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Why I want a swimming pool
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By Ric Wiley
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So you want a swimming pool. I know I do but that's because mybody is getting flabbier as I get older and I want a pool for 2reasons. I hope by exercising in a swimming pool it will tone mymuscles, help me loose some of my flab and make me fitter andthe other reason is I don't want to scare people when I use ashared pool. When I'm in a public swimming pool people thinkthere's a whale loose in it when it's only me. Oh dear, I thinkI 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 oldconverted remote farmhouse with its own pool and then travelleddown through Spain to the Costa del Sol where I then spent 3weeks in a villa high in the Andalusian mountains with stunningsea and mountain views and of course its own swimming pool. Bothpools were unique and were self-builds. The swimming pool inSpain had been built by the villa owner, a great guy calledJohn, who was an ex pat builder from London. The swimming poolhe had built was 25 ft by 32 ft. It wasn't square, the floorwasn't level, the tiling wasn't level, the slope of the floorwasn't even, and you know, it was the best swimming pool I'veever been in. It was great.
I had travelled to Spain to see the area as its somewhere I hadalways wanted to visit on a vacation and do you know, I need togo back as I didn't see a great deal of it. I spent most of the3 weeks I was there in the pool. The swimming pool had what theycall in England, rustic charm. The sides were not straight, thefloor tiles were slightly uneven and the floor sloped ever soslightly from side to side but taken with the converted stables,now a villa, and the country setting it worked and worked verywell. It was the best swimming pool I've ever been in. If I wasbuilding 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 modernpool but again was in a countryside setting so a really formalnew swimming pool wouldn't work and I'm pleased to say that thiswasn't a formal swimming pool although at least everything wasstraight like the sides of the pool. Again, the design wassomething I had never seen before. The swimming pool sloped downfrom the shallow end but at a certain point, the deep part fellaway on all 4 sides to become 12 ft deep. However, it had anunderwater ledge about 3 ft below the surface all the way roundthe pool. It was great for chasing the kids round the pool, orfor them chasing me, and we had a fantastic holiday with 2fantastic 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 weretravelling. The reason, well I'm sure you can guess. If nothere's a clue. I had 2 fantastic swimming pools. I am sure I candescribe the swimming pools better than the countryside local towhere I stayed. I'll have to go back next year and try again butI know I'll be distracted by the swimming pools when choosingsomewhere to stay. Then again I could try a mountain cabin witha lake to swim in. That's something I've always thought would befun. It's a tough choice, lake or swimming pool. Maybe I can tryboth or better still perhaps its time I built my own swimmingpool at home.
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