Janvier Soldat And The Sleazy Swim Shower

It was a bright morning when Janvier woke up one weekend. Not by his own volition, as normally given any weekend he would sleep all the way till late afternoon. And although today he was suppose to be up and ready by noon so that he could head off for a good dim sum brunch before rehearsals, instead of being able to sleep all the way till 11.30am he found himself wide awake at 9.30am.

So what did Janvier decide to do?

A few things probably factor in here. The invites by Junior to come swim at his place that Janvier couldn't attend. Also, the fact that the last time Janvier went swimming and getting some sun was his trip to Phuket.

So Janvier decided that it would be the day where he pays his first visit to the Kelana Jaya Swimming Pool. He tried searching online for some information about the place, like how much is the entry fee, lockers, operating hours, and what he could garner was that the lockers are dirty and old and the advice was to just keep everything with you.

Janvier packs his bags and head off to the pool. It is about 10.45am when he arrives at the KJ Swimming Pool and he parks, pays the RM4 entry fee and...gets lost. He sees stairs heading upstairs and downstairs, and unclear directions as to the men's changing room. After wandering past the surau and all he finds the changing room, and sees the lockers outside.

Those are terrible lockers. Rusty, dusty, musty. We want to keep our belongings safe and clean. The lockers do not give that impression.

In the changing room, there is a wide open space with tiled seats. Janvier decides to scout the area for changing rooms. There was none, so he heads into a shower cubicle to change into his swim trunks.

Heading to the pool Janvier gets slightly daunted at the length of the pool. Olympic sized? He knows that he may have problems swimming the length of the pool, since he never had good stamina. Also, for a weekend the pool was not as crowded as Janvier feared it would be. There were a couple of people lying on the side of the pool working on their tan, and children playing at the corners and a few people doing their laps on some lanes.

Janvier puts his bag and Crocs aside somewhere where he can keep an eye on it, dons on his goggles and jumps into the pool and swims to an empty lane. He then does the breast stroke to the other end of the pool.

Three-quarter-ways down the pool Janvier was hyperventilating already. However ego did not allow him to stop swimming and so he gasped for breath while struggling to the edge of the pool. Sweet bliss was reaching the end of the pool, where all he could do was lay his head at the edge and gasped till his breathing slowed back to normal.

Janvier would have rested for a fair bit, except he got pressured when the swimmer on the next lane arrived, rested a while, then started swimming back. And Janvier noticed that each stroke of that swimmer was equivalent to two or three strokes of his. So Janvier started swimming again.

Only to give up when he had about five more strokes to reach the end, and he walked-paddled that bit.

At that point Janvier saw that there was not much time left for him to do any more laps, and so he decided to just bob in the pool and get some sun. And around the same time, the suntanner near him got up.

Janvier looked at the tanner. And looked away. So did the suntanner.

Janvier took a double take. So did the suntanner.

Janvier and Sinner took a triple take before recognizing each other.

Janvier was not wearing his glasses, of course. Sinner probably did not wear his contacts either, hence it took so long before they id'ed each other. They chatted until 11.30am, and then Janvier took his leave. Especially when Sinner told him that his face was turning red.

Back in the changing room Janvier's senses suddenly became much more aware. It did not require special senses for it. When men walk back and forth between aisles three times without any reason, or keep looking out from their shower cubicle while showering their hair more than once, Janvier could feel a chill that he did not feel coming out from the pool.

Grasping his bag he quickly headed to the nearest shower cubicle. Only to find that there was no place for him to hang his bag. He headed to the next row, and saw that those cubicles had nails hammered outside, so he hung up his bag and began rummaging for his shower gel. It took some time because the nail was quite high up and it was not easy for Janvier to find the shower gel that ended up buried at the bottom.

All the while standing out there with one hand in his bag, Janvier felt eyes on him. He felt as if he was parading for others and that made him rush frantically to get that shower gel and get into a cubicle quick. What really propelled him into the cubicle and lock up was when people started walking past and rather too close for comfort.

Janvier decided that he would take a very quick shower, dress up, head back and then take a proper shower. He also thought he heard a moan from somewhere.

Back home, as he takes a proper shower, he notices that even when spending less than an hour in the pool there was a noticiable difference in skin tone! Delighted, he now wonders if it is worth heading there again just to tan up...