Have you noticed lately that everything must be “digital, electronic or viral” if it is to be considered important in our modern world? Personally, I am often convinced that corporate advertising people are seriously misusing these words simply to make a more mundane word sound something extraordinary. So, when a friend informed me that I really must go to a new restaurant that had just opened in our neighborhood – simply to see and use their state of the art electronic toilets; I seriously wondered if the world had gone completely mad.
Maybe It’s Something Out Of Science Fiction?
You know: that futuristic bathroom where someone steps into a glass shower tube; there’s a buzzing noise and a blue ray in the shape of a hula hoop passes up and down their naked body – they then step out fully cleansed, dry and refreshed. Maybe some sort of ray is generated within the toilet bowl which then hits me in the naked behind and – no, perish the thought, I don’t even want to think about that.
I Don’t Think So
However, if these electronic toilets really do use electricity, I must admit to being very curious as to how they used it and, more importantly, what did they do with it (hopefully, without electrocuting me in the process)? To cut a long story short, I agreed to dine there with my friend and we went last week. The restaurant décor was magnificent and we were browsing a most interesting menu while taking some pre-diner drinks when my bladder reminded me that I needed to “go and powder my nose”.
Enlightenment
True, the powder room was excellent at first sight but nothing that you would not expect to find in a first class restaurant. They had plenty of toilet stalls so finding an unoccupied one was easy – but, what would it be like inside?
My first reaction was to notice how clean and spotless it was (it also had a nice fresh smell); it was then that I noticed a small green sensor button on the wall and instructions to wave at it before starting to get ready to sit on the toilet. This is where electronic toilets come into their own; no sooner had I given the sensor a friendly wave than a sort of flattened plastic snake started to appear from the hinge area at the back of the seat, It then progressed all the way around the seat – as it did so, the plastic that used to be there was withdrawn into the other side’s hinge area. Low and behold, at the wave of a hand, these electronic toilets provide you with a brand new, totally clean and hygienic seat cover on which to sit. WOW, that alone made the restaurant bill worthwhile.