Plumbing

is different!

When I first visited the US in 1982 I couldn't make head or tail of the strange plumbing in the hotel rooms. The thing is that the plumbing I was used to (I'm talking a shared bath/show fixture) had two sets of taps. One set was used to control hot and cold water to the bath outlet; the other set controlled the shower.

What I found in the US was one set of hot/cold taps that controlled both and it wasn't at all obvious to me how to make the water come out of the shower; it stubbornly insisted in coming out of the bath outlet about halfway between my feet and my knees. I rang reception at the hotel and asked - and they, having no concept of how unfamiliar it might be, were about as useful as a one legged man in a bum kicking contest. I contented myself with taking baths instead of showers for the first couple of weeks (hell I even tried blocking the bath outlet with dunny paper in a vain attempt to get the water to come out of the shower rose) and then, with an insight that takes my breath away I suddenly realised the purpose of that little thingy on the bath outlet. Turn on the water and then pull that little thingy up and voila! water out of the shower rose! Wow!!!

Ok, I put it comically but I really hadn't seen that kind of thing before.

I've just got out of the shower here in Seoul and here's a new nuance. I'm sure (meaning I'm not so sure) we've all seen the kind of shower control that consists of just one valve - how far you turn it controls the mix of hot and cold water and how far you pull it out controls the amount. Well this is a new one on me! There's one valve which, if turned to the left, causes water to come out of the bath outlet; turned to the right and the water comes out of the shower rose. Ok I can go with the flow (boom boom). But the water was awfully hot. Hmmm how to control the temperature? The valve doesn't have a second axis of control - there's no way to pull it out to adjust the temperature. Then I notice a flap with a blue circle on it - I pulled it out and suddenly the temperature was lowered.

At least it only took 2 minutes to realise how to work the controls this time - that's a big improvement on 2 weeks!