Well, there goes our luxury garden pool.

Aldi has taken the decision to cancel all sales of its inflatable Ring Paddling Pool and its inflatable Jumbo Paddling Pool. Both paddling pools were due to go on sale this Thursday, June 11, but Aldi chose to cancel the Specialbuy products from sale in light of the six-week national hosepipe ban that was announced by Irish Water yesterday and comes into effect today, June 9. Personal water usage has increased in the last two month with families spending more time at home and Irish Water anticipates a further increase in water usage as businesses begin to reopen over the next few weeks. Aldi is also cancelling all other planned upcoming Specialbuys products of the same nature for the duration of the six-week ban. We're not going to pretend we're not sad about it but, honestly, it was the right decision and good on them. If we got our hands on that pool and we had another stunning day like all the days over the last two months, we're not sure if we could help taking a dip. (Though, of course we'd force ourselves to help it - save water, people!) John Curtin, Group Buying Director for Aldi Ireland, said:

"We understand that some customers may be disappointed, but conserving water usage at this time is a priority for our customers, so we need to support this national water restriction also so that everyone can play a part in helping to conserve water."

Fair play, Aldi, very responsible of you. We guess we'll just be dreaming of them until this ban lifts on Tuesday, July 21. Knowing Ireland, though, it won't be too long before the rain sorts out our water levels.