Excitingly, we now
have a pool. Actually "pool" is rather overstating it - it's more like a giant paddling pool but it comes with a pump and cover and we've bought a net to fish things out and you are supposed to put chlorine and things in it. We bought a kit but really the pool is so small it seems ridiculous to be faffing about worrying about ph balances so I think tipping the water out into the field regularly will be the easier way of keeping it clean. Perhaps the fact it came from the supermaket should have been a clue to it not really being a swimming pool like it says on the box (and indeed the fact that it came in a box.) We didn't buy the biggest one as we wanted Livi to be able to stand up in it, but I think we needn't have worried really. In theory ours is supposed to be 30 inches deep - it's probably more like 10. Part of the problem is finding a flat enough bit of land on our hill-top - even as it is it very much has a "deep end" and Robin, who is working with Alex on the roof at the mo - found that when he tried to fill his it ended up rolling off down the hill as it wasn't quite flat enough. Anyway here are a couple of pics - with Livi inexplicably dressed as Spiderman as the "pool" filled. It has really made me want a real pool though (the plan was it would be built before we came but hey ho the plan was also that the whole house would be ready about two years ago.) Maybe for next summer.....
Meantime, I have been thinking about the utter rubbishness of French pedestrian crossings. For some reason, probably because they went to lunch and forgot, no-one has bothered to synch up the crossings with what is happening at the traffic lights at the same junction. This means you can go through a green light, round a corner and be confronted by an old bloke/little kid crossing a pedestrian crossing because the green man is telling him to. Which to me seems to make the pedestrian crossings both pointless and dangerous. And I still haven't quite got to grips with whether or not you are supposed to stop for pedestrians on zebra crossings.
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Needless to say, given the circumstances, we nearly always stop if someone is waiting to cross - if only for the look of shock on their faces LOL!
As for the pool - looks similar to ours - our one is 4.5m across but only about 80cm deep - perfect for small kids. We do use chemicals and check pH and suchlike cos if you think O has any intention of jettisoning 5000L of water he's paid for..... Also, it is nice when it stays clean. Just a caution - the one year we used a cover on our pool, we had way more problems with algae than other years - the sun is great for prevention, so no sun, more green algae!! Don't use a cover now.
Have fun.
J
Lucky you on the no-water-bill - wonder why that's happened? Maybe they just haven't cottoned on that it's inhabited? My parents' place stayed on the old tax rate for years before they finally sussed after the census (or somesuch) that someone lives there - no back-dated catch-up though - phew!