So Ken and I are currently travelling across the Atlantic on a large boat, the Queen Mary 2 to be precise. We’re on our way to the UK to visit family with my parents. Currently, Ken is driving me crazy by suggesting things I can write (“tell them you hate jazz”) because he’s too cheap to pay for the wifi plan and he is bored. “God help you if you were ever locked in the bathroom with me,” he just opined. And yes, that would be horrible. Not because of Ken, who has stopped talking about his tendency to flatulate in small spaces when he realized I was writing everything he said down, but because the bathroom in our stateroom, while frustratingly typical in that the flush mechanism is BEHIND the toilet lid, forcing you to TOUCH the lid in order to flush the toilet, is extremely small and very strange. Here’s a photograph:

I’m not certain what the builders of this ship thought people would be doing in the bathroom but it’s set up like a weird bar. Not only is there the strange, prerequisite metal toilet paper cover that makes a perfect place to put your cocktail, but above that, there’s an ashtray, and mounted on the door, there’s a bottle opener. So what? I’m sitting on the can drinking beer and having a smoke, waiting for the disco to start in the shower? Ken has interrupted to remind me to tell you that “we met Seth”. Who is Seth? I have no idea. Apparently he works remotely and is doing a global cruise. Anyway, I’ve given Ken a ball of wool to bat around and amuse himself with while I finish this post in the theatre where we’re waiting for a show to start. The theatre, fortunately, is bigger than our bathroom but without the ashtrays, bottle openers, and potential disco dancing. Or Seth.
Lol. Suzanne, this cracked me up. Enjoy the show, and enjoy your visit to the UK!
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Thank you!
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You’re coming to the UK! Whoop! Are you going to be anywhere near the East Midlands?
Maybe the bottle opener is in the bathroom so that if you spill any of the drink it doesn’t go on the carpet?
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We’ll be near Leeds—is that East Midlands area?
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Yorkshire rather than Midlands; Leeds is about an hour away from me. How long are you over for?
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We’ll be there on the night of the 1st at a place called Oulton Hall😊
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Staying in the area long?
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Just the one night then on to Glasgow 😊
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Apparently, I need to upgrade my bathroom to be the perfect hang-out spot, as mine lacks both an ashtray and bottle opener.
Thanks for all the laughs!
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It’s the ashtray that confounds me—there’s no smoking aboard the ship so why don’t they just remove it?
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Cruise ship envy! Hope you have a wonderful experience, both during the cruise and in the UK! Who’s watching the critters while you’re gone?
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Our daughter and her boyfriend are on doggy duty!
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You can’t find ashtrays anywhere around here anymore, let alone in a bathroom. That’s quite a find! Though if I smoked, I don’t think I’d want to do it anyplace where septic fumes might be present…
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Or where the only place to escape fire is the middle of the Atlantic!
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I just came back from a cruise on the QM2 from NYC to Quebec and back. I had a very cheap cabin that apparently did not warrant any of those luxuries. 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying your trip though…
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Oh our cabin is a cheap inside one—not sure how we warranted all this eleganza!
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I know some people—mostly guys—who have turned their hotel rooms into the “party room” by filling the bathtub with ice and sodas or beer, or both. Where they bathed I don’t know. It also doesn’t seem that common so I don’t know if it has any connection to bottle openers always being put in bathrooms. Anyway I want to hear more about how you hate jazz.
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I don’t hate ALL jazz—just the annoying stuff. Give me Brubeck any day!
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May I suggest a sacrifice of (gasp) spilled wine, perhaps into that porcelain urn, to your protector on this journey, Seth, Egyptian god of chaos and violence.
I assume you’re on the starboard side… POSH
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Lol, we’re on the IN-side. Not much point in having a balcony on the Atlantic in late October—it’s freezing outside!
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Is that a toilet bowl brush beside the toilet?
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Yes! Not something you’d normally find in a bar, right?!
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Yes, that’s weird. Like they expect you to make a mess and clean up after yourself.
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Oh heavens! I never though you’d write that Ken is driving you mad because he’s bored, lol. I mean I know that you write about you back and forth banter, you know your clocks, the mini rooms and of course him using your S mug. But dang, he really does need a hobby 🤣.
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There isn’t much to do on the ship sometimes lol!
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Crossing the big Atlantic by boat. You guys are real adventurers. Have fun!
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Did you meet Seth Rogan? He’s a Celebrity, a Comedian and Actor, I believe. I actually like where they put the flusher on the toilet. It’s more sanitary for the lid to be down when you flush it.
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Self-closing lids are much more sanitary. These ones are just gross.
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-giggles- That is definitely a deluxe loo! I just hope all the flushed stuff doesn’t get emptied straight into the Atlantic? Sorry, my brain just goes to places like this.
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They have a filtration and sanitation system and they’re not allowed to empty it into the ocean, thankfully!
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Oh, that is good to know. I’d never really thought about it before, but your post about the loo got me thinking about the, ah, process. 😀
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Lol. Glad you’re enjoying your beer and smoke in the loo. Is that a thing in the UK? And did you find Seth? Have a great trip!
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Yeah, Seth is everywhere! Thanks—can’t wait to get off the ship and see the family in Scotland!
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didn’t you just get back from a cruise? wishing you a great time!
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I’ve never been on a cruise ship, but if I go, I’ll be expecting a disco-ready bathroom like the one pictured here.
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They all pretty much look like that so be prepared to boogie!
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