In one of the latest racist incidents to go viral, a white man was caught on camera asking a black woman whether her young daughter had showered before using the hotel pool where both were guests! They were the only people of a different race at the hotel at the time and the only ones he asked, and the lady was offended. I would have been too because this was clearly a racial jab playing into the stereotype that black people are “dirty”, in much the same way some people think all Africans are infested with disease but I digress. What I wanted to say is that I don’t use public pools myself purely for health reasons even though I took dips in the lake and several ponds throughout my teens. What can I say? I know better now! You don’t know what’s in that water and what people do while in there and even if everybody showered before hitting the pool, there’s no guarantee they won’t spit, sneeze or pee in the water and I don’t want anything to do with that. Lucky for me, I’m not even keen on swimming. My favourite Sport is Walking. Effortless and free! Try it! I have friends who go swimming every now and then. Obviously, they don’t own pools and so have to do with the communal pool at the gym or anywhere they can find one. Every time they tell me about the cloudy water or sticky handrails, I ask why they keep going back. Draining, cleaning and refilling pools is costly and I can tell you very few pool owners bother to do any of that so you could be swimming in months’ old water and if you’re okay with that, then go ahead but you couldn’t pay me to get in there. Reminds me of Fast Food Restaurants. How often do you think they change that oil used to fry the fish, chicken and chips patrons turn up for? You think they’d pour it down the drain if they found flies or other bugs in it? I don’t think so and I’m sure there’s a lot more than over-fried onion rings and potato skins! I just ruined your appetite, didn’t I? Well maybe we should all cut back on eating out and save our hard-earned money! I’ve seen waiters and waitresses accidentally drop serving tongs only to pick them up and place them right back without rinsing them off first. How about food warmers and display containers? They aren’t cleaned as often as they should be. This is why I only go for pre-packed ketchup and the occasional ice cream although when you think about it, everything you don’t make yourself was prepared by someone else and only God knows how the food was handled!
