Water.

I heard someone say, “The best drink in the world is water.”

I love to watch people, animals and my cats drinking water.

I don’t always drink as much water as I should. I too love drinking water, mainly bottled water, as it encourages me to drink, it is handy near the table where I sit and eat. I am also 100% happy to drink water straight from the tap! My brother William was horrified when he saw me doing that recently. William has his water filtered, and then poured into posh glass bottles with a lovely stopper, where it is then kept ice cold in his fridge.

In the summer or abroad, nothing is nicer than ice cold water. But having said that, abroad, in the heat, I would prefer ice cold orange Fanta!

We were informed many years ago, “To not waste water,” And one of the things was to turn off the water or run it on a trickle as we brush our teeth. There are other things too, like having a shower instead of a bath, and adding a shower saver saving device, like eco-friendly water flow restrictors.

There is a friend my Husband knows, she lives near us, many years ago she was encouraged to have a water meter, she regrets it, because of the meter she pays quite a lot for her water usage. We pay a set amount each month, it does not matter how much or how little we use. I don’t think I would ever want a water meter.

When my Mum is brushing her teeth, I turn off the water, not to save her money, but it just seems a waste of fresh clean water pouring down the sink. Then when she has finished brushing her teeth, I put the tap back on.

We have all seen the adverts of those abroad who have just dirty water to drink, with all the animal waste and bugs, I just can’t imagine living like that. Some must walk a long way, just to get that. We are SO lucky here in England, that’s why I don’t mind drinking nice clean water from the taps.

About 30 years ago, we had to do something at work, and I must admit, when it started, I did wonder, who was going to benefit from this? What we had to do was run the taps, all of them in the building for about FIVE minutes, for three different reasons. The first was to make sure there was no legionella.

The second and third was to check the water temperatures for all the hot and cold taps in the building, and it is a large building! We must run the taps, with all that precious hot water and then cold water going straight down the sink! I don’t know if work has a water meter or not, IF they have, then the water company would be laughing and rubbing their hands, with glee. Sometimes when I am doing this, I think of those abroad drinking their dirty, bug-ridden water, while we happily throw ours away, down the sink. This precious commodity.

I know Health and Safety is important, I get that.

When I arrived at work today, as I walked up the garden path, I saw water at full strength pouring from the pipe in garden, I was horrified and wondered who had left it on, on full! Then just around the corner near the tap, I saw the Water Man! He comes once a week to do just that, run a few taps in the garden and bathroom. I thought, after he turned it off, I would love to know how much he gets paid to go around from company to company turning on taps and letting the water flow down the sink. It seems like an easy job to me.

I suppose I can’t compare our lives to those in this world who don’t have the luxury of clean water, on tap.

Paul tells me, when he sees me drinking my bought bottled water, “It’s from the tap.” Maybe so, but it encourages me to drink, more water, which is what I don’t drink enough of.