Oh, the horror...
Today, for the first time in several years - lets say this side of 2000 - I went swimming in a public pool. But that's not the fear-inspiring part (although, I must say, one look at the changerooms nearly changed my mind on that score).
I don't swim alot. We lived in a beachside suburb for five years and didn't get to the water often enough to warrant living there. Couple that with my freakish aversion to dry sand (it feels like dragging fingernails over a blackboard to me, LOL), and well, I never had the need to buy a swimsuit the whole time we lived there. Nearly two years ago now we moved 15 minutes away, a bit more inland but still close enough to drive to the beach regularly. And I still didn't need to bare my lily-white legs.
Back-tracking slightly...I'm a jeans girl. I wear jeans year round. Yes, even in summer. It's just my thing. I'm also this side of 'rubenesque'. Things wobble and sag and droop and flop. And the whole mess is criss-crossed with stretchmarks which, in some delicate places I won't mention, can be a full finger-breadth wide. If my hips are child-bearing badges of honour, then by rights I should have birthed triplets with each pregnancy. In short, swimsuits scare me to death.
But in a fit of 'Good Mummy' winning over 'Bad Mummy', I agreed to a friend's request to meet up at the local swimming pool, kids in tow. Master J has always had the benefit of regular swimming lessons accessed weekly via his special ed classrooms, and he's a great swimmer, but the younger two kids don't get to the pool anywhere near as often. Here in Australia, swimming lessons are usually offered as part of the public school curriculum somewhere in the vacinity of one lesson a day for a week-long (sometimes two weeks) stretch in one hit, once per year (twice if you're lucky). Boofah has done this twice since starting school nearly two years ago but Miss Moo has yet to experience it. Both kids are due for their next round of lessons via the school in a few weeks so today's little field trip was partly to ease them into it.
Anyhow...I had no swimsuit. And who buys a swimsuit at this time of year anyway? (Well, not many in the southern hemisphere anyway :P) All the end of season swimwear sales were long gone and I was left with one paltry rack of rejected pieces. No matter - I wasn't looking for The Perfect Swimsuit, just something 'adequate'. I fully intended wearing shorts and a t-shirt over the top anyway. The good news about only having three items to choose from was that no matter what I ended up with, it was going to be cheap. The store was desperate to get rid of the dregs and bikini bottoms were going for 50c apiece. Great, except there were no bikini tops. But aha! I'd come prepared. I actually ended up wearing a bra, a sporty type crop top thing over that, and then the t-shirt. And I picked up the first pair of shorts I found in my size. I probably looked a bit ridiculous wading into the pool in what amounted to street clothes, but who cares? I remembered to shave my legs...what more did they want? LOL.
The kids had bucketloads of fun so the nightmare of The Swimsuit That Wasn't was somewhat balanced out. But it did reinforce two things. First, there's a reason why I should exercise more regularly (*grin*) and second, at least I managed to circumvent the whole dry sand issue, LOL!
Cheers,
Lizzie
Today, for the first time in several years - lets say this side of 2000 - I went swimming in a public pool. But that's not the fear-inspiring part (although, I must say, one look at the changerooms nearly changed my mind on that score).
I don't swim alot. We lived in a beachside suburb for five years and didn't get to the water often enough to warrant living there. Couple that with my freakish aversion to dry sand (it feels like dragging fingernails over a blackboard to me, LOL), and well, I never had the need to buy a swimsuit the whole time we lived there. Nearly two years ago now we moved 15 minutes away, a bit more inland but still close enough to drive to the beach regularly. And I still didn't need to bare my lily-white legs.
Back-tracking slightly...I'm a jeans girl. I wear jeans year round. Yes, even in summer. It's just my thing. I'm also this side of 'rubenesque'. Things wobble and sag and droop and flop. And the whole mess is criss-crossed with stretchmarks which, in some delicate places I won't mention, can be a full finger-breadth wide. If my hips are child-bearing badges of honour, then by rights I should have birthed triplets with each pregnancy. In short, swimsuits scare me to death.
But in a fit of 'Good Mummy' winning over 'Bad Mummy', I agreed to a friend's request to meet up at the local swimming pool, kids in tow. Master J has always had the benefit of regular swimming lessons accessed weekly via his special ed classrooms, and he's a great swimmer, but the younger two kids don't get to the pool anywhere near as often. Here in Australia, swimming lessons are usually offered as part of the public school curriculum somewhere in the vacinity of one lesson a day for a week-long (sometimes two weeks) stretch in one hit, once per year (twice if you're lucky). Boofah has done this twice since starting school nearly two years ago but Miss Moo has yet to experience it. Both kids are due for their next round of lessons via the school in a few weeks so today's little field trip was partly to ease them into it.
Anyhow...I had no swimsuit. And who buys a swimsuit at this time of year anyway? (Well, not many in the southern hemisphere anyway :P) All the end of season swimwear sales were long gone and I was left with one paltry rack of rejected pieces. No matter - I wasn't looking for The Perfect Swimsuit, just something 'adequate'. I fully intended wearing shorts and a t-shirt over the top anyway. The good news about only having three items to choose from was that no matter what I ended up with, it was going to be cheap. The store was desperate to get rid of the dregs and bikini bottoms were going for 50c apiece. Great, except there were no bikini tops. But aha! I'd come prepared. I actually ended up wearing a bra, a sporty type crop top thing over that, and then the t-shirt. And I picked up the first pair of shorts I found in my size. I probably looked a bit ridiculous wading into the pool in what amounted to street clothes, but who cares? I remembered to shave my legs...what more did they want? LOL.
The kids had bucketloads of fun so the nightmare of The Swimsuit That Wasn't was somewhat balanced out. But it did reinforce two things. First, there's a reason why I should exercise more regularly (*grin*) and second, at least I managed to circumvent the whole dry sand issue, LOL!
Cheers,
Lizzie
4 comments:
Dear Lizzie
Boardshorts and rash vests are wonderful! They protect you from the sun and protect your modesty.
Love Wendy
That's just the thing! I couldn't find them ANYWHERE. They're sort of 'summery' clothing and most were sold out in the larger stores ages ago. I could have gone to a sports store but wasn't going to pay $70+ for something I might not need again for another 7 years, LOL.
Cheers,
Lizzie
Do you have factory outlets near you? I go to the Billabong factory shop. Maybe if you had the gear, you will go more often?
No, I don't think so really - I'm not a big swimmer. It was fun, but its not a burning desire to go again :P I was a bit pressed for time yesterday, was literally walking into Kmart 20mins before I was due to meet my friend at the pool. Possibly if I'd had more time I'd have tried to source it a little better, but its not a big deal :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
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