Swimming pool

Super hot today, like yesterday. Met Carlos, Tana, Taro and Hana at the Palo Alto swimming pool. By the time they arrived we had been told off various times for breaking virtually every rule in the book. Aisha's armbands were not US coastguard approved. I argued better that than nothing at all but apparently nothing at all is better - otherwise some other parents might complain (though I do see their point of avoiding the "thin end of the wedge", plus it forced me to pay more attention to Aisha). Then Aisha decided she wanted to go "au naturel", which also wasn't allowed. Plus we ran (to avoid burning our feet), which could cause a fall (you'd think architects would have figured a way to put white non-slip floors round a pool by now, this isn't the first time we've encountered this problem). But this is pretty muck par for the course, except for the armbands - the lifeguards were as petty as those at the water park in Vietnam, or another water park we were at in Cadiz.

So, once we got all the rules under our belt we were fine and the kids had a great time. Rounded off the afternoon with an ice cream. Here Aisha found it hard - there is no such thing as a normal ice lolly here, they all seem to have all sorts of coatings and fillings. She didn't like the cup ice cream so she had to settle for a bit of a moan instead. Finally bought her off with the promise of a couple of sweeties from the hotel reception.