Toilet Song: Soda Soap

An invigorating Toilet Song seems to be in order! The one we've chosen for today is one that's close to Hygeia's heart, being about hygiene.
Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars were formed in a refugee camp in Guinea in 2004, during Sierra Leone's civil war. The band toured refugee camps to keep everyone's spirits up, and when the war was over, their album Living Like a Refugee was released. As far as we understand, soda soap is a simple, home-made soap, which people tend to avoid in times of affluence, but which comes in handy when one is stuck in a refugee camp with limited hygiene facilities.

There don't appear to be any lyrics available in all the wide expanse of the inter-ma-net, but we found something even better: this lovely explanation by the singer himself.

Sierra Leone's Refugee Allstars. Image from kginsberg.de.

Related Reading
UNHCR
Oxfam Unwrapped

Safe Water for Ten People

We are working on a rather exciting blog update today, for you edification and delight, but in the meantime, let us just boast that Canadian Friend kindly gave us Safe water for ten people for Christmas! Thank you, Canadian friend!

The Privy Counsel Helpfully Sort Out Christmas!

The end of November is approaching way, way, way too fast. December is hurtling towards us at an alarming speed, and will soon hit us smack in the face with enforced jollity, family members we'd rather avoid, and alarming weight gain. Bet you're sitting there wishing you could just hibernate, or at least emigrate to the Bahamas for the winter, and wondering what in the name of all that is saintly you're going to give Uncle Darren and Auntie Ruth for Christmas!

Well, you needn't worry any more - we at the Privy Counsel are friendly, benevolent sort of people, and have helpfully sorted out Christmas for you! Here's how:

World Toilet Day inspired us! We got quite carried away reading the Oxfam Unwrapped leaflet, and thought we'd share som good deeds and happy news with you, in anticipation of Christmas.
If you're from York you can pat yourself on the back and award yourself a biscuit, since the good burghers of this town are among the top ten cities in the UK for buying Unwrapped gifts. Plenty of bogs have been built thanks to York - well done! (Read all about it, and see the dudes in the fancy chains, in The Press.)

We're all for hygiene, and thought the story of Kolisara in Nepal was inspiring!

Read more about Kolisara here

 As we mentioned yesterday, clean water and hygienic toilets really are crucial in the fight against poverty. An easy way to give both the planet and a plumbing-less person a helping hand is to eschew buying that bubble-bath giftbox and reindeer tie, and give somebody an Unwrapped gift for Christmas instead. As we may have mentioned already, our favourites include the Build a Bog and the Safe Water for Ten People gifts, but we thought we'd highlight a few more today, for you to mull over!

We may have posted one or two rants about toilet paper in the past. To make up for all that environmentally hostile, bleached, scented bog roll, why not Save Trees!

Hygeia keeps butting in, wringing her hands about handwashing. To help her struggle, buy someone a Hygiene Kit, or Hygiene Hints!

What good is a hygiene kit when you have no water to wash in? Fix a Well or Drill a Borehole and give someone the gift of safe water!

Last but not least, if you have so much money you just don't know what to do with it, buy a Water Tank! A bargain at £3,214.

There you go, Christmas sorted!

World Toilet Day 2011: Taking Our Baths and Our Women

Hooray, hooray, today is World Toilet Day!

Toilets and sanitation are very important, and, believe it or not, lacking in large parts of the world. Taps and toilets save lives! Today we'll be illustrating what happens when you mess around with sanitation.

A Jorvik Viking toilet. Read more about Viking hygiene in Jorvik here

We're feeling not only sanitarily minded but also ever so slightly intellectual today, and so we've decided to treat you all to a riveting story about a Viking toilet feud in 10th-11th-century Iceland! Below are a couple of extracts from chapters 4 and 9 of Eyrbyggja saga, the saga of the people of Eyrr, first in Icelandic, then the English translation. Both versions are from the Icelandic Saga Database.

