Thursday was always ladies night at the swimming pool I used to go to in East London.  Owing to cultural sensitivities segregated exercise time was, and still is, a regular feature of the leisure centre’s timetable. Venturing out one night I quickly realised that the actual swimming was less important than the time to catch up and chat with friends. One third of the pool was roped off and the majority of the ladies spent their time sat there talking with their friends, exchanging their usual location for conversation – the kitchen table or the living room sofa – for the slightly warm, chlorinated water and the echoing walls of the swimming pool.

In East Belfast things are pretty much the same. Granted we haven’t reached the stage of segregated swimming just yet and yesterday morning it was mostly retired men (rather than ladies from a multitude of ethnic backgrounds) who greeted each other like long lost buddies and stood for a while putting the world to rights. Behind me a retired lady muttered something about men standing around and talking all the time. To be fair I guess these guys weren’t really going to ‘do lunch’ or meet for a coffee. And unlike the East London ladies they at least did make it up and down the pool once or twice.

Watching them I wondered what had brought them all together. Perhaps they are all friends of old and have gone through life’s trials and tribulations together? Do they notice when one of their number hasn’t been around for a few days?

Recent headlines suggest that our leisure centres, at least in Belfast, are not financially viable and that really some at least should be closed down. Finance is important – I am a rate payer after all! But some things just can’t be quantified in pounds and pence…

… like the sense of community that can be found in a swimming pool at 8am on a Tuesday morning.