Letters to the editor

I had occasion to go to CBay for a swim last week after time out because of holidays and pool maintenance. We are not able to get to the pool before 10am so we were late, only to be met with children doing dive bombs in lane 9 which we like because there is usually more room.

We were told the children were allowed in that part of the pool after 10am. I was given to understand that lane 9 was reserved for aqua joggers. All the rest of the pool was clear and they could have had just as much fun.

Now, you could say we could have gone to that part of the pool, but I have a cracked back and I need to exercise my legs and use one of the flotation belts.

I was being drenched by the children when one very kind mother sorted them out. I find the life guards seem to do a lot of yawning and standing around doing nothing to check the children.

One young lad was very considerate and signalled to me if it was OK to jump in while I was down the other end and I signalled back that it was. When I got down the other end I thanked him for his consideration.

I like children but they do need supervision and a lot of the life guards don’t seem to do it. I noticed quite a few new faces there this time so the council needs to organise better supervision or whoever is the pool manager.

One other complaint I have is the showers; they are getting quite scruffy looking and need upgrading with a few extra showers for the elderly.

The children are screaming and shouting, it’s bedlam sometimes. Some elderly have hearing aids and it’s awfully uncomfortable with the loud noise. One day all these children will be old and will understand what it is like to feel so uncomfortable. I may have trod on some toes with these comments but it needs to be said. I am speaking up for all those elderly people who go to the pool.

Frances Hughes

Temuka

CBay recreation facilities manager Craig Motley replied: We’re sorry the correspondent didn’t enjoy their visit to CBay, and we would be happy to discuss their concerns, and any improvements they think we could make, on their next visit.

Amazing what a couple of days can do to newspaper headlines. The Timaru Herald (November 19) in an article by Marc Hinton proclaimed, ‘‘All Blacks to sign off on high note’’. Unfortunately we know now they ran out of notes and some might say, replaced them with bum notes.

So by November 21, Hinton reports ‘‘All Blacks rue late melt down’’. An ice hard sure win to the All Blacks was turned by England, in the last 10 minutes, into an All Black slushie.

Hinton also wrote ‘‘Remember they (AB’s) also saw an 18-point advantage gobbled up in the final quarter against the Wallabies . . . Even the previous weekend against Scotland they saw an early 14-0 lead quickly gobbled up by the hosts’’.

It seems the All Blacks can switch from 70 minute wonders to turkeys in the last minutes of a game. The English knocked the stuffing out of the All Blacks. Let’s hope they start the new year with a better recipe and don’t get cooked in a cauldron by the French in the Rugby World Cup.