Went to pool for early morning swim. Pool gets very crowded quickly and I (like most others there) have a favourite lane I try to get if possible. I and a few others were first through the doors at opening time. As usual I had bikini on under clothes, but to take advantage of being unusually early I went straight to the pool, left clothes on lounger nearest the steps into the pool and climbed in. I was down the steps, into the pool and halfway accross the pool to the lane I wanted (on other side from steps) when this other woman comes literally running along the edge of the pool flings all her things on the lounger nearest the far lane and dives into that lane. I am in the adjacent lane by the time she lands, a matter of inches away from her, so I stop and look at her in amazement. She looks back at me. She clearly is planning staying there, so to give her a chance to back out politely I say 'Oh, are you taking this lane then?' and she says (very haughtily, and utterly irrelevantly) 'I've been taking this lane for 15 years' (I've never set eyes on her before, but never mind).
By this time I'm fighting the childish temptation to just swim into the lane anyway and fight her for it, but I manage to maintain moral highground by saying casually 'Oh, I was rather hoping for it too, that's why I was in here so early' (I got here first, hint hint) and swimming off gracefully (
) in the lane next to her.
AIBU to think she is a rude ghastly old trout?* First person in water gets first choice of lane, right?
*Extra points for tactical suggestions for next encounter.