Chapter 4

Þórólfur kallaði Þórsnes milli Vigrafjarðar og Hofsvogs. Í því nesi stendur eitt fjall. Á því fjalli hafði Þórólfur svo mikinn átrúnað að þangað skyldi engi maður óþveginn líta og engu skyldi tortíma í fjallinu, hvorki fé né mönnum, nema sjálft gengi í brott. Það fjall kallaði hann Helgafell og trúði að hann mundi þangað fara þá er hann dæi og allir á nesinu hans frændur.
Þar sem Þór hafði á land komið, á tanganum nessins, lét hann hafa dóma alla og setti þar héraðsþing. Þar var og svo mikill helgistaður að hann vildi með engu móti láta saurga völlinn, hvorki í heiftarblóði og eigi skyldi þar álfrek ganga og var haft til þess sker eitt er Dritsker var kallað.
(http://sagadb.org/eyrbyggja_saga)

(Now Thorolf called that ness Thorsness which lieth between Swordfirth and Templewick; on the ness is a fell, and that fell Thorolf held in such worship that he laid down that no man unwashed should turn his eyes thither, and that nought should be done to death on the fell, either man or beast, until it went therefrom of its own will. That fell he called Holy Fell, and he trowed that thither he should fare when he died, and all his kindred from the ness. On the tongue of the ness whereas Thor had come a-land he made all dooms be held, and thereon he set up a county Thing.
And so holy a place that was, that he would nowise that men should defile the field with blood-shedding, and moreover none should go thither for their needs, but to that end was appointed a skerry called Dirtskerry.)

 Chapter 9

Það var eitt vor á Þórsnessþingi að þeir mágar, Þorgrímur Kjallaksson og Ásgeir á Eyri, gerðu orð á að þeir mundu eigi leggja drag undir ofmetnað Þórsnesinga og það að þeir mundu ganga þar örna sinna sem annars staðar á mannfundum á grasi þótt þeir væru svo stolts að þeir gerðu lönd sín helgari en aðrar jarðir í Breiðafirði. Lýstu þeir þá yfir því að þeir mundu eigi troða skó til að ganga þar í útsker til álfreka.
En er Þorsteinn þorskabítur varð þessa var vildi hann eigi þola að þeir saurguðu þann völl er Þórólfur faðir hans hafði tignað umfram aðra staði í sinni landeign. Heimti hann þá að sér vini sína og ætlaði að verja þeim vígi völlinn ef þeir hygðust að saurga hann. Að þessu ráði hurfu með honum Þorgeir kengur, sonur Geirröðar á Eyri, og Álftfirðingar, Þorfinnur og Þorbrandur sonur hans, Þórólfur bægifótur og margir aðrir þingmenn Þorsteins og vinir.
En um kveldið er Kjalleklingar voru mettir tóku þeir vopn sín og gengu út í nesið. En er þeir Þorsteinn sáu að þeir sneru af þeim veg er til skersins lá þá hljópu þeir til vopna og runnu eftir þeim með ópi og eggjan. Og er Kjalleklingar sáu það hljópu þeir saman og vörðu sig. En Þórsnesingar gerðu svo harða atgöngu að Kjalleklingar hrukku af vellinum og í fjöruna. Snerust þeir þá við og varð þar hinn harðasti bardagi með þeim. Kjalleklingar voru færri og höfðu einvalalið.
(http://sagadb.org/eyrbyggja_saga)

(On a spring-tide at Thorsness Thing these brothers-in-law Thorgrim Kiallakson and Asgeir of Ere gave out that they would not give a lift to the pride of the Thorsness-folk, and that they would go their errands in the grass as otherwhere men do in man-motes, though those men were so proud that they made their lands holier than other lands of Broadfirth. They gave forth that they would not tread shoe for the going to the out-skerries for their easements.
But when Thorstein Codbiter was ware of this, he had no will that they should defile that field which Thorolf his father had honoured over all other places in his lands.
So he called his friends to him, and bade them keep those folk from the field by battle if they were minded to defile it.
In this rede were with him Thorgeir the son of Geirrod of Ere, and the Swanfirthers Thorfin and Thorbrand his son, Thorolf Halt- foot, and many other thingmen and friends of Thorstein.
But in the evening when the Kiallekings were full of meat they took their weapons and went out on to the ness; but when Thorstein and his folk saw that they turned off from the road that lay skerry-ward, they sprang to their weapons and ran after them with whooping and egging on. And when the Kiallekings saw that, they ran together and defended themselves.
But those of Thorsness made so hard an onset that Kiallak and his men shrunk off the field and clown to the foreshore, and then they turned against them therewith, and there was a hard battle between them; the Kiallekings were the fewer, but they had a chosen band.)

