This post started with the announcement of the concept pool in London. A pool with a 360 degree view. I did say 360 not 355 – thus no room for a ladder or stairs. You pop up submarine style from a staircase in the middle. I can almost understand the up but I’m unclear on the back down. Plus a pool without a bar! Really?
My love affair with pools has taken me around the world. Never thought of it that way but humour me.
It started with my honeymoon. We had a pool and a sauna in our room. Oh neither were large but there they were.
In my 20s I’d accompany a friend to the Chateau Laurier Pool. A gorgeous Art Deco design. Was a very zen experience. She would do laps slowly and I’d swim by her side. Then we’d sit under the heat lamps… Ah!
Also in my 20s I swam in a pool above the Seine River in Paris. It collapsed (noone was injured) and was replaced. I’m not sure of which this is a picture of.
Fast forward a few years and a few relationships and were off to Haiti. Alas, I have no pics of the first pool. Why is that? I even tried to find the house on google but the trees got in the way.
At the second house, we had a pool built. Haiti being Haiti it took forever to be built. I designed it with an architect, it was an infinity pool with a fan-shaped terrace. The edge, from a certain angle, flowed towards the sea (never mind that from other angles it was flowing into downtown Port-au-Prince. Then Aristide was removed and we were evacuated – prior to the pool completion. The pool did not survive the earthquake, nor did the house.
Turns out, if you didn’t know (as I did not) water is blue. No not in your glass – that seems clear. But once the quantity augments, volume increases so does the blue. Once the pool was completed and it became obvious we might not have a lot of time the architect asks me do I paint it or fill it. I replied I’d like it to be blue. And he says well water is blue so it will be. I scratched my head, then they started to fill it and I was started to find just how blue it was. Ha!
Here the architect, who’d been over for a swim checks things out!
As it was not finished during our stay – it had a manual filtration system.
Next comes Cameroon. Again 2 houses. The first had a bad pool. Perhaps not so much the pool as to where it was. The property had been severed a couple of times and so it looked like the pool was sitting at the neighbours. Plus it had the French school on one side (lo) and a Cameroonian school on the other (no windows) once or twice I’d think “My pool, I’m going to sit by it during the day”. Neither of those decisions were long-lived as I thought I was in the middle of a class. Later I’m told this was the second largest residential pool in the city. Fear not I would find the largest. Across the street as it turns out.
Then comes the second house, across the street. This fabulous pool surrounded by a mature bamboo hedge, partly shaded by a huge mango tree, and 3 (of 12) palm trees on the property.
Oh funny story about the palm trees. Many Cameroonians see concrete as progress and trees as the wild, the jungle, not good. Once floating in my pool admiring the trees a Camoornian burts out “time to knock these trees down they’e gotten too tall”. I almost went under!
Ah the boukaroo. Found the design near a beach, found the creator and had one made.
Let us now move into a spa in Istambul. A very famous one, Çemberlitaş Hamamı. Strolled into it one evening. Got rubbed and scrubbed and thrown a bucket of warm water then cold then left to dry. The next morning as I stood in the shower I realized no one was going to rub and scrub and I had to fend for myself “Harsh reality”
The Hamilton Hotel was near home. Not the best spa but the closest. The pool however we left to those willing to put up with what seemed to me like too much humanity.
Moving on I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Hearst Castle. Which is the most beautiful the inside or the outside pool? Which do you prefer? You’ll find Molly inside!
Now lets move on to other pools. This one at an Airbnb is quite amuzing.
Stunning pool at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The architects for the London pool will have used it as an inspiration
A 5-star boutique hotel in Switzerland
Ariana Grande Mac Miller Colorado Airbnb. Nice!
The Joule Hotel, Dallas, Texas. Amazing projection! See details of it and 9 other fabulous pools here.
I’d like to propose ending with the pool of my dreams. A pool in the ocean attached to a yacht. Swiming in sea weater but keeping the see creatures a distance away.
