as i've mentioned, we are spending some time at gerry's parents' in monaghan. it's a quiet place, and because you (i) always want to make a good impression, the little things kind of get focused on. they are my future in-laws after all.
there are two toilets in the house (pretty fancy for ireland). one is fairly new because gerry's grandma came to live with them at some point and they needed an accessible bathroom i guess. anyway, that is the washroom i prefer to use... since turkey. i'd heard of places where if you had a poo, you would use water to clean your bum, and i'm sure i'd heard of places where you couldn't flush the toilet paper. i must have really... i mean, i have traveled a fair bit. when we went to turkey, we were told we need to put the toilet paper in the garbage, and absolutely not flush it. if you've ever met me, you would know that this kind of sent me into panic. i mean, we were going to a place over run by western europeans. when you go to mexico you can flush the toilet paper. i knew i would get sick at some point (i'm delicate) on our trip there, but this brought out a whole new dimension of potential illness. i think putting out the garbage everyday helped and in the end i survived turkey with only a mid-digestive tract infection that still periodically makes me barf.
but i learned something else on that trip. while in some moment of complaint about the toilet paper situation, gerry said he didn't know what the big deal was because in the old bathroom here, they can't flush toilet paper either. well, i had either never heard that or i'd completely blocked out being told that. as with other things that i don't like hearing, i didn't believe it at first. so now i'm totally afraid of forgetting and then causing total mayhem here by subsequently blocking the toilet. i'm also afraid to poo in that toilet because if toilet paper can cause problems, poo can too.
mostly i use the new bathroom. but since it's off gerry's sister's room and she works (and unlike me, keeps regular hours) this has become a win/lose situation. in the morning it's completely win. i get to take my time, have my poo, relax, and not take advantage of her kindness in letting me use the space. but at night when i like to do number 2 before bed, it's lose. i would never wake her up to go, especially when there's another bathroom. and the poor girl has to get up super early for work so it would be a crap (oops, that's a pun) thing for me to do. of course, his sister is super nice and wouldn't complain about it, but that doesn't excuse any outrageous behaviour on my part.
so instead of taking my time to enjoy my pooh 2 of the day, i've been holding it until morning. i think it's hilarious on one hand because i know i'm the freak of the situation, but on the other hand, i'm glad the apartment in white rock has stellar plumbing that will accomodate my needs.
