a daily journal of places where I peed in 2009
restroom, community cafe, st monans
The only major outing today was a trip to the community cafe for lunch. I had a delicious brie and pesto panini – not as good as the brie sandwich at the Red Dove in Geneva, but it’ll do. We are definitely making connections here in town, including with Chris the cook here. There are plans afoot for he and I to go to Glasgow to see The Specials, if I can scare up a ticket.
gents room, macgregor's coffee house, st andrews
Another stainless steel urinal trough! Well, when it rains, it pours. I’ve realized that it is next to impossible to get lunch in St Andrews from noon-2, as everybody floods the restaurants. This is a nice little place: a knick-knack shop in the front and the coffee shop/restaurant upstairs in the back. For the record, I’m heading off to the pub across the street in a few minutes for their ‘acoustic night,’ where I no doubt will pay yesterday’s featured trough several visits.
gents toilet, mayview hotel pub, st monans
After being here for two and a half weeks, I finally managed to walk directly across the street to the local pub. And what a treat it was. Not only did I have a couple of delicious pints, Lia Fail if you must know. But I also got to use this awesome stainless steel urinal. Finally, a steel urinal trough! Why do I have the sinking suspicion that there will be future pictures of this trough?
upstairs master bathroom, home, st monans
I was home all day with two sick girls, so I was unable to visit any new loos. But this house has three toilets and I haven’t shown you this one yet. I occasionally visit here to escape the mayhem. And you can see my toilet reading there on the floor: Mojo with a cover article on Nick Cave.
restroom, heron bistro, pittenweem
This is the restroom at the Heron Bistro in Pittenweem. I spent part of the afternoon in the Bistro trying to do some work. I was delighted when I entered the restroom and saw the cheesy toilet seat. I still find it interesting that they frequently enclose the toilet tank, in this case putting panelling around it as part of a built-in shelf.
restroom, auld kirk (old church), st monans
When the vicar stopped by for tea a few nights ago (I know!), Anna kindly volunteered me to be in the ‘mystery’/passion plays at the old church (I know!!). Tonight was my first rehearsal. The toilet is up a set of steep stairs, next to where they keep the baby Jesus and his crib. The two things I like about this photo is the old point-of-use heater for the hot water tap and the row of toilet rolls on the top of the toilet tank.
toilet, cocoa tree coffee shop, pittenweem
You can’t tell from this toilet, but the Cocoa Tree is a rather twee coffee shop in Pittenweem, which is the next village over from us. It is a quaint fishing village like St Monans, but slightly larger and, judging by the shops, much more of a tourist destination in the summer. But to get to the toilet, one has to walk outside into the courtyard. The bathroom is a really small and the toilet kept running. They’ve tried to fancy it up by putting in foo-foo hand soap and lotion, but the loo just doesn’t measure up to the image the coffee shop is going for. Did I mention how fantastic the scones were? Dee-lish-us.
restroom, st monans church hall, st monans
I took the girls to a local toddler play group this morning at the local church hall. While the actually church here was built in 1342 (not a typo), the church hall in the middle of the village was probably built in the last 100 years. I think the bathroom was remodeled in the 1970s. The toilet itself is OK, but the old brown tiles and the blue walls really make the bathroom quite special.
public gents toilet, st andrews harbor, st andrews
I’ve started parking my car down at the harbor when I go to St Andrews. Then I take a shortcut through the ruins of the old cathedral to get to my office. I know, what a tough life. Yesterday I noticed that there was a public ‘gents toilet’ built into the old stone archway down at the harbor and I made a mental note to visit it today in hopes that there would be a good urinal there. I was not disappointed. It is a fantastic place, full of old, cracked tiles and a healthy whiff of past illicit doings. And urinals that could survive a bomb blast.
mens room, costa coffee shop, st andrews
I love how small the divider is between the urinals. To answer John’s questions, Armitage Shanks seems to be the most common urinal and toilet. And I have yet to see a urinal cake in the UK. Be sure to check in tomorrow, as I’ve scoped out a really great place to pee.
