Friends and neighbours

 Dear Marmite

I have been in my new house almost a month and a half and I am coming to realise what lovely neighbours I have. There are G&T sessions on The Green; a village pub that knew aready who I was when I popped in; and the latest addition to grace the neighbourhood are the nesting pigeons in my tree just in front of my balcony. I have to say I would have preferred a slightly more exclusive sort of bird - particularly considering the tone of the neighbourhood. I think of pigeons as rats with feathers and as you well know, rats are not my fave rave sort of animal to put it mildly.

Because of my regular jaunts to the local pool, I am getting to know some of the swimmers who I often get to see. In fact there has been a few times I have come away thinking how much I had exercised my jaw as opposed to the rest of my body. The clientele are mostly lovely people and I feel quite a camarardarie although there are exceptions. The problem is that with limited lane space there is no escape from the  plonkers who are the exceptions.

These plonkers are almost always male and mid thrities to mid fifties. Yesterday morning Mr Oddball - a prize plonker - turned up for his swim. He is not a popular chap at all. He swims reasonably fast but with an awkward style that takes up far too much width room. Mr Whizz in the lane next to mine complained about him being obnoxious and hogging too much space yesterday so Mr Oddball got moved to my lane by the lifeguard. Once he was in my lane, he swam straight into me - Twat!

After the swim, Mr Whizz and another very nice lady whose name I don't know shared their dismay of such swimmers. I personally think the management should give this type of person a pink swim cap so that when you get to decide which lane you swim in you can spot the potential dickheads much more easily. This idea has traction, I reckon.

Today, Mr Oddball was back again. He stopped me from swimming to apologise for swimming into me yesterday. Then he told me it was the other lady's fault for being in the same lane. What sort of apology is that, I ask you? 

After he got out another gentleman got into the lane and the different, other lady said to me, we've got a guest. Mr Whizz then said he hoped he wasn't a "pink cap". He wasn't. He was lovely. We even had quite a chat in the showers afterwards. Nice people make my day. 

I imagine that should the management take up my idea of offering pink swim caps to the obnoxious few, the outlay would be minimal. I expect Amazon could offer a good discount on a bulk order. So for very little money spent and minimal effort, the swimming pool could become a truly wonderful place to be all the time.

The world really is mostly nice. There are other lovely places to be besides home and the swimming pool. The Community Orchard is a wonderful place to gather too. People use the area to sit and soak up nature. When I popped in to do my watering duty - yes, I am watering despite the weather - a couple were sitting on one of the benches. They told me how they appreciated all the work people put in to make it the place it is. That was so lovely to hear when so mny people only say something what they want to complain. 

Yes Marms, my world truly is a wonderful place. I know yours is as well. 

Keep smiling.

I love you

XXX