New pool

I am a swimmer - it's my favourite method of keeping fit. I do a respectable backstroke, a rather strong breast-stroke and even taught myself a stylish front crawl a few years ago, since that part of my childhood swimming education had been sadly neglected.

So you would think I would be delighted to live just round the corner from Deptford's Wavelengths Leisure Centre. Harumph! Call that a pool? Not only is it a silly shape, the water far too warm and the swimming area blighted by huge slides (that are no longer in use as they are presumably unsafe) but the management's idea of an 'early bird' swim starts at 8am. At 8am I am usually on the train halfway into town.

Moreover, the 'lane-swimming' section is 12m long, the showers are communal and the changing area scruffy and dilapidated.

So you can appreciate that my visits to Wavelengths are confined to a weekly usage of the gym, although even this is rather patchy at the moment. The gym is Ohh Kay - at a push. Cheap and cheerful, and rather cramped if you get more than about five people in it. Meanwhile I'm still fascinated by the 'health suite' which contains sauna and steam room. On our 'induction' tour, myself and the Deptford Duke were warned that the behaviour of the health suite customers left a lot to be desired. There were even intimations that on Friday nights, said customers brought food in and cooked it on the heat of the sauna bricks, after which it was consumed. There was no explanation as to why these particular customers had not been evicted and their membership cards revoked. So it still holds a certain mystery cache to me.

But now, all is changing! Enter the plans for the new 25m pool; construction started in January and is forging ahead, if reports are to be believed! Whether or not the opening hours will be any more accommodating to those of us who have to travel some distance to work, remains to be seen. But it's a start. As long as it doesn't end up with a debacle like that at Ladywell, we should be ok.