Skywatch Friday

The Surf Board Toilet at Christies Beach on a clear sunny day earlier this week.

More nice skies at the Skywatch Friday Site

Ladies and Gents

Toilettiquette

Just don't do it all at once!

And what is bottom right doing?

I am always blamed for all the faux pas in the toilet. I am resigned to my fate.

Pay to Pee (or Poop)

When I lived in Singapore, I was reintroduced to the concept of paying to use a public toilet. The idea being that by paying, people would value the service I think. Singapore certainly had generally very clean toilets with the government publicly supporting and funding clean toilet awards. Here in Australia we have a national toilet website where you can search for the nearest public toilet. Where we lived before, invariably they were disgusting, had drug paraphenalia, vandalised or locked. I was quite surprised a couple of nights ago that the toilet in the park that I went to with the kids was open and pretty clean. Quite rare in areas closer to the city.

Functioning and clean public toilets are a good measure of a functioning society and a pleasant reminder of some of the good things about suburban areas.

Along the same lines, Mr Eugenides has some quiet thoughts on a plan for private businesses in the UK to make their toilets available to the public in return for some public dosh.

In fact, instead of bribing private businesses with my fucking cash, I have a better idea. If local councils are really so concerned about the lack of toilet facilities in our towns and cities, they should fucking step up to the plate themselves. Why don't we require councillors to open their homes to anyone with a full bladder? Let every MP's constituency office be fitted with swing doors to welcome emergency urinators 24/7; let the foyer of every government building be equipped with hand dryers and pot pourri for the convenience of passing punters.

Let a thousand pissoirs bloom.When did the requirement for local councils to provide public toilets stop. Is this not a public health issue?