And so a feud kicks off that kills off most of the inhabitants of the entire district - because some dudes couldn't be bothered walking all the way to the very inconveniently located Dirtskerry, and so decided to do their business on some other dude's holy ground, instead!
And so you see, having somewhere clean, private and convenient to go to the toilet is extremely important!

A modern-day Viking toilet

 On a side note, may we add that a Very Special Friend of Intellectual Friend's points out that according to the 12th-century historian John of Wallingford, one of the reasons why the English carried out a foul and treacherous massacre of Danes was - wait for it - that they considered them too clean!
John of Wallingford says, in translation,

[The Danes] had also either seized, or prepared to seize, all the best towns in the land, and caused much trouble to the natives of the land; for they were wont, after the fashion of their country, to comb their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday, to change their garments often, and set off their persons by many such frivolous devices. In this manner they laid siege to the virtue of the married women, and persuaded the daughters even of the nobles to be their concubines. For these and other like causes there arose many quarells and wars in the realm.
(http://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/havhingsten-i-fortid-og-nutid/opgaver/kilder-til-opgave/)

The Vikings were, in fact, "coming over here, taking our baths and our women"!

In case you haven't had enough of Viking toilets (personally, we can NEVER get enough
of Viking toilets!), here's another one, from the Dublin Viking Centre

We would once again like to point out that, with Christmas drawing relentlessly closer, an Oxfam Unwrapped gift might be a planet-friendly alternative to the usual tie and bath salts. Our favourite, naturally, is the Build a Bog. Another good one to contemplate on World Toilet Day is the Safe Water for Ten People gift.

Happy Toilet Day!

Further reading:
Þorsteins Þáttr Skelks: Medieval Toilet Anecdote
Jorvik: In Rude Health

A Visionary If Not Strictly Toilet-Related Update

Forgive us for this not-strictly-toilet-related post, but we've been spending some time in Oxfam lately and, while there, our nose alerted us to the presence of these highly delectable bath melts from a company called the Visionary Soap Company. Our local Oxfam shop stocks the geranium and lavender varieties. Fairtrade, vegan, and entirely devoid of planet-hostile palm oil - bingo!
If you have the nerve to get into your bath after our last bacterial update, we highly recommend taking these babies with you! Alas, we can't transfer the scent of them via the picture below, but we would describe it as, to get poetical, really, really, really yummy.

Really, really, really yummy

...While we're on the subject of Oxfam, may we recommend a look at their Unwrapped gifts? The Build a Bog happens to be a favourite of ours.

...And, if you happen to be Scandiwegian and like bath- and beauty-type products, we recommend you have a gander at this blog.

Related Reading
The Lord Privy Seal Brings a Badly Needed Touch of Class. Also Monkey-Friendly Soaps.

Plumbing: Blessed, Blessed Plumbing

We have had critique directed in our general direction to the effect that all we do is complain. While this could of course not be further from the truth, we have still decided to make the subject of today's blog update gratitude. Gratitude for plumbing. While it's true that most of this country's plumbing at best puzzles and, at worst, horrifies us, today we acknowledge that we are grateful to be living without fear of cholera, typhus and other unpleasant plumbing-related afflictions.

People in this country are off their rocker but sometimes they get it right despite themselves

 We mentioned John Snow the other day, and here take the opportunity to stuff your ears with some more information about this remarkable man. (We hereby also acknowledge our gratitude to Wikipedia for making it possible for us to appear as though we know what we're talking about.)

