New Leek Leisure Centre
The local leisure centre has had a massive two-year refurbishment and the town is quite excited about it. There is the obligatory handful of cross people who think that there aren’t enough seats for parents to sit on at the edge of the teaching pool. Most parents are delighted though because instead there are loads of seats in the café so you can have a brew, flapjack and natter whilst checking on your little ones through the glass.
The moaning people remind me of people who have angry faces in local newspapers whilst their hand points to a pothole that has punctured their car, and this in itself always reminds me of when we first moved to Leek and the local newspaper ran a story about a man who had been arrested for nicking a birthday card from the card shop. I mean he wasn’t nicking booze to pay for a crack habit. He was nicking a card because he wanted to make someone happy and he hadn’t got a quid. I’m not saying what he did was right… maybe he’d spent his quid on crack. But I am saying that there are worse crimes in the world, and for The Leek Post & Times to run a story on it helped cement in my mind that everything’s OK in the grand scheme of people and places to live really. We’re alright.
Anyway, there was an afternoon gym preview for some of the townsfolk, and I was kindly invited to go along and have a tour and a swim. Loved it. Like a ridiculous child I was very pleased to be the first one in the pool, closely followed by our Martha and a bloke I’d never met before.
“Do we know you?” Martha asked the man.
“No, I don’t think so” The man beamed “My son is the manager. He started just working here as a lifeguard and now he’s managing it!”
“I think he’s just given us a tour – he’s amazing! I’ve signed myself up.” I replied excitedly.
“His mum’s so proud. She’s just burst into tears in the changing rooms.”
And that I have to tell you is the loveliest thing ever. That passion which the people who have put together this gorgeous new council gym should be shouted about and celebrated. Sometimes it’s all too easy to point at pot holes and not shout praise and recognition for the hard work and dedication people put into making something so beautiful for the benefit of everyone in the community. Bravo.
If you want British Boxers, then the Summer Sale’s on and it’s fab!
X Deb
