in the pool, and the counter staff called down a young woman called Charlotte (that's the thing I wanted to make a note of) who is, if I'm remembering this correctly, Leisure Services Manager. She told me that, while the presence of music in the pool is a result of the design of the building, if I asked the attendants it could be turned off.

So next time, I suppose, I need to ask before I go into the pool whether music is now playing, or is likely to be playing, and if so, for it to be turned off. And meanwhile I've only swum about half the distance I should, and I'm all jittery. Damn.

Comments

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Interesting that cinderberry has just made a post about the same place, the difference being that we were downstairs and she was upstairs. I agree with you about the music, which I suspect is there for the entertainment of the staff who have a fairly boring job making sure we don't drown, rather than for the punters.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've been by the pool hundreds of times but have never been tempted to swim there (not a swimmer, me). But I totally sympathise with the music grumping. I find much of current music to be really annoying (gets ready to hit kids with my cane) and having it enforced upon me would chase me away too.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

That's the perfect icon for how I feel right now; I shall try to be a nicer person tomorrow!

[cellio]

I don't understand the increasing "need" to fill the world with background music. There's now music in the outdoor patio outside my office. Were it not for that, the benches, flowers, and bubbling fountain would make this a nice place to relax, eat lunch, or just sit and chat.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Yes; and this in an age when anyone who actually does feel the need for perpetual music has their own selection on an mp3 player anyway...

[artistatlarge.livejournal.com]

How annoying! It was one of my most enduring criticisms of three of my previous gyms: the background music, played at sufficient volume to drown out whatever was on my own headphones. It always made me feel like a cranky old cane-waver constantly asking the desk staff to please lower the volume, which almost invariably led to a tight smile and a barely perceptible reduction.

One of the things I cherish about the YMCA: no music, ever. Bring your own. And what is so wrong about a meditative silence as one sweats?

I think durham_rambler is dead right in his assessment.