John Snow was born in the blessed city of York but, like many other unfortunate people, ended up living in London. Imagine his dismay when, in 1854, he found himself in the middle of a cholera outbreak - as if life in London wasn't already bad enough! There was no wide-ranging sewerage system in London yet (the main sewers, which are still working well-ish, were constructed from 1859 onwards), and most people had a cesspit under their house. If you have any pretence to education you will know that one of the sources of cholera on this occasion was a pump in Broadwick Street. Turns out that the nappies of a baby who died of cholera had been discarded into a leaking cesspit in the vicinity of the pump.
John Snow's investigations and statistical calculations, although at first ignored, proved to be the first step towards the acceptance of germ theory as opposed to the miasma theory (though personally we find the idea of miasmically transmitted chlamydia much more amusing), and eventually led to safe drinking water in Britain.

Hard to believe that something so pretty can be so unhygienic

Prince Albert died from typhoid, another plumbing-related disease, in 1861, and thus unwittingly became the cause of some unhealthy Victorian customs, as well as setting off a fashion for Whitby jet. We learn from http://www.theplumber.com/plague.html that, "Ten years later, Victoria's son, Edward, almost died from the disease. A plumber traced the contamination to the lines of a newly-installed water closet and fixed the problem. Edward, the Prince of Wales, was very grateful to the plumber. Word spread of this episode and is thought to have hastened the acceptance of the indoor water closet in England".

If you're feeling the gratitude, buy some Oxfam Unwrapped gifts and help people who still have no plumbing and risk contracting a lethal disease every time they drink water!

Related Reading:
Hurrah for World Toilet Day!
Oxfam Unwrapped: Build a Bog!
Historical toilets
Viking toilets
After all this, can you believe that there are still people who don't wash their hands after they've been to the toilet?
Victorian Servants Have Taken over the Book Club

Goji in Goodramgate - Come for the Tea, Stay for the Toilets

We were tremendously excited to discover that our favourite café has got new toilets! This gem of an establishment, staffed entirely by friendly, soulful people, serves delicious vegetarian food (the Goji hotdog, served "with everything", is to die for!) and supplies its clientèle with delightful toilets.

On our recent visit, we discovered that the toilets have moved to the very top floor. They are extremely clean and fresh. 

Hurrah! A lovely, lovely toilet!

The flush is of the traditional, clumsy horizontal lever design, but nonetheless not too hard to push, even for the disabled and enfeebled. The toilet roll is plain white, but unfortunately not hygienically encased in a holder, and the spare roll also lies loose on top of the toilet (Hygeia says no!). The bin, however, is covered and at a comfortable distance from the user. The coat hook is excellent, but possibly placed a bit high for shorter toilet-goers.

Probably our second favourite soap in the whole world!
(You can get it at Oxfam Goodramgate)

Not too bad!

The hot water tap is an electrical horror, but, being new, works surprisingly well (though water is wasted due to a leak), supplying fairly warm water. The soap is excellent; organic, and with the fragrance of real lavender.

We lifted the bin lid with our feet

The paper towel holder is made by the near-ubiquitous Swedish company Tork, which indicates that the paper towels, if supplied by the same company, should be made from recycled fibres and/or sustainably sourced. There is a separate bin for paper towels, however the lid opens the wrong way. This makes it impossible to lift without touching, unless resorting to acrobatics.

Points: 7/15

Related Reading

Café Treff, Ambleside: The Best Toilet in England!

Goji Vegetarian Cafe & Deli

36 Goodramgate,

York, North Yorkshire

YO1 7LF

Tel: 01904 622614

It Finally Happened: World Toilet Day

It was quite a party

We thought the day would never come, but here it is: World Toilet Day!  Finally, a cause for celebration!  As we have reported previously, life has had a tendency to grimness recently (being a semi-employed academic isn't all it's cracked up to be), but finally there is a silver lining!  We stayed up until midnight last night, awaiting the arrival of this auspicious day, occasionally bursting into giggles and jumping up and down.  Happy Toilet Day, everyone!

