Thursday 2 December 2010

2.12.10 Foreign Articles

On my very recent 'mini cruise', I was intrigued by the sticker on the inside of the toilet lid, in my inner cabin.  Lifting the lid, it was impossible to miss the directive:

Do not throw foreign articles in the toilet

Accompanying these words was a simple picture (similar in style to the red triangle signs in the highway code) and three different things had been chosen to highlight what a 'foreign article' might be, in relation to unwanted disposal via the toilet.  The pictures were of:

A glass bottle, a cardboard carton (eg. a pint of milk) and two biscuits.

Now, in all my years, I've never been tempted to try and flush a glass bottle down the toilet, nor have I found the toilet a useful device for getting rid of empty cartons.  Finally, biscuits are always eaten, so why I'd ever find myself anxious to flush two of them down any loo I can't imagine.

I finished having a piss and left the loo, taking with me my glass bottles, biscuits and milk carton - and went in search of a bin!

Interestingly, the ships 'Rules' included a ban on travellers bringing their own food on board.  With this in mind, it's hard to imagine where the cartons and biscuits would come from, as they were not sold on board the ship.  Finally, I'd like to highlight that I was further confused as to what makes an article "foreign".  I was on a ship with a 'Country of Origin' stated as Denmark, that was travelling from Holland to the UK, and called the King of Scandinavia - and the crew was 95% oriental.  Hmmmm . . .
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