Mui Wo public pool has only four lanes, with no separate training or babies' pools.
In most places, this would mean a ban on private swimming lessons but in Mui Wo, they close half the pool instead – during peak hours (Saturday morning).
So 30 members of the paying public have to squeeze into one half of the pool while eight privileged learners have the other half to themselves.
To make matters worse, the lifeguards spend all their time enforcing the "reserved" rule by chasing swimmers over to the other side. These are the same lifeguards who turn a blind eye to the numerous soakers, cannonball divers, splashers and even water pistol users on the hoi polloi half annoying the lap swimmers.
Up to a couple of weeks ago, they followed the usual rule of closing one lane for lap swimmers only. That was really good as the lap swimmers are a generally well-behaved bunch, swimming in the prescribed clockwise direction and giving way to stronger swimmers.
But this ridiculous way of dividing the pool, the place is now totally chaotic.
I wonder how much it would cost to reserve a lane to myself. It should be value for money, seeing as it comes with at least four lifeguards to enforce my reservation. Anyone wants to chip in?
