On the t-word and water directions

Those of you who are squeamish about certain parts of the bathroom, go someplace else now.

I've gotta get something cleared up nice and quickly. The third-most common question we get asked (after "Where are you from?" and "Why did you come to America?") is "I'm kinda embarrassed about this but does the water in the toilet go the other way?"

Well to cut a long story short, we don't know. Y'see American toilets freak Aussies out. This Great Big Pool of Water is Scary and Intimidating. The way the water gets slurped down and then sorta floods back up again is completely worrisome. Will it stop before it reaches the top of the bowl? Any toilet Back 'Ome that rises up that far is blocked and therefore of extreme concern. (and the ones that auto flush? Yeah we have them too but having the water only a coupla inches beneath one's nether regions is ahem challenging!)

Aussie toots work by having a much smaller amount of water in the bowl. Like we have 3 and 6 litre flush loos in new houses. That is less than two gallons by a lot. (Old houses that haven't been renovated have like 15 litre or four gallon flushes.) So they work not by sucking and refilling but by dumping new water on the old. Since there is no suck, there is no swirl of water.

Hence we can't say if the water goes the other way.

You might ask well what about the bath then? Well I can't say there either cos it is a while since I've done a bath in Oz and I didn't bother looking to see how the little tornado whirled around.

(BTW, our downstairs toilet also randomly refills the cistern. It is a bit freaky when you hear the toilet apparently flush at 3am when both of you are in bed....)

Soon I will rise up out of the sewer, mebbe even get into the gutter. Or even higher! I have more pics, I just need time to edit them. I am sooo busy at present!