Have you ever been so short of water...

Short of water? Bags has the Bonnie land got Nae water?
How would they be making the whisky?

Yes to the first but no to the second.

Er, no.

Don't worry, jeni, we have plenty of water. I just fished a wet teabag out of the sink (after rinsing the teapot) and squeezed it out and remembered a time when that water would have been precious.

......or had to brush your teeth with chilled white wine?

That sounds gooooood!

As a child in the mid-1950's I lived in Hong Kong. We were lucky we lived on the mountain next to The Peak - so didn't get mossie bites and it was cooler in the summer. Rainfall between May and September in HK was minimal and we had to either rely on our reservoirs and when they became fairly empty buy it from then very Communist China - at a huge cost. So water was severely rationed. It came on for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. We had 2 bathrooms and Mum used to fill both baths with water for our use. One Sunday our Cook and his Wife [our amah] had the day off and we went to the beach for the day. On returning, my brother rushed into the house and into a living room swimming with water, The water had been left on by Mum and then started again in the evening. With the help of neighbours etc we managed to clean up the flood.
The next day the HK Police called to slap a huge fine on us for wastage of water. Luckily the fact that my father , who was born and bred in China, spoke perfect Chinese and we got a severe warning instead. Because of my time there, where water was literally so valuable, I've always been aware that water is precious and shouldn't be wasted
I know this was a tale about your teabag Bags but thought you'd like this story too..

Fascinating!
I hadn't realised there was a water shortage in Hong Kong

I don't know if there is one now as a lot of engineering may have taken place - also getting water from China is probably easier. As I said this was the mid-1950s so if there are any HK ex-residents who were there recently maybe they could tell us.

Thank you for that story, dorset. Every time our water gets cut off I try to remember how much harder it is in other parts of the world. Helps put things in perspective.

Actually, although during the first five years of our living here our water and electricity were cut off more times than during the rest of our lives combined, things have improved in the last couple of years. Scottish Water and Scottish Power realised, respectively, that replacing main road Victorian water pipes that were always bursting, and putting overhead cables that kept getting blown down underground, would actually cost them less than having to employ people overtime at night in freezing cold, wet conditions over and over again!

When I was little there was a really bad winter which resulted in permafrost which froze the water pipes. I remember collecting buckets of snow to defrost and mum getting anxious about the state of the frozen loo.

When I first moved to Devon with exdh, we had a cottage that relied on a well, no mains water or drainage. We had an exceptionally dry summer, and the water in the well got so low that the electric pump couldn't bring it up to the tank. Baths were out, toilet flushing was severely restricted too.

Yes happened last week, water was off when we woke. Thankfully I keep a pack of sensitive baby wipes handy for make up removal.