Friday 9th July 2010

We decided to go to the pool later in the morning. The details in our Welcome pack said it was open 9 -5. When we arrived there at 11:40 we were told by a lad that the pool was closing shortly for lunch. He pointed to listed opening times on the door that confirmed this. Jan was furious that these times didn’t tally with those in our welcome pack. She yelled at the lad who went to fetch the barely older manager. When the duo of lifeguards had been duly shouted at, Jan marched into Reception Office for further denunciations. At the reception desk they conceded with raised furrowed eye brows that there was a disparity in the listed opening times. That work in progress, the complaint form, beckoned.

I took Ed away. It seemed that the young workers on the front line who are probably not paid enough were getting an earful when all the while, as is the modern way, the managers were removed from things, out of sight and out of the site. I learnt that the manager was, in fact, resting after the heady experience of attending a conference.

We returned to the pool when it opened in the afternoon. I felt that the lifeguards were eyeing us wearily, perhaps waiting for Jan to come near enough to breaking one of the many pool rules so they could blow their whistle, shout a caution and high five each other.

We attended the Site’s Entertainment Hall in the evening for our penultimate meal out on our last day. There had apparently been a revolving door of chefs all week usually departing when finding the place to be quiet and food orders rare. The guys behind the bar showed us a skeleton menu. I had vegetable lasagna which was recognizable as a pre packaged supermarket type. The main reason we had come was for the mini disco but this was at too late an hour and as a tiring Ed got tetchy, we retired early to assemble our bags for leaving tomorrow.