Have you noticed that little sign over the sink in an aircraft toilet. It says “not drinking water”. And just next to it there’s a drawer full of toothbrushes and toothpaste. This raises a number of questions. If we shouldn’t be drinking it should we be putting it in our mouths even if we spit it out? Will the toothpaste kill the greebies that obviously lurk in this ungreen, unsmelly, uncontaminated with obvious wriggly things, water.
In the backblocks of what would be considered lesser developed countries where there is no bottled water, beer is a reasonable substitute for water for cleaning one’s teeth and I have heard of scotch being used although this is a rather expensive way of going about it. Scotch without the toothpaste would be a much more palatable option for a few days.
And if this water’s not to be drunk, where did it come from in the first place. At one end of Sydney airport is the Cook River. Next time I get on a plane parked at that end I’ll be looking out for a bloke in airport high-viz standing next to the plane sucking on a hose dangling in that river.
Anyway, I’ve inadvertently swallowed that water when cleaning my teeth or washing out the taste of the airline food, or swallowing sleeping pills. My GP assures me that the recurring bouts of cholera are caused by breathing contaminated air.