Around the world in 80 loos

 A bit of an exaggeration but hey ho. 

I was queueing for the loo in a well know department store recently, and as I patiently waited for my turn, legs not quite crossed, I began to ponder.

Just how many different loos, and types of water closets (posh eh?) had I used over my years? 

(Source, pinterest)

Then darn it, where are the pictures of some of the more unusual ones?

(this pic is one my lovely husband too)

The rest are in the loft, so sorry, very few pictures in this blog.

But the memories!

(lovely and posh this one. Not one I've used alas, but thanks to pinterest) 

From the long drops in Australia and holes in the ground, filled with rubbish at the top—and bottom—of the Great Wall of China, to the do I squat lean or hop ones in various places to the ultra swish get your bottom washed and dried ones in Japan, There's been a lot of loos.

(source, also pinterest)

So many different ones.

I remember as a child going to the house of one of my mum's friends mum in a tiny village. The toilet was in an outhouse. That was fine so were my grandparents. But this one was different. How did you flush it?

I went back inside and whispered to mum. She took me back out and showed me a bucket full of earth, and handed me a small shovel. That was my first experience of an earth closet loo. 

Then the similar one in Arrass where my penfriends gran lived. That was outside as well, but had several tiny holes in the walls.

"Bullet holes from the war," I was told. "We've left them there for the history!"

Then there's sometimes the problem of do you pull a chain nad hope it doesn't break or overfill the cistern?  Push or twist a handle? Stand up fast as the loo flushes automatically? Wave your hand in front of a button?

(and again, source pinterest)

Panic because there doesn't seem to be any way to flush? 

All to spend a penny (or a fiver these days?)

Take the toilet on the landing of a house we were to rent. A long wooden board with three different sizes of holes in it. One to fit any sized bottom! Luckily it wasn't the only loo in the house, but as it has been one of the first water closets in the area, it had been kept for posterity. I hasten to add we are advised not to use it.

There are a couple at a ferry port in Hong Kong where you join a queue and cross your fingers it's not the squatting loo that's available when it's your turn. Because of course that would be when you're in leggings or tight jeans! 

And don't forget to remember the customs of the country you're in. It's oh so true that there as many types of loos as countries.

When I was a child one of my friends went to Calais on a day trip. She sent me a post card...

"They all go to the toilet in the same place here, men and women!!!!!!!"

And in the ladies loo in a UK airport, hearing a little girl say very proudly, "Mummy, I remembered not to flush the paper but put it in the bin!

And the reply. "Very good darling, but we're back in England now."

(Source Pinterest)

Writing this, I also realised how many languages I know how to ask for the toilet in! Quite a few.

That's a handy phrase to know.

Happy reading,

love Raven xxx