Are we too clean for our own good?

Aka - what about the contraceptive pill - at least that cut down on the amount of washing that needing doing!

bog?

What were you doing in Jess's bog?

Why has Jess got a bog? Is she a conservationist?

Don't you lot start on me - anyway, I am sure jess has a beautiful bog!

I went in a very nice ty bach the other day. In Menai Bridge. Cafe's toilet was out the back, down the steps and in a tiny cubicle. If you had more than size 16 hips you would have had to back into it. Most of the toilets in Wales were like that in my childhood. Also saw some fine bogs in Beaumaris castle yesterday, built into the walls. Multi level, back to back cubicles all using the same large shaft - originally ventilated at the top and washed by the waters of the moat below. The very latest thing in 1300.

Jess Do you have a crocheted crinoline lady toilet roll cover in your bog?

Seriously Jess, I have just discovered you science blogs and I am hooked. They very well explained as an overview of things scientific.

I do!

Aka we live in the Suisse Normande area of Normandy, in the south of Calvados.

granjura that is interesting, not heard it before but my C section baby is the only one of the 3 who has allergies.

We have seen a few houses in France with an open toilet installed on the half-landing of the stairs. Sociable I suppose.

Well I certainly wouldn't like to have to shower/bath once a week and my hair looks terrible unless washed every day. I am so glad we are more civilised these days.

Jess beaumaris castle is one of the best castles in Wales IMO. Fond memories of castles on holiday in Wales with parents.

Mamie, when I used to organise school exchanges with rural Normandy- those issues were a big problem for our students. Some were expected to share a bed with the exchange student, others had to walk to the yard to use outside 'casy' with a wooden lid and a hole, and one of them called in great distress, because the house was just one big room for all to share, and a shower + WC in the corner - no walls, no curtains. We had to go 'rescue' her and ask one of the teachers to host her! Another was put in the barn to sleep, and had to walk a plank on hands and knees to get to the ladder that would take her down to use the toilet, in the dark, which was behind the chicken house.

We had to ask the teachers from the school (near Bourgtheroulde) to talk to prospective host families about the minimum requirements of own bed, in the house and with access to privacy for WC and washing!

Glory be! What interesting things you learn on GN. Blogs and bogs indeed!

Goodness granjura, that must have been a challenge. The thing that amazed me when we had exchange students from France was that they always gave me lots of white frilly blouses to wash and iron, but never any knickers. Why was that do you think? Did they have disposable ones, take them home to be washed three weeks later or what?

Yes, perhaps they didn't want you seeing their smalls, Mamie!

We had the same Mamie. I'd love to know why. Actually I felt they didn't shower very often and wore their clothes for more days that I would have thought was normal.

Well maybe they just didn't have the facilities at home as granjura describes and weren't used to it? I do remember getting lots of white, pin-tucked blouses to iron though. Not my forte
Both my children went to very nice houses with all mod cons in France, but it was in a town. My hairdresser was telling me the other day that her niece went to an enormous house in England, but it was full of dogs and very dirty!

i agree that nowadays we can be too clean and children dont build up natural resistance to many germs. when i stayed with my very old fashiomed Gran with my 2 small children and worried about them playing on her old lino kitchen floor she used to say didnae fash yourself its all clean dirt. there must have been some truth to it as they seldom were ever sick while i often hear from my GGC that they have a tummy bug or the runs in spite of living in extra clean houses.

My DiL quotes her grandmother: 'We eat a peck of dirt before we die.' So she is far from being a fussy mother and the two kids are no more unhealthy than any of their peers.
I am sure we learned all about measures like the peck when we were in primary school but can't for the life of me remember what it is!

AKA , LOL

4 pecks = 1bushell!

Glad that's been cleared up, then!

I aim to please Ana; not get into any arguments; turn the other cheek; live and let live; and not tell any porkies