Well, we women know there are lots of problems with men, but when you are staying in a house with two of them, there is one consistent problem that never goes away. The toilet seat is always up.
Bathrooms here in China in these more modern homes are much like the ones we have at home, but there are a few subtle differences. You will note the big red container in the corner full of water. It has a red container with a handle on it. Often instead of flushing they will just tip some water down the loo. Now that’s okay, but the trouble is it slops and splashes all over the place, around the loo and onto the floor. It doesn’t matter to them they probably won’t want to sit down til tomorrow, but for me it creates some work.
I have resorted to buying a towel just to use to wipe up all the water splashed onto and around the seat and then I put it on the floor for my feet when I sit. Remember, I have several layers of clothes on, and when attending to this necessary part of life, these clothes must be lowered, often the hems landing in the sploshed water all around the loo. I got fed up with hauling up soggy trousers. The towel has fixed that problem.
Even though it is freezing cold here, they do have good heating in their bathrooms, with strong ceiling heaters that give off a good heat.
In the picture you will also see the metal hose of the extendable shower. This presents another problem. The shower is not in an enclosed area, so the water again splashes all over the loo, the walls, the floor and the bathroom in general. And for the men of this house, wiping up the floor afterwards doesn’t seem to be an important matter, so why bother?
The second picture here is of Debbie’s bathroom in Longyan. It is smaller and a little more basic. The same extendable shower hose is visible and again the water goes everywhere. But Oh! The seat is always down, and the joy of having a toilet seat cover! It is the peak of luxury I reckon, and if I ever go and live in a cold climate again, I promise myself to have a toilet seat cover.
I have been in some Chinese bathrooms where the room is so tiny you can hardly stand up, but the shower is still in there, and you have to work around the loo, a few little rubbish containers and a hand basin while having a shower. Cleaning that one up afterwards is a bit of a mission.
At the other extreme is the bathroom at our house sit on the Gold Coast. In fact we have two bathrooms, a smaller one Peter generally uses and a large one I generally use. The large one is huge, I wonder if it was a bedroom at one stage. You could almost have a party in there, with a separate compartment for the loo, an enclosed shower over a bath on a raised level, a large vanity and lots of towel rails. In fact if you count the outside bathroom, where the spiders lurk, there are three bathrooms. Ah….and none of them all splashed and sploshed around.
