Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

Lukewarm response to pools water loss

14/6/2011

THERE are some uncharitable folk out there who reckon that many people working for local councils are nothing but drips.

That's not very fair and recent items in the news about the state of the Mount Lukewarm Pools shouldn't colour our opinions of the hard-working paperclip collectors of TCC and its associated bodies like Tauranga City Aquatics (TCAL), which runs the city's pools.

So what if staff at the Lukewarm Pools didn't listen carefully enough to regular users who said something was wrong as the formerly hot liquid they soaked in was becoming much more tepid.

So what if they didn't notice the small bubbles bursting forth from the waters of the children's and passive pools - they were, after all, used by kids and the elderly - and gaseous emissions from them would be a much easier explanation than the possibility of any leaks.

And so what that not one person within the walls of TCAL, or the hallowed halls of the city paperpushers, matched an unexplained drop in water temperature to the possibility of it being because major amounts of unheated water was flowing into the pools to top them up.

Even when it was strikingly obvious to thermometer-waving pool users there was a problem.

No, the attitude was, we're the experts, you're only the patrons, what do you know. So just how much water was gurgling out of the pools?

Only about 50,000 litres a day, or 350,000 litres a week.

That's the equivalent of an average sized swimming pool soaking into the ground every seven days.

********

AH, DON'T you love some of the people you meet while going about your everyday business?

My favourite of the week was the bloke standing outside an entrance to Bayfair on Saturday morning.

He was in his mid-20s, I guess, had a cool cap on and was too busy scribbling away on a project to notice me.

I would have picked him to be a type who couldn't write, unless he was taught in prison, but there he was doing what could have been a rather nice Kanji symbol from Japanese.

Only it wasn't.

At 10.45am on a busy Saturday in full view of anyone passing by, this erk was graffiti-ing on a painted metal strut of the covered carpark.

I stopped about a metre and a half from him and it took him a few seconds to realise I was there. He looked up, got the shock of his life and then stared. I stared back.

Now the Moore stare can be a fearsome thing and this chap did have enough braincells to sensibly remove himself from sight.

You'll be pleased to know I reported the bloke and, hopefully, the security guards got him.

*******

I KNOW the weather has been pretty mild for this time of the year, however, when I go out exercising I tend to rug up.

Track pants, thick sweatshirt and nice woolly socks. The perfect outfit for cycling, walking or running.

So just why on Earth a chap would want to go for a jog starkers at McLaren Falls park is beyond my understanding.

Temperature aside, there are bits on blokes that really shouldn't be waved in the breeze while exercising.

Anyway the man, in his 40s, was nabbed by the rozzers (so to speak) and arrested, although was let off with a stern warning.

The cops said he thought himself a naturist and didn't think he was doing anything bad.

********

NOW the British have always been great sailors with the likes of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Horatio Nelson leading the way. Add Captain James Cook to that list and - thanks to him - we now live Downunder.

However, there is one Brit who won't go down in history as much of a sailor, or being a very sensible chap for that matter.

Mark Wilkinson from Dorset wanted a boat and so purchased one. It was a brave buy as the vessel was named Titanic II.

The 4.8 metre cabincruiser was a little beauty.

Well ... little, more than beautiful, and he took it on its maiden voyage out from the West Bay harbour.

He had a great trip but, on the way back home, his brand new buy promptly sank. He had to be fished out of the briney and couldn't see the funny side of the story.

''It's all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg.''

richard@richardmoore.com