I received an email this morning from Fiona Pavely, asking whether I'd be interested in sharing the news with you that it's 'Thomas Crapper Day' tomorrow. I quipped that I would of course use her press release as we have a great deal to thank the man for and it was only after I'd pressed 'send' that I stopped to think how life would be, if we didn't have the benefit of toilets and all the rest of what have become bathroom basics, since Crapper died 108 years tomorrow.

It reminded me of how horrified I must have looked, when attending a 'sustainable' festival last Summer, to be confronted by the organiser's version of the female urinal. As my picture shows, it was carefully well thought out and all very friendly. There was a continuous stream of women and girls, of all ages and sizes, using it, so it must have been OK. I must confess that I couldn't quite bring myself to try this unusual facility though and I'm going to blame it on not being wonderfully tall and the restrictions created by my yoga pants...

Bearing in mind how lucky we are and just how different things might have been, had Thomas Crapper decided to pursue a different career, I'm going to raise a glass to the great man tomorrow and hope you will do too. After all, when you consider some of the alternatives, it doesn't quite bear thinking about, does it?

www.facebook.com/KBzine  

Yours,

Jan Hobbs