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

[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.