Bottled water

Calendargirl

Whenever people moan about tap water, I think of the scene from ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’, when they were all trekking across some god forsaken desert, hardly any water, and one chap falls off his camel and gets left behind. Not missed for a while.

Then our hero, ‘El Lawrence’, sets off to find him, despite them all telling him not to.

They are both given up for dead, but no, in a scene that brings tears to my eyes whenever I watch the film, Lawrence returns with a half dead chap on the back of his camel, exhausted, parched beyond belief, and they are given some precious water to revive them.

Must have been warm, dirty, in a horrible bag made out of camel skin or similar, but very welcome.

So whenever you turn on a tap and water gushes out, think of gorgeous Peter O’ Toole, and what he had to put up with!

So whenever you turn on a tap and water gushes out, think of gorgeous Peter O’ Toole, and what he had to put up with!

I once saw Peter O'Toole (60s) outside a pub in Hampstead Heath. He was among a crowd of people but I could see him quaffing from a metal-tankard...

But, yes - I can imagine O'Toole and half-dead chap drinking water which must inevitably have been warm, with a "hint of camel notes"...

Makes me appreciate my tap water - even if it has a strong 'note' of bleach.

Six of those little bottles of water fit neatly into a supermarket small cool bag with a slim frozen freezer pack. Easy to pick up and carry for car journeys. Then I refill them with tap water several times. It looks cute.

We are currently trying to use as little water as possible before we officially hit a drought.

Our son spent his gap year in India where obviously water is a valuable commodity, he got us out of the habit of running taps too long.

I have read up on saving water in the home and it seems a dishwasher is much more efficient than washing up by hand.

The taste of our rap water varies considerably. We started buying bottled water but after a few weeks seeing the number of bottles piling up to be recycled we bought a counter top water filter.
People now ask me if I'm making my own gin but the water tastes much better both to drink chilled or to make tea and coffee and we have less plastic to dispose of.

MawsRosie

^When we lived in a City I was always amazed at the immigrants who had trolleys full of bottled water^

How could you tell their residential status?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

We recouped all our plastic and DH and I tend to drink tap water, adult children here tend to drink bottled!

My neighbour and I were discussing drinking water. She said, ‘I like mine with a tea bag in it!’

HelterSkelter1

Six of those little bottles of water fit neatly into a supermarket small cool bag with a slim frozen freezer pack. Easy to pick up and carry for car journeys. Then I refill them with tap water several times. It looks cute.

Be careful about refilling, research shows they are specifically designed as “single” use bottles.

We also all have, bar DH, multiple use drinking bottles which come in our journeys with us. I used those re-useable frozen ice cures and put about 6 in per bottle, doesn’t dilute the drink and keeps cool for a co fair while, long journeys they go onto a cool bag and front passenger in charge!

I fully agree with you!

The odd bottle is one thing, as I've done in these awful heatwaves, but some people seem to forget there's tap water where they could just fill a metal water bottle and refill it from the tap, either at home, in public loos, eatery loos, etc.

However, with the bad condition of water from some companies, where it's contaminated in some way, I then understand people buying bottled water.

On the rare occasion I buy plastic-bottled water, once I've drunk it, I dump the bottle in my recycling bag at home. Sadly, I've seen loads of plastic bottles of various sizes, over the years, just dumped on the road/pavement!

Just back from shopping - and our block of flats has no water! Thank goodness I have some bottles,

No info from SE Water yet though I am on their list for alerts. There is usually about one a day.

My family run outdoor orchestral concerts and a big folk festival and they have completely gone over to tap water at these events where they organise standpipes. Their website lets people know this so they can bring an empty bottle, or they have metal bottles on sale on site.

I think that over the years they had become shocked by the mass of plastic bottles that needed recycling at the end of the events, which attract thousands of people.

The customers have all embraced this change and been very supportive of it.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

I drink tap and always have done . I’m in the south east . My fridge has a filter in it . So the water tastes fine. I use a Chilly bottle when I’m out and about and only buy bottled water if I haven’t got my water bottle .
I do drink bottled water when I’m on holiday abroad.

We sometimes buy bottles of sparkling water to add to fruit squash. Otherwise, it's tap water with a couple of ice cubes. If we eat out I buy a small drink and ask for a glass of tap water. I seldom buy bottled water in a pub/restaurant.

butterandjam

Luckygirl3

Some of the bottled water sold in supermarkets is filtered tap water!

I only buy water if it's been hand-cupped out of a river by virgins, filtered through their linen petticoats and carried down the mountain in oak barrels to Click and Collect in Tesco car park.

😂😂

Nevertheless if the experiences here over the last months are anything to go by, it pays to be prepared for frequent outages. A vulnerable water supply system is no joke.

Re non Brits and water, a niece of dh came from Singapore to a UK boarding school for A levels. There were a number of mainland Chinese pupils, one of whom had apparently completely blocked the entrance to niece’s accommodation with masses of cartons (12 large bottles of each) of mineral water, ordered from Amazon.

Apparently the girl (newly arrived from China) was under the impression that drinking tap water made your hair fall out!
We thought that in the area she was from, maybe it was very polluted, and did.

I have a refillable one, so hardly ever buy bottled water, but was particularly naffed off at Geneva Airport, to have to pay €6!! each, for tiny little 250 ml bottles of water. And this was some years ago - goodness knows what they’re charging now.

Looks like we will be without water until tomorrow morning! Good job we have a few bottles and they should deliver some to us. Third outage since we arrived here.

The drinking water from the tap upsets my stomach. I have a brother with the same issue. It also tastes horrible, we’re in a hard water area.

We used to have our own water supply, a well. When we first bought the house we had the water tested and then we had to do it again years later when we sold the house.
As far as I'm aware this is a free service offered by councils if a resident is concerned about the purity of their drinking water.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Have bought bottled water over the last 4/5 weeks as the water from the tap is always warm. This week I've bought extra as there have been water problems in the area with some people having to do without. I'm also thinking that after the hot weather has finished I'm going to keep a supply at home just in case as per govt guidelines in case of emergencies.

As long as I can remember both in Scotland and in Denmark we drank tap water with no ill effects, although I do remember that my doctor father recommended mothers travelling to a different area with infants under a year, to boil and cool tap water when away from home for the children.

Until about the late 1980s most of us bought bottled water if we travelled in France, Spain, Italy or Portugal as the drinking water may have been perfectly safe to drink but we attributed tummy upsets when travelling to the different quality of tap water. And a good number of Spanish coastal town had cleaned salt water in the taps!

All bottles whether plastic or glass plus aliminuim soft drinks and beer cans are recycable everywhere within the EU now and you get your deposit back when you return them within the country where they were bought.

So there is no real reason healthwise to buy drinking water, but if people prefer the taste, or believe it is healthier then that is their business, not mine.

Welsh Water here. About 2 years ago I had a very strong smell of chlorine coming from my kitchen taps.
Called Welsh Water out, they tested it and it was indeed over the recommended amount!