With one day to go I was determined to tick off a couple of my Edinburgh resolutions. Shortly after moving into Pollock Halls, I realised the Commonweath Pool was right on my doorstep. I had been meaning to go swimming every day but hadn’t managed it. But I must. I had brought my guitar all the way to Edinburgh and not played it. I didn’t want to have done the same thing with my swimming cossie.

So, after letting the complimentary Pollock Hall breakfast settle, I ventured forth. The Commonwealth pool is, as you might imagine, huge. It has diving boards and several different pools. I didn’t try them but it meant the kids in the pool were kept busy on their side and the adults could do very sensible lengths of the pool on the other. Great. Five stars.

Another swimmer was kind enough to take this picture of me cutting through the water. No, it is me. No, really.

I did twenty lengths breaststroke and a couple front crawl for good measure. I felt very good about myself until I tried to clamber out of the pool and gravity bore down on me.

Victory!

There was something that took me a while to figure out: a box of blue plastic socks. And a sign saying “Blue shoes must be worn at all times”. Well, I had my blue deck shoes on so I figured I was fine. But afterward I saw people wearing them over
their shoes. I didn’t do that. But then, I imagine, nor would Jack Bauer.

The route I took directly from Pollock Halls meant I discovered a bowling green and a nice hidden bit of greenery. Ace.

You’ll notice that, in the style of Twilight and other brilliant films, I am dividing this last day of blogging into more than one entry in order to eek out the franchise. So:

To be continued…