Sporty seniors in the swim
THERE is something I should have let you know several months ago and now the weather is becoming warmer I need to share it: the Fiji Sports Council has established a special entry fee for Seniors to use the Aquatic Centre and the Gymnasium.
Us oldies can now toddle on a treadmill until we drop or swim ourselves silly for just one dollar a time.
I'd like to think I was at least partly responsible for this excellent scheme, which has followed other benefits for being old, such as some free bus fares.
If you think it makes up for being amongst those whose FNPF pensions were slashed by about half several years ago, seemingly because we had lived too long and were costing too much – it doesn't. But it does help the old budget.
Having reached an age at which I have grandchildren, I have now entered a more active phase of life. It involves a lot of fetching and carrying of said children and taking them to various activities.
I'd like to say that in my day the only scheduled after-school activity was doing homework, feeding the duck and setting the table for dinner.
That would be a bit wrong, however, because out of the two-day weekend, my grandmother made sure at least one and a half days were consumed by activities that took me outside the house and away from her.
There was some sort of girls' club, then Brownies, and a rather strange Sunday School that was held at the tennis club. I think I was persuaded to leave that at an early age when I refused to sign the pledge to never take strong drink.
I explained to grandma that I didn't even like the taste of beer at that point, but may change my mind later. How right I was, I would hate to be burdened with guilt as well as regret for overindulgence and a headache.
She soon found something else worthy and possibly healthy for me to do on Sunday.
It's not that I get rid of my grandchildren by enlisting them in multiple activities because I go along too, at least for some of them.
There was a long phase of swimming lessons and now swim training for the elder grandchild. The younger one is waiting for the Olympics Committee to legalise the 'one foot on the bottom' swimming race.
The training goes on three afternoons a week, and I was finding the $5 entry fee over the top. Even a season ticket was steep for persons of limited income.
When I had previously inquired about Seniors' rates, I was first given an illicit discount by mistake and then informed, politely, that there was no such thing. Sad but undefeated, I wrote what I thought was an appealing letter to the sports authorities – to the wrong one, as it happened, but it all got sorted in the end.
I explained that not only was I compulsorily at the pool three days a week minimum or more if children wanted to do random swimming, but swimming was also my gig. Other forms of exercise were inappropriate for my aging body.
For instance healthy walking, even with a hiking stick, was often extremely painful because of arthritis in the feet. I might be able to totter around the supermarket, but a jolly jaunt along the seawall is not my bag at all.
I'd be the one sitting on the seawall as soon as the grandchildren and their mother had marched off into the distance, to assurances that I would catch them up as soon as I'd had a puff of my asthma medicine. As if.
I also put forward the strong argument that a little latitude on entry fees for the wrinklies could keep us fitter and less of a burden on the health system.
I am truly delighted and grateful that the Sports Council decided to introduce affordable entry fees at both pool and gym for Seniors. I'm not sure when exactly you become senior in Fiji. Many seem to regard it as over about 25 or a sprightly 50, and some appear to be downright astonished that people can live to more than 70. I think your FNPF pension card will get you through.
Now what we need is for some enterprising local fashion designer to do a line of swimwear for the older woman. Something comfortable but more covering than the usual training togs.
I feel compassion for those who see me slip out of my sulu and expose my baggy body everywhere that it isn't crammed into the nylon sock-style swimsuit. I long for something that doesn't make me look part-beachball with a uni-bosom and training goggles.
On the plus side, maybe this affordable swimming schedule will make me lose a little weight as well as gain some fitness. The views expressed are the author’s and not of this newspaper.
I’d like to say that in my day the only scheduled afterschool activity was doing homework, feeding the duck and setting the table for dinner.