I´m still trying to get the Germans to relax their attitude to the pool. In the region where I live, the locals are ´famous´for their unthinking obedience to every rule imaginable. And then they seem to have added a few of their own. Here´s an example. There seems to be an unwritten rule amongst the swimmers that they must sit and chat until it´s quarter to the hour. Then they all get up, walk to the stairs which go up to the cash desk, line up at the foot of the stairs and stay there until it´s 2 minutes to the hour when they climb up. Not a second before do they do this. I, of course, ignore this. I simply walk in, say ´good moaning´ (fans of Állo Allo will understand this), then go up the stairs to a chorus of ´nein´. Today a new person came to the pool, someone who didn´t know the `rule`. She walked straight up to the cash desk and waited. I allowed the 2 people who were at the pool before me to go ahead of me in the queue (I can be polite if I want to be). The cashier opened her little window and there was a tense discussion between the newcomer and the old hand about who should put their money in first. The oldie insisted she had precedence because she was at the pool first, the newbie insisted it didn´t really matter but because she had waited at the cash desk while the older one sat downstairs, she should pay first. The oldie really complained about this to anyone who would listen. I just bit my lip trying not to laugh. What the newbie didn´t know was, before her arrival, the two oldies had been complaining about the youth of today. The usual gripes, no respect, no aptitute for learning, never amount to anything. Aristotle said the same things about the youth of his day.

Another interesting new character arrived today. Hands up who´s seen the Pam Anderson Tommy Lee tape? I´ve only seen the part where he uses his manhood to blow the horn on the boat. There was a guy today who was hung like Tommy Lee. And he was wearing Speedos. AND he emerged from the cold water pool - definitely no shrinkage factor, or if that was shrinkage, god knows what it would look like normally. Everyone, men and women, had their mouths hanging open. He was impressive, so say the least. Hope he comes again next week.