- The Observer,
- Sunday December 3 2000
The idea for The Bathroom Diaries came to Mary Ann Racin, a former researcher for the International Monetary Fund, while on holiday in France. Racin, 37, was struck by the number of facilities that were little more than holes in the ground.
'You had to adopt the position of a downhill skier,' she said. 'I was pregnant at the time, so I was using the facilities a lot.'
The Net-based guide (www. thebathroomdiaries.com) has rave reviews of toilets in Bali (surrounded by palm trees), Switzerland (where the seat is cleaned by a rotating mechanism), the Hong Kong Hyatt Hotel (in which an attendant helps wash your hands) and one in Finland (that has 'a great view over the city of Helsinki').
For star watchers, entries include sightings of film actors Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange at the Film Centre Cafe facilities in Manhattan and Tony Blair at Waverly Station in Edinburgh.
George Michael does not get a mention - a surprising omission, perhaps.
Meanwhile, in Australia a company has just finished mapping the country's 13,000 toilets on behalf of the government.
The list does not provide any indication of quality, but the aim is to increase the amount of information about each one in time.
A star system has even been considered, but this would depend on regular user reports.
