Thursday, January 22, 2009

Lavatories

Boaters often talk about lavatories and the arguments are rife as to whether a pump out, macerator, bucket and chuck-it, cassette or cross your legs and hope for the best, system are the most suitable for boat dwelling. Ihave a thetford porta potti.

My debrett's makes no mention of the "lavatory" or the "loo", nor for that matter does it mention "boater". A quick google on the topic came up with this which was intriguing, but reminded me of an occasion my sister said my father had written to her about. When on holiday in the country he likes to spend time walking around in the middle of no-where for extensive periods. One morning he decided it was time to spend some time on the royal throne cogitating. He dug his hole, put a plank across to form a delightful seat, and took his place. After some time of perusing the proverbial newspaper he decided to shift his weight at which point the seat collapsed with him still attached into the hole.
This goes to show that the lavatory is not only ones solitude, but can offer more than one has bargained for.
Solitude is an important thing. A priest in China (where one can't be such a thing) was in prison for professing his faith. He was tortured, yet still proclaimed the glory of God. The guards unable to stop him sent him out to the cess pits to dig them all day every day. The priest loved it - he could praise God all day because no-one could stand the stench to beat him.
I have always rather liked the wooden lavatories such as these or the more modern version here. My Great Uncle had a fabulous lavatory (my father has a painted version of it in his own lavatory) with delicate blue painting inside the blue bowl (it was nothing like this, but you might get the gist!)

Actually, I just wanted to say that a thetford porta potti isn't the best if you have irritable bowel syndrome.

3 Comments:

Blogger Halfie said...

Sorry to hear of your plight (although I'm not really sure what IBS is). Laughed at the vision of your father collapsing into his own latrine! And was amused by this (from your first link): "The invention refers to a single-use lavatory with application in the field of human necessities." (!)

11:51 PM  
Blogger Simon said...

the lid of that last one is very like one of the loos at Braziers Park, the mansion turned commune near Goring I've hung out at a fair amount.

In fact it's only the second time I've seen such a seat, not hanging about in posh bogs much... ;-)

12:02 AM  
Blogger Nomad said...

Brilliant topic! Not enough is mentioned in public about this most essential of devices.

2:19 AM  

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