[BITList] Scotland

[HUGH]

John,

Och aye.  While on the subject of water, I note that Glasgow City Council 
are spending enormous (really enormous, about half a mill) amounts of money 
on bottled water to fill up the water dispensers in their offices.  I 
managed to survive in 14 different offices during my career without catching 
sight of a bottled water dispenser, let alone use one.  One thing Glasgow is 
famous for is the quality of its tap water, so maybe someone should tell the 
eejits running the place.  Among the matters they say they are going to 
discuss so as not to be confronted with accusations of idiocy again are - 
health and safety connected with drinking tap water, health and safety 
connected with spillage of tap water from non-dispensing facilities. When 
did people start to need guidelines for taking an effing drink of water? You 
couldn't make it up, is often said in such cases, but not in this one.  I 
did make it up, back in the 70s when I was with Scotts in Greenock (office 
No 8).  The urn for boiling the water for tea and coffee was situated in the 
print room down a flight of stairs, and a queue used to snake back from it 
around tea break times.  Some just had the one cup, some had two, and some 
had teapots big and small. Spillage was commonplace. So I drew up a spoof 
set of rules to manage the traffic, with a rule of the road and details of 
likely hazards such as Mr Beck in ballast.  Mr Beck was a retired Chief 
Engineer who had come in to work as a technical clerk - he was big and 
unsteady and carried a very large pot of tea.  I didn't think to worry about 
the health aspects, just the safety.

Hugh.