So you want a swimming pool. I know I do but that's because my
body is getting flabbier as I get older and I want a pool for 2 reasons.
I hope by exercising in a swimming pool it will tone my muscles, help
me loose some of my flab and make me fitter and the other reason is I
don't want to scare people when I use a shared pool. When I'm in a
public swimming pool people think there's a whale loose in it when it's
only me. Oh dear, I think I need to diet as well.
I spent last
summer vacationing in Europe. I started in London - it rained, travelled
through France and stayed in an old converted remote farmhouse with its
own pool and then travelled down through Spain to the Costa del Sol
where I then spent 3 weeks in a villa high in the Andalusian mountains
with stunning sea and mountain views and of course its own swimming
pool. Both pools were unique and were self-builds. The swimming pool in
Spain had been built by the villa owner, a great guy called John, who
was an ex pat builder from London. The swimming pool he had built was 25
ft by 32 ft. It wasn't square, the floor wasn't level, the tiling
wasn't level, the slope of the floor wasn't even, and you know, it was
the best swimming pool I've ever been in. It was great.
I had
travelled to Spain to see the area as its somewhere I had always wanted
to visit on a vacation and do you know, I need to go back as I didn't
see a great deal of it. I spent most of the 3 weeks I was there in the
pool. The swimming pool had what they call in England, rustic charm. The
sides were not straight, the floor tiles were slightly uneven and the
floor sloped ever so slightly from side to side but taken with the
converted stables, now a villa, and the country setting it worked and
worked very well. It was the best swimming pool I've ever been in. If I
was building a swimming pool this is how I would build it. However, a
swimming pool like this would not work with a new build house, it just
wouldn't suit it.
Take the swimming pool in France. This was much
more of a modern pool but again was in a countryside setting so a really
formal new swimming pool wouldn't work and I'm pleased to say that this
wasn't a formal swimming pool although at least everything was straight
like the sides of the pool. Again, the design was something I had never
seen before. The swimming pool sloped down from the shallow end but at a
certain point, the deep part fell away on all 4 sides to become 12 ft
deep. However, it had an underwater ledge about 3 ft below the surface
all the way round the pool. It was great for chasing the kids round the
pool, or for them chasing me, and we had a fantastic holiday with 2
fantastic pools.
The trouble was though that although I had a very
long vacation, I didn't see a great deal of France or Spain except when
we were travelling. The reason, well I'm sure you can guess. If not
here's a clue. I had 2 fantastic swimming pools. I am sure I can
describe the swimming pools better than the countryside local to where I
stayed. I'll have to go back next year and try again but I know I'll be
distracted by the swimming pools when choosing somewhere to stay. Then
again I could try a mountain cabin with a lake to swim in. That's
something I've always thought would be fun. It's a tough choice, lake or
swimming pool. Maybe I can try both or better still perhaps its time I
built my own swimming pool at home.
