high and dry

yes, sometimes i wonder why they make it so complicated. locks and switches. all sorts of sensors - laser, heat, distance, pressure. i dont know what.

sometimes they just shout out loads of too hot air at your hands. as if more heat would work things faster. at other times they just run out of air because you got out of their way by so much as 1.5967 mm. as if you were blocking their access to oxygen or something. oh and then they get back at you by blowing on your back. "how would we know its your back", you can almost hear them. "go queue somewhere else!" i am imagining hand dryers in common washrooms talking ofcourse. what were you thinking?

then there are these new dryers i came across recently. this works on air pressure more than air temperature. the air blows out on your skin with such force, that you can see the water droplets crawling back. "ok, ok, we are leaving!" you even get an insight into how losely your skin is wrapped over your knuckles. it does take about 10 secs though, just as the sticker claims on the face of the machine. maybe this one is not so bad.

oh but i forgot about cloth rolls?! you pull at the roll, dry, pull again. not going to get into the whereabouts of the rolls, how they are maintained etc. any thoughts on the cloth napkins, soaked in hot boiling water, offerred in restaurants. hmmm. never mind.

wash basin taps are more difficult. once i looked around the basin for a full two minutes trying to figure how to get the tap going. the woman behind me took pity on me and waved at the tap. waved at it! since when were we in magic world? turns out sensors can do magic too. i had just figured another switch before this one. i flush to even talk about flushes. oh and india is a different story altogether. its all a game of touch me not. in many ways wiser, in many ways not.

after all that i don't mind waiting just to make sure i understand the various mechanisms before getting trapped by all this sensitive technology. or just carry the very reliable cleenex everywhere. i have to admit it makes me happy to see paper tissue stacks in washrooms. no tissue, no tushy - as rachel would say. just keep it simple. no prizes for technological innovation.