Is this 21st century plumbing?

A colleague of mine a few years ago took a business trip to the United Kingdom and upon his return he described what was his experience like. And he didn’t even complain much about the food (you should see the food we get in Slovenia) but what he just could not understand was the British odd sense of common household plumbing.

This rang a bell with me as I have been puzzled on many occasions by the strange water systems the British have as an excuse for decent plumbing. For heaven’s sake, what they are doing with the water is just weird.

The first contact a visitor to the UK gets with the British waterjoke can be reached even in the posh hotel or in a normal house. You get your hands dirty and of course you want to wash them in some warm water. But once you get to the sink you find yourself in front of two taps!! How on earth is this supposed to work?! Should I get heat blisters using the left tap or numb my hands in freezing cold water using the right tap. Hmmm. Can I ask the audience? Perhaps I should resort to filling the sink with water from both and wash my hands in a filthy tepid water. Maybe that’s what its all about. I’ve heard of people opening both taps and then quickly moving their hand left and right to somehow mix the both waters on the fly.

But the weird plumbing doesn’t end here. I thought it was normal to hide drainage pipes in or behind walls and not prance them on your house like a modern art exhibition. Well, the Brits do. You can see the whole intricate drainage system coming out of the rear end of the house. I guess the only positive thing about this principle is to give Joe the pipe repairman a slightly easier job than he would otherwise have.