Dubious

I was kind of interested to read this story recently, which basically says that some four million of us have a phobia of using public toilets. It’s not that I find it odd that people might not want to use public toilets. Some people have genuine reasons to not be keen to use them and to be honest, you only have to have a basic expectation of hygiene to be somewhat reticent to use a public loo - but more than 4 million people have this phobia apparently. That’s four *million* people therefore meaning that, if my GCSE maths is of any use at all, something like 1 in every 15 people suffers from this phobia. That sounds a little unlikely to me. Surely the majority of those people, it is just because the toilets are in such a poor state - but then that suggests that 14 out of 15 people couldn’t care less. There’s also a difference between a phobia and just preferring not to do something and I suspect that most people fall into the latter category. Whichever way I look at this I can’t seem to convince myself that this makes sense. So, I have to admit to being a bit sceptical about this statistic.

Recently I also read that apparently, according to Penguin Books, if you read four books a year then you are a ‘heavy reader’. Four books? That’s one per season of the year. If that statistic is true then myself and many people who travel on the tube everyday are suffering from a form of OCD. I have slowed my pace over the last couple of years, but until then I was reading about 50 books a year - and not just ones with lots of pictures in them.

The thing that I find most difficult to accept at the moment though is that really irritating Asda advert where some small child shouts out “It’s Christmas”. The first time I heard it, I rather sharply replied that no it isn’t. Not that I suppose he noticed… I’m thinking of blacklisting all companies that decide to try and force Christmas on me in November. However, as this may well mean that I can never eat again, or buy pretty much anything for that matter, I may have to rethink this policy.