At a local community function, there were two blue toilets on site – for those folk who needed to go. I watched as children played in and out of one of the “cubicles” – clearly seeing the facility as a toy! It made me smile.
I remembered my childhood where such facilities were not provided at local parks. I think we learned to “hold on” or duck behind a tree.
Modern Facility for my Van
Strangely, in several completely unconnected conversations this week, toilet facilities have been discussed. I know one resulted from my comment about going to buy a new “potti” for my campervan. I was thrilled to be able to purchase a van with a toilet and shower on board, but no so thrilled to learn that to empty said toilet I needed to crawl under the van, connect a huge hose, all while being near a “dump point”. The idea of crawling under a van had no appeal. So I decided to part with a few extra dollars, and get a new system with a much more user-friendly system. Even at BCF I had some hilarious conversations with staff as I explored my options. It seems that almost everything one says, when talking about toilets has a double meaning.
Another conversation came as a result of visiting a public toilet and finding loo paper on the toilet seat. It is something that Asian women do in Australian toilets, as they still like to squat and they can stand on the toilet seat, squat and do what they have to do. There followed a discussion about travelling in Asia and the various facilities that one has to use.
One of the ladies had come from South Africa, where her home had indoor toilets, and when she came to Australia in around the 1960’s and 70’s was horrified to learn that Australians were still using outdoor toilets. I know modern homes at the time had indoor toilets but certainly many country folk still had to endure the challenges of the long drop or other outside toilet facilities.
Hopefully, the coming week’s conversations will be a bit more enlightening, but I must say, that many of the conversations mentioned above had a lot of hilarity!!
