Tuesday, November 27, 2007
for paying customers only
Today we went to Cookie's for lunch. Cookie is a friend of the family. He made us a delicious salad, and gave us more ideas of things to do and places to see. After lunch we went to another English bookstore, Tea and Tattered Pages, where I may not be welcome again. Gotta love the anonymity of the city. Anja had to use the bathroom soon after leaving the bookstore and went back as we knew they had one for customers and we had just purchased four books. The woman was giving her a lecture when I walked in, "not a public restroom, blah blah blah" so I gave her a lecture of my own, and she then used the bathroom. I was much better behaved in this instance than I was at a restaurant near the Saint Michel the other day where she was not allowed to use the bathroom. Luckily everyone understands English swear words so there was no problem communicating with him. It is tres difficile to be a tourist with stomach issues. But with a mother like me I guess she doesn't have to worry about defending herself. Luckily, She does not yet get embarrassed of us. That's gonna be tough. I vaguely remember a poem or saying on Jane Flood's fridge that said something about being nice to people or not judging them as you really don't know their story. I believe in this in most instances. Though sometimes when they are clearly not living by this rule, it becomes too difficult to stretch your imagination to think what ailment or sadness they have in their life causing them to be such pricks. Though for the most part, people have been very nice, and the bathroom issue is true in all cities, annoying for some, agonizing for anyone with stomach or bladder problems. I prefer a business that will re-direct than one that will just say, "No" or "Only for paying customers."
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6 comments:
reminds me of when i was a young 16 yr old bumkin footloose in paris and had to use the bathroom up the eifell tower. and i didn't have the requisite centimes to make the resident crone happy, got a dose of french invective i still remember.
sure enjoy reading your blogs. boz
I completely despise this about public places. I admire and envy the fact that you travel so much but am raged when hearing of these selfish pricks who are too fancy to allow their bathroom to people. I just find it useless, where is the sharing?
i keep trying to contact you by skype and you are never there. I guess you are out and about all of the time. I leave for Florida tomorrow so if you want to contact me use the cell phone. love, Mom
About bathrooms--I feel that all travelers need to wear and carry disposable diapers. If it's good enough for the astronauts, why not for commoners like us? I can't begin to tell you the events that my husband has passed up because he knew that his bladder frequency would not allow him to enjoy them. The most magnificent thing he missed was a bus trip through Denali national park. Just call them "pull ups" and it doesn't sound so bad.
I hope Anja's stomache improves soon. What a strong young woman she is!! Love, Mom
It's so ridiculous that they didn't want Anja to use the bathroom after you had bought four of their books! I know just what you mean about being patient with people up to a certain point....
Caroline
On the one hand, I can understand a business not wanting to provide a bathroom for people who arent customers because it costs money to keep a bathroom for people (labor to clean it is the biggest cost). On the other hand, since I take a medication that sometimes leaves me with an emergency level need to go, I know how very annoying it is to see a sign that says "for customers only". When I need to, I ignore the signs of course and no one has ever given me a hard time about it.
But that bookstore thing seems very strange. I mean, besides that by actually buying books, you *were* paying customers, how could a bookstore employee know that when a person comes in and uses the bathroom, they arent planning on buying something? I mean, I usually like to browse a lot at the bookstore and dont want to do the pee pee dance while I do it so I usually hit the bathroom right when I go in. No one has ever bothered me about it. Anyways, the solution, of course is to provide nice public toilets in cities. I mean come on, using the toilet is such a basic need, it seems cruel not to have bathrooms available.
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