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Original poster

To have reprimanded the man who sat on my towel

86 replies

grossedoutswimmer · 18/04/2017 11:01

Name changed for this because embarrassing/I may be being unreasonably petty. Let me know. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and maybe a hormonal blob.

So after dropping DC1 off at nursery, I manage to go swimming (you know, to get the baby moving down in my pelvis) on the first day of my maternity leave, in the nice gym pool that I pay an arm and a leg for but have hardly used lately. Pool lovely and quiet. Doing languid breastroke. Then a bearded, 20-something, visibly sweating man comes out of the sauna and plonks himself down on top of my towel, laid out on one of several loungers (others are empty). I also have a few other things, like my comb and water, so squawk gently "I think you might be sitting on my things". He is frenetically typing away on his phone and just says "oh is this yours?" Doesn't offer to move.

I carry on swimming. He carries on going in and out of sauna, having a quick shower, going back in, coming out, plonking himself down on my towel every time, typing stuff on his phone. Eventually when I get out I have to go over, massively pregnant, and prise towel from under him. At this point I feebly complain "it's all wet." He says "I haven't even been in the water." Doesn't apologise. Towel is wrinkled and damp. I say "in that case you must have been sweating on it." He says I have a filthy mind. WTF?? Everyone is looking now, so I tell him to have some fucking respect and waddle upstairs to have gross shower where I can hardly bear to dry myself. As I go up the stairs he is making unbearably patronising "shoo shoo crazy lady" gestures.

What should I have done? It is gross, right? There were two clean towels (presume one was his) on one of the other loungers but I didn't want to take one of those in case they belonged to the other two swimmers.

OP posts:
Behindthedoor · 18/04/2017 16:10

He is an ignorant twat. If you feel up to it ring the gym to complain; the staff may well know of him already.

Otherwise just forget about it and concentrate on your happy times ahead.

Console yourself with the fact that he'll try this once too often and come up against someone like me who won't back off. I had a checkout incident in Tescos a few years back where the idiot man told me I must be one of those women who hated men! Told him very calmly that I wasn't, but I could quite understand that he may well imagine he had encountered a lot of women like that.

Chloe84 · 18/04/2017 16:17

What happened, BehindtheDoor?

melj1213 · 18/04/2017 16:18

YANBU

I don't know of anywhere where people could just assume that an unattended towel poolside was free for their use, unless it was on a table/both clearly marked "Gym towels, please help yourself". A folded towel on a lounger in an empty pool area maybe, but one spread out on a lounger, when there were people in the pool? Definitely not.

The guy came out of the sauna and went immediately for the OPs set up - it would be one thing if all the other loungers were in use and that was the only free one, or the guy had a lounger of his own and had just got mixed up as to which was his, but he seems to be intentionally ignorant. I mean who goes into a sauna without a towel anyway?! Also where was his phone when he was sauna-ing/shower-ing because if he had left it lying on the lounger I might have been tempted to accidentally drop it into the pool whilst moving my stuff to another lounger

I belong to a private healthclub with gym, spa and pool and the pool area is set up like yours seems to be, to encourage members to enjoy their session and not feel rushed. There is various furniture poolside - loungers and patio sets (wicker type chairs & tables) so you can lounge after your swim or relax with a drink and catch up with friends etc. You get towels when you go through reception but there is also an area poolside with fresh towels in little individual cubbyholes, over an alcove with a laundry bin for you to drop used towels into. So at my club there would be no excuse whatsoever of someone using your towel/lounger and not getting their own.

I would have definitely been having a word with the staff at your gym - it's rude of one patron but they should also have a staff member you can speak to if you have an issue or some way of attracting attention - my health club only has a lifeguard on duty at peak times and for classes but even at off-peak times they have staff members doing a walk through of the pool area to check there isn't any problems, so if this happened to me I could flag them down, tell them what was happening and they could speak to the member causing the issue and ask them to only use their own towel and they could then go and grab me a fresh towel if I needed it.

user1492528619 · 18/04/2017 16:43

It's so frustrating things like this happen when you're alone.

He sounds like an utter arse who couldn't be arsed getting a towel so kept using yours to cool down when he'd had enough heat from the sauna.

Try not to let it bother you, if it happens again mention it to a member of staff and suggest they bring towels into the pool area.

Could you bring your own towel?

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 18/04/2017 17:01

Did the heat from the sauna affect his brain? Continually going in and out of the sauna all seems excessive to me Confused

However, you shaking with indignation does seem a slightly over the top reaction Grin (I appreciate you're hormonal)

SailAwayWithMeHoney · 18/04/2017 17:08

Sitting on your stuff once is an accident, repeatedly doing it and then making out like you're crazy just makes him a cunt. Angry

MsGemJay · 18/04/2017 17:40

Sorry but I would have kicked his arse

It's rude, unhygienic and how dare he xx

BluePeppersAndBroccoli · 18/04/2017 17:49

Sorry but YABU. You should have kicked the guy out from your towel THE VERY FIRST TIME he did that.

