Amazingly, nothing extraordinary happened at swim today. I saw an old lady with an extremely hairy back, but that was about it. So I thought I would reply to Melanie’s comment a few posts back. They do heavily promote swimming as a fantastic pregnancy specific workout here, although I am still the only obviously pregnant woman at the pool. I think there are two reasons. First, it is a great exercise for pregnant women – no impact, good all around benefits for the whole body, and you feel nice and light – you can move so easily in the water even though you feel bulky on dry land. The second reason is that they have this excellent council system here. A council is a government entity of varying size, but defines an area and refers primarily to the public services provided within.  Everything is like a well built Sim City. There is a hospital within 1 mile of any address, and post offices, surgeries (little doctor’s offices, where they actually DON’T perform surgery), libraries, grammar schools, bus and tube stations, parks… etc all within a few blocks. Councils usually also have something called a Leisure Centre. You still have to pay to use it, but it is partly paid for by the council tax (kind of like property tax, because it is based on the value of the houses and flats in the given area) you pay annually. So you can use the facilities, which vary from center to center, but usually have a pool,  for a few pounds per use, or 30-40 pounds per month. So – getting back to the question, since just about everyone has access to a nice, big, close by pool for very little money,  it makes sense that they would recommend swimming as an exercise for pregnant women. Our particular center has swimming for me and basketball for Michael, which is extra nice. Probably more than you wanted to know, but there you have it.