the birm*

Why oh why?

There are certain things in life (not usually the crucial ones) that make me wonder why they’re done that way. It was actually Tall’s blog which made me post this, as I don’t think I’ve shared my thoughts on this matter B4 (even though it’s towards the top of my list of “dumb things that are not life and death matters”).

So you go to the toilet in an airport (actually, bad example, airport toilet blocs usually don’t have doors on them), a mall, a restaurant, a doctor’s surgery, an office, a school…which may only be to wash your hands. IF there’s soap and the taps don’t have to be turned off (you’re in luck!), you can be pretty sure that your hands will actually come out of this experience quite clean. Then, there are usually different options to dry your hands. I prefer using paper towel or, failing that, my shorts. The issue now arises: you have successfully washed (and dried) your hands without contamination from an exterior source when suddenly you want to get out. The problem is (unless you’re in an airport), you have to PULL the door, thus putting your freshly washed (and dried) clean hand on a bar/knob that who knows who or what has touched. I mean c’mon! I know having push-doors would be dangerous for the people coming in, but only as much as pull doors are for the people gpoing out! A door you could push would enable you to use your bum, elbow, foot…without getting filth on your clean (and dry) hands. IF there was paper towel to dry your hands and IF you had the foresight to keep it, you can now use it to PULL the stupid door open…then you have to find a bin to discard the now filthy piece of paper towel…