Saturday, April 6, 2019

Photo ID. Really?

This morning we decided to try swimming at the new Seton pool. It's a lovely facility. Pity about the rude surprise on trying to pay them. They want to see photo ID to get into the facility. They said something about a health and safety policy, but that's complete nonsense. What sort of policy needs photo ID?

There we were, willing to pay to get in for a one time visit, and they don't want our money. For a membership, I can see them wanting to know who their clients are, but a one time visit? I suspect it's to gather information for some purpose, or to keep out the riff riff, on the assumption they won't have photo ID. I had some, but wasn't going to swim alone.

I'm not inclined to go back, especially thinking of one pool where there is an armed guard near the front door, and they don't ask for photo ID.

Instead we went back to my old stomping grounds, Canyon Meadows pool. I swam in the medium speed lane, but could have kept up with the guys in the fast lane. Once my shoulder is feeling better I'll be swimming faster. The facility is much nicer now after the renovations. Then a lovely chatty breakfast after, for the best imaginable start to the weekend.

My Repsol membership expires in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering if I want to renew it. I love swimming there; the facility is amazing, if really busy sometimes. The City pools are not as nice, but they are $180 a year cheaper. Plus, it's about a 20 minute round trip to Canyon Meadows, and about 45 to 60 minute round trip to Repsol. Fine if I'm working downtown, but that won't be going on much longer either. Plus I could walk or ride my bike to Canyon Meadows. Decisions decisions.

One of the tough decisions to make in New Zealand, on a near daily basis, was what to do next. So many choices. One day we took a different route down the hill from our swanky digs in Wellington. It was neat, part of it a pedestrian path zigzagging down the hill between homes. I don't know where they park their cars. I was having fun imagining trying to follow directions to get to an AirBnB up that hill, towing luggage, at night, in the rain. When you get to the bottom, turn left and walk a bit, and look up you see this. That church is maybe a third of the way up the hill and it's even more up than it looks.


We were following the purple line.

It lead us past these, which I wanted to explore more, but there were other things to look at.

You'd think we were in some remote fishing village, but no. This is a stone's throw from the National Museum Te Papa in Wellington. The purple line was just outside it. This is the display outside the museum, and those rusty leftovers are just out of sight to the left of this photo.


This is the buildings on the usual route down the hill. It was pretty steep. I'd love to see the inside. I suspect it's just as classy as the outside.



Driftwood of the Day


2 comments:

  1. My buddy James says " "Nice driftwood photo", he says, revealing his artistic prejudices."

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  2. I agree with James. The curious and contented bird sat down. Cheers, Sean

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