For those of you who are not quite with it, see also:
The Privy Counsel: SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN: World Toilet Day 19 November
The Privy Counsel: Good Deeds Galore! Oxfam Unwrapped: Build a Bog


P.S. For more reasons to smile and to give your eyes a sparkle, check out our second favourite blog: http://skimmerskuggan.blogspot.com
Skimmerskuggan: Fredagstävling: Vinn Cliniderm Barrier Repair
(For Swedish speakers only. Terms and conditions may apply.)

Good Deeds Galore! Oxfam Unwrapped: Build a Bog

Today we find an excuse to start with our favourite Bridget Jones quote:

Dread the exchange of presents with friends as, unlike with the family, there is no way of knowing who is and isn’t going to give and whether gifts should be tokens of affection or proper presents, so all becomes like hideous exchange of sealed bids.  Two years ago I bought Magda lovely Dinny Hall earrings, rendering her embarrassed and miserable because she hadn’t bought me anything.  Last year, therefore, I didn’t get her anything and she bought me an expensive bottle of Coco Chanel.  This year I bought her a big bottle of Saffron Oil with Champagne and a distressed wire soap dish, and she went into a complete grump muttering obvious lies about not having done her Christmas shopping yet.

(Bridget Jones’s Diary, Fielding 1996, 293)

It has recently come to our attention that there are worse privations in life than having to use a toilet with a cumbersome horizontal lever flush, or opening doors with your elbow to avoid touching door handles after the OCD voices in your head have made you wash your hands three times.  These privations, our sources tell us, include not having a toilet at all, or not having clean water to drink, never mind wash your hands with.  Luckily, however, there are clever people working night and day to overcome these privations, building toilets and doing good deeds left, right and centre!  And not only do these good and clever people build toilets, they can also help you reduce stress this Christmas!

If you're struggling to think of what to give loved ones for Christmas, Oxfam will sort it for you!  Buy their “Build a Bog” card (£50), and someone you love gets a lovely card and a warm fuzzy feeling inside, and a toilet-deprived person receives a toilet!  How's that for multitasking!  If your finances don't quite stretch to building a bog, the Oxfam Unwrapped gifts give you many other options, for instance “Safe Water” (£9), “Hygiene Kit” (£14),  “Rainwater Collection” (£18), and “Fix a Well” (£22). We are all guilty of buying presents just for the sake of it, thus perpetuating the guilt-fuelled cycle of giving away unwanted presents. This wastes energy and increases landfill. But with Oxfam Unwrapped, you don't generate any plastic!

Isn't it fantastic!  You can now stop worrying about Christmas presents, and instead walk around with that smug, serene feeling of having done a good deed!  So practise your Princess Diana smile, give a friend a lovely card and a warm feeling inside, and give Hygeia, the goddess of health, sanitation and hygiene, a helping hand!

Build a Bog: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped-diy/OU5008WS

Oxfam unwrapped: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped

Also, remember that Friday is World Toilet Day! For more information, and a luscious quote by Stephen Fry, see the Wateraid website: http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/world_toilet_day/default.asp

Christmas is coming, but there's no need to panic!

Bridget Jones quote:

Fielding, Helen. Bridget Jones’s Diary. London: Picador, 1996.

SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN: World Toilet Day 19 November

Despite the mixer tap at the City Art Gallery, those dark moments have been pretty damn opaque lately.  However, it has come to our attention that Friday the 19th of November is World Toilet Day!  Can you contain your excitement?  We can.  Just.

The clever people who have invented this exciting day are Wateraid - apparently, there are people who have no toilets at all, and thus suffer more than we do, from having to use crap ones.

Here are some facts to improve your mind:

2.6 billion people do not have somewhere safe, private or hygienic to go to the toilet.

The simple act of washing hands with soap and water after going to the toilet can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by over 40%.
Anyone REALLY concerned about such matters should pop along to Oxfam Micklegate and buy one of their wonderful "unwrapped" gifts....specifically the "build a bog" one, as it is clearly the most appropriate!

Check out some more wild facts at the Wateraid website: http://www.wateraid.org/uk/get_involved/world_toilet_day/default.asp

 It's even got a quote by Stephen Fry!  This has certainly brightened our day.

HONK IF YOU LIKE TOILET DAY! (Monkey does).