LATE-NIGHT POOL

Sunday, April 30, 2000

19:12 "Islands and swimming pools are closely related, bound together by their strong negative-positive character. Islands float on the water, like swimmers; the pool is an oasis, a fertile place. What the pool is to the earth, the island is to the water. Linking them is their capacity for separation; nowhere are the elements so abruptly severed as where the beach meets the ocean, the rim of the pool the water."
Thomas van Leeuwen, The Springboard in the Pond: An Intimate History of the Swimming Pool
link |

Monday, April 17, 2000

19:13 Just back from a 24-hour trip to Rotterdam. I decided to sleep there last night since I had to be early this morning at the Brazilian consulate to bring some papers. I also brought along my bicycle so I could explore a little of the city (it's quite a view crossing the Erasmus bridge at night).

The Brazilian consulate is a discreet office in a building next to the central station. The staff is very polite and some were Portuguese. I was a bit disappointed to realize that there was not even a flag outside the building to mark the Brazilian presence in the city.

I had to wait for two hours for my papers, so I decided to pay a quick visit to Tropicana, the 'tropical' pool next to the river Maas. Quite ironic, actually, to find myself floating in this fake-tropical, domed environment just after being back in 'Brazilian soil'.

There was almost no one swimming at that time (this would never happen in Amsterdam). I could float all alone in the middle of the main pool, look up to the sky through the glass dome and watch the water reflection mix strangely with the clouds.

link |

Published with Blogger Pro