IQ test

IQ test

When you're on the road you stay in a lot of hotels. In a hotel I hope for two things - a decent shower and an internet connection. The other night we stayed in 'Half Baked Hotel' I don't know who designed the shower but I could not figure it out. I don't know why we have to have so many different designs of shower. When I get in a shower my primary objective is to have water of a decent temperature and pressure fall on me from a height. This seems like a simple request but it's surprising how many times it's not possible. For example, this morning the shower head was about the size of a 50p. It was fixed to the wall at about neck height and the cubicle was small enough so when I bent to get my head under the shower head my other end would open the door. Perhaps that's too much information.

The shower in the picture is from Half Baked Hotel (my name, not theirs.) Before attempting to achieve water flow I tried to guess how it might function. My initial thought was that the red and blue triangles were arrows so turning anticlockwise would make it hotter. Then I thought perhaps they were more like volume markings and turning clockwise would increase the temperature. The numbers on the outer ring seemed to support my second guess but this all went out the window when I realised that the dial could make multiple complete rotations. I discovered that turning it fully clockwise (about 5 full turns) made the water scalding hot. As I backed off nothing seemed to happen to the temperature until a certain point where there was a slight click and then the water was freezing cold. After 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to get some middle ground I actually gave up and got dried. It's the first time in my life that I've given up on trying to work something out, and the first time in my life I've canceled a scheduled shower.