IT’S always a melancholy moment for Parade when the outdoor town pool closes for another autumn and winter.
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In the same way Northern Territorians divide the year up into just the two seasons – the wet and the dry – Parade is inclined to think of life in Bathurst as breaking down to when the outdoor pool is open and when the outdoor pool is closed.
When the outdoor pool is open (generally speaking), there’s sunshine in the evening, short sleeves on the weekend and perspiration on your forehead (and your beer glass).
And when the outdoor pool is closed? It’s not just swimming that moves indoors, but life in general.
That was why Parade felt a bit down in the mouth on Sunday evening when he visited the pool for one last swim out in the fresh air.
As the dusk came in and the lights came on, Parade was even inclined to wonder whether the closure was a bit premature this year.
The temperatures had still been in the late 20s and even early 30s, Parade reasoned, and the mornings hadn’t been too cold. Was it really necessary to call it quits so soon?
Two days later, Bathurst had an official minimum of 0.5 degrees and there were reports of frosts here and there. The Central Tablelands had spoken: a new season had begun.
Face it, time was broken anyway
AND on the subject of the passage of time, Parade would like to remind readers to turn their clocks back one hour this Sunday at 2am as daylight saving comes to an end.
Parade knows daylight saving has its critics, some of whom don’t believe that something so fundamental should be subject to tinkering and tampering.
Parade, however, thinks you quickly lose your belief in the immovability of time when you start to travel widely in Australia, losing a half hour here when you cross a border and gaining a half hour there when you drive over a river.
When Broken Hill, which is in NSW, can choose to run on South Australian time, then the battle to preserve time’s purity has well and truly been lost.