Off to Chiswick swimming pool today for the lunchtime session of lane swimming (12-2.0pm).  This is a permanent fixture in the pool’s timetable and it’s usually a reminder of what Britain used to be – people politely swim up and down the designated three lanes and respectfully wait their turn if there is a log jam. Pensioners (some with floats), and even the occasional disabled swimmers who have to be lowered into the water, are the usual fare.  I love it.

Today we were all rudely brought into the 21^st Century.  At 1.40pm a pot bellied man brought his five children into the pool and they were away… dive bombing, shouting, splashing, swimming across us genteel folk, chucking balls and generally throwing the place into disarray. Some of us tried to swim round them but it was hopeless. An elderly lady pitifully asked me if she should get out. I told her she absolutely should not. She had paid to swim, albeit slowly, and she should just carry on.

After I was accidentally kicked by one of the louts cutting across my lane I asked the lifeguard if we were all mistaken about lane times. “No” she replied. “We have told them it’s lanes only until 2.0pm”. The mayhem continued.

Clearly the guards either didn’t care or, much more likely in my view, were too scared to intervene further.

Yesterday, the London Lite newspaper reported

A teenage boy is in hospital after being stabbed four times in a suspected gang fight at Chiswick railway station. The victim suffered three knife wounds in his side and a fourth in his back in yesterday's attack. He was in a stable condition today.

Am I bovvered?  You bet I am.