Finally, 11 months into the year, I have an invitation to test a shower. It doesn’t quite meet my fantasy of “being invited to try out showers both weird and wonderful!” as stated back in January, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that. Mind you, I may postpone it for a while as the invitation went something like this… “I really should get you to come and try out my shower. It’s really crap, and the bathroom’s really cold and you can’t get the water above lukewarm.” Well thanks Lyds, can’t wait! But as it’s a shower attached to bath taps, which a lot of people in the UK have to put up with, I will definitely test it out at some point.
We stayed at Linda and Steve’s place last weekend. They have a power shower but have combined it with an aerated head so it only (only!) gushes out at 13 litres/minute. I never travel without a shower timer these days so as to be able to deliver the four minute shower challenge, although in this household it wasn’t that straightforward. Steve always has a bath (can’t decide if that’s because he is American or just old school) and Linda reckons she‘s only under the shower for two minutes. So I delivered a four minute bath challenge instead…
Some of you no doubt will have been on tenterhooks since July when I name dropped the Marriott Hotel. Just how much water would the shower in a four star hotel deliver? Of course I didn’t want to let down my loyal readership by not finding out but had forgotten to take my measuring jug. And as reception was full of Leonard Cohen fans and his backing musicians (though sadly not the man himself who left via the basement), there was not much chance of the front desk finding me one. So, ever resourceful, I collected 30 seconds worth of water in the bin, used a paper cup to transfer it into a water bottle (not mine I hasten to add) and set off to friends in Essen. A couple of days later I remembered I hadn’t yet measured the water. But where was it? The bottle was still by the bed but it was exhibiting a remarkable lack of fluid therein. Eventually the mystery was solved. Suhith had drunk the Marriott Hotel shower water! So all I can report is that it wasn’t as much as you’d think, (certainly less than 10 litres/minute, based on the original fill level) that it was a great showering experience and perhaps JW Marriott would like to offer me a complimentary stay in his hotel in Ghent sometime in 2013 and I will confirm the actual flow rate then.