Anyway, each year the company I work for has a conference in a Wuxi school. This year it was over the last few days. The conference itself was uneventful. Unless you're presenting, or something memorable happens, I suspect most conferences are pretty dull, and largely this was the same. I know what the company's focussing on this year, which is good, but other than that was it gripping? Maybe not so much.

I said all that to say this. One of the things you'll notice if you ever go to China (especially outside Shanhai and Beijing) is the toilets. There are 3 types. The western sit down type, a slightly fancy Chinese one where the bowl you sit on is plumbed directly into the floor, while the third is effectively a trench that people go into. You squat over the latter two to relieve yourselves. A lot of westerners I know don't use the last of the 3 types, and face the "wrong way" in the second, because the flush is plumbed into the back wall, and you can use it as a plumbline when otherwise engaged.

Now western toilets sometimes don't have doors. Not too sure why, they just don't. The western toilets in Wuxi were worse. Instead of just not having doors, there was no protection at all. The trench next door was divided into 3 sections (like they are all over the world), but the western toliet on the end was open for all the world to see. I wonder why they do that, Can someone explain to me how anyone can think that's a good idea?