I walked along the tiles towards the pool. The sunlight shimmered on the surface of the silvery swimming pool, and the clock showed 12:30pm. I was going to learn to swim.
David was already in the pool with his Mum and sister. David had once said that swimming was easy, but now surrounded by floats, he looked helpless. He was wearing a rubber ring and two orange arm bands. He looked like the Michelin Man! Ha!
A burly looking lifeguard was perched on a platform, and a female swimming teacher was picking her way through the crowds towards me. She was wearing the same clothes as the big man, white t-shirt with a small red logo, blue shorts, and had a whistle hooked around her neck. She had long flowing blonde hair and pale blue eyes.
She reached me and began to describe how to enter the pool safely. She described it in steps, bit by bit.
"Walk over to the ladder, climb down it facing the ladder, then once fully in the water, let go."
I nervously walked over to the ladder and began to climb down. I was about three steps from the surface when the instructor told me I was doing it wrong.
"Try to avoid looking down and keep your body straighter... yes, that's it..."
I lowered myself step by step towards the water, when I felt my foot slip from the ladder... I fell into the ice cold water and began to sink...
The life-guard hurried over knelt down, and pulled me up with a firm grip.
"This is an armband" she said pulling out an exact replica of the object David had around his arms.
"Now you put them around your arms like this..." she said, slipping it onto her arm. "It is a float and helps to prevent you from sinking."
She removed it from her arm and gave it to me. Thanks I thought.
"Now try it out, get into the pool and kick your legs through the water and then that'll be the end of your first lesson."
