I’ve just realised it has been over a year since I started this blog. In that time I’ve written about a number of things from a trip to Rome to me taking part in an open water swim. As a result I thought I should make my next entry an absolute belter, a real eye opening, insightful blog, tinged with a blend of humour and wry observation. Yes this entry calls for a weighty issue to justify being chosen as the topic to celebrate a year of blogging. So after much deliberation and consternation I’ve decided to blog about a toilet.

The toilet in question is in the car park at Gatwick Airport, a more glamorous location you could not wish to find. The reason for the blog is not because of any issue to do with the toilet itself but an offending hand drier.  Just remember this is a disabled toilet that I found myself in so things need to be in easy reach of the user. You are likely to find people who use wheelchairs such as myself, elderly people and maybe even people with sight difficulties. So you can imagine my surprise to find the hand drier on a wall immediately next to the toilet, which meant that anyone who wants to use it has to lean over the toilet to dry their hands. I hand little option but to use the shaky hands drying method.

What makes this even more bizarre is that on the opposite wall there is a ruddy great unobstructed space which in my own untrained toilet designing opinion would have been a far more appropriate place to put the hand drier. Bizarre very very bizarre.

I actually made the trip to the offending toilet as I was passing through the airport after getting the train there before heading off to a nearby conference venue for work. This meant that I had to get the Gatwick Express from Victoria Station in central London. On the plus side this was a great experience and far easier than I thought it would be. There is no need to book assistance in advance, all you need to do is simply turn up to the platform and there are staff on hand to give people a hand. Admittedly the ramps are quite steep but once on the train the space for a wheelchair is actually quite spacious and it is a much more relaxing way to get to the airport rather than trying to navigate the M25 car park. I even had the luxury of having the entire coach to myself. More details on travelling on the Gatwick Express can be found here https://www.gatwickexpress.com/content.asp?SID={F843B933-6E55-4172-92DB-B65DADB40971}&pageid=40