I would have gone out of the water and made him get up from it and have a right go at him.
Sorry, but yu we're much too nice and gentle. And he took a massive advantage of it.

BluePeppersAndBroccoli · 18/04/2017 17:50

Also I assume that there as someone from the pool watching over?
I would have involved him if he had tried that trick again. Or asked for nyone from the gym to sort it out.

MrsChopper · 18/04/2017 18:04

He was very rude and he should have offered to get you a fresh one out of courtesy. And that's what I would have told him! and maybe to fuck off for being rude

Original poster
grossedoutswimmer · 18/04/2017 18:26

Thanks everyone! Actually I agree that I should have been tougher at first. I was nervous of appearing to be a hormonal crazy pregnant lady. As a badge of honour I am still pulling myself out of the water rather than swimming across lanes to the steps, but it is fucking difficult to do. So I thought I would stay in the water until I was finished.

I seriously wanted him to go and get me another towel, but I didn't ask because I knew he'd end up refusing (and also didn't really want any towel that his sweaty sauna man hands had touched). It was quite satisfying telling him to show me some fucking respect, but then I beetled / waddled off and he made his shooing gestures and I felt I had cut a feeble figure.

Told the gym staff what had happened, and suggested they leave some towels in the pool area, so maybe that will be a good outcome.

As for the sweaty-arsed git with his ludicrously large iPhone and tight red trunks, I hope he gets some pernicious fungal infection from his compulsive sauna-hopping...

OP posts:
CatsRidingRollercoasters · 18/04/2017 19:12

As a pp said, he's a towel bandit!

What a prick. I'd have looked sympathetically at his crotch and made some comment about the sauna causing shrivellage.

The shooing thing sounds mightily annoying. Don't worry though - no onlooker will have thought he was in the right. Tosser.

Try to forget shrivelly bandit and enjoy the last few weeks of relative peace!

WheresYouWheelieBin · 18/04/2017 22:00

I'm assuming large, fluffy gym towels are not left lying around the gym just waiting for people to pick them up and use them...in which case he should have taken his lazy butt to reception and picked up his own gym towel, not taken someone else's. Particularly one clearly being used as it was with personal items. I would have given him a talking to.

ohtheholidays · 18/04/2017 22:06

What a dick and calling you a crazy lady you should have gone and made a complaint about him,fucking Twat,what's the betting if your were a massive guy he wouldn't have tried it on!

WankingMonkey · 18/04/2017 22:57

I would have been tempted to tip him off the lounger into the pool, though I accept that would be hard to do whilst pregnant Grin Plus it would have just exposed everyone in the pool to his sweat. I cannot believe he was sweaty enough to actually wet your towel though, thats disgusting.

supermoon100 · 19/04/2017 17:29

Shoulda accidentally knocked his phone into the pool. But seriously why dont you complain to the company that this man was intimidating and abusive. Let's face it, he was.

Cubtrouble · 19/04/2017 17:38

I would have bellowed "excuse me mate, you might not want to sit on my towel because I vigourously dried my arse crack on it after my shower."

Or gone storming over and told him he was a rude twat and then dripped myself to reception to get another towel.

William85953 · 19/04/2017 19:03

Throwing in the towel
Nice one

Blu99 · 19/04/2017 19:05

I'm not one to swear but I would have said "Get the fuck off my towel" especially after he ignored your initial comment. If you were a giant bloke and you had commented on him, plonking his sweaty arse on your towel, I'm sure he would have hurried along.

mummyhappiness · 19/04/2017 19:19

I'd take it to the management of the gym. Say you have been verbally abused by this asshole guy. Let them have a word with him and perhaps revoke his membership.
Good luck.

Emmymumoftwo · 19/04/2017 19:32

He was very rude to keep sitting in the same place on the same towel. Presumably he had a towel with him too though, I would have taken that one and left him with the wet one!

Jeanneweany · 19/04/2017 20:03

Leave her alone ffs. Who gives a shit about maternity swimming costumes. The guy was a total twat. Lazy for not getting his own towel. As member he would know it's not something towel anyone can sit on. That you need to collect the towel. Plus you are pregnant. What a cunt.
So, I would have burst into tears thus drawing attention the the horrible man who upset the heavily pregnant woman.

Deidre21 · 19/04/2017 20:11

Disgusting, rude man-pig. How can someone behave like that after he knew it was your towel.

SherbrookeFosterer · 19/04/2017 20:41

That's the trouble with gyms nowadays.

They let in anyone.

When I first joined Holmes Place in 1998 you had to pay £400 joining fee, in addition to the monthly sub.

I resented it at the time, but it kept the riff raff out.

Givemeallthegin · 19/04/2017 20:50

OP - you were too reserved.

(Disclaimer, I had backache, swollen ankles, heartburn and eye-watering wind for the last 4 weeks of pregnancy no.2 - it may have turned me into a b1t

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