One of Canberra's living treasures has his towel and swimmers ready, and is now clearly a little annoyed.
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The source of Merv Knowles' annoyance is a month-long delay in reopening the historic Manuka Pool for its customary summer swim period.
And as Merv is 97 years old, the pool's former swim champion, the only living person in Canberra who watched its construction and a daily swimmer there for more than 30 years, he's perfectly entitled to be a little annoyed.
In this year's ACT budget the government allocated $800,000 to a much-needed refurbishment of the Manuka Pool.
The work demanded that all the pool tiles be removed and the bottom of the pool dug up to install new inlet pipework.
An international search was undertaken to find the correct heritage style tiles for the job, with modern non-slip characteristics. Finally, suitable replacements were found and sourced from the Czech Republic.
A delay in the arrival of the tiles from Europe has been blamed for the postponement in the pool's opening, which is usually on October 27.
Not only the tiles but replacement of the entire filtration system, the water lines, the concrete concourse, new poolside seating, an underground balance tank and a full repaint of the main building had been included in the pre-summer refurbishment program.
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Promises had been made to patrons that it would all be done by summer. A large team of tilers is on the job to meet the deadline but other improvements, like the painting, may have to wait.
"I had my doubts about them opening on time," Merv said. "And here we are."
Merv Knowles is a remarkable Canberran and an original member of the so-called Manuka Pool "coneheads" - so-called because they were photographed under one of the pool's oldest pine trees.
Merv's story is enmeshed with that of the beautiful, art-deco Manuka Pool and has recently been encapsulated within a chapter of a new book entitled The Memory Pool.
The book includes the stories of 28 people whose lives were shaped by the pools in which they swam.
Merv's story sits alongside those of some very famous swimmers, including Daniel Kowalski and Shane Gould.
His father, the late Sir George Knowles and head of the Attorney-General's department, was one of the driving forces behind getting the pool built so little wonder the young Knowles children were among the first to swim in it before it was officially opened on January 31, 1931.
Merv's elder brother, Lindsay, was one of the fastest swimmers ever seen at the Manuka Pool and was All-Universities champion before joining the RAF as a fighter pilot.
"I was club champion in 1940 and 1941 but only because Lindsay was away at the war; he was always a much faster swimmer than me," he admitted.
Tragically, Lindsay never swam in the pool again. He was just 23 when he was shot down during a dogfight with a German Messerschmidt over Libya.
"We lost nine from the Manuka swimming club and water polo team during the war," he said.
His daily swimming regime is 12 laps: four backstroke, four breaststroke and four freestyle.
"Someone asked me why I don't do butterfly and I told them that stroke wasn't invented back when I started swimming," he said.
Around Canberra, other outdoor pools are beginning to open as the weather begins to warm. The Dickson pool will throw open its gates on October 21, and Canberra Olympic's outdoor pools in Civic will be publicly aired on November 1.
Canberra's newest pool, the Mount Stromlo Leisure Centre, is coming along with the roof of the main building nearly complete, plastering and concreting underway and is set to open in the first half of 2020.
