escargot
Disciple of Marduk
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2001
- Messages
- 43,130
- Location
- HM The Tower of London
Yesterday I strolled into work and walked past a row of washbasins. They are the movement-activated sort and you normally have to put your hand close to the sensor to turn the water on, and they only stay on for a few seconds.
Each sensor, as I passed, lit up red (which I've never seen before) and the tap came on. As I reached the end of the row I turned back and watched in surprise as they all ran for half a minute or so, and then went off in sequence. I immediately walked back that way and they did it again.
So I went off to ask if we'd had the sensors adjusted or something because they were obviously too sensitive. Nobody knew what I was talking about and I couldn't get them to do it again. Everyone thinks it's just me being spooky…
And yes, it could be t'spirits telling me I need a wash. :lol:
So... this happened a good while ago. @Monstrosa was spot-on, in that I was indeed wearing a jacket with reflective strips.Were you wearing a reflective jacket or tabard? Himself who has to wear one one for work says that happens to him, also with the toilets themselves. A bit awkward when trying to lower oneself to make a deposit.
Lessons were learned from this experience.
I have long since changed jobs. In the current lowly occupation I wear a smart issued weatherproof jacket. As usual I adapted it to suit myself in various ways because I can.*
One change was to remove the perfectly serviceable zip and replace it with a more user-friendly double-ended one. Doing this damaged a bit of the facing so I patched it with the nearest fabric to hand, which was a scrap of the reflective trim.
While it's invisible from the outside, I've discovered that the reflective square works perfectly for contact-free toilet-flushing as per @Monstrosa's description.
*Found a well-concealed zip in the lining. It's for opening to allow the logo to be sewn onto the outside of the finished garment.
So while I had the coat in bits I did of course add a pocket to the lining, access by the hidden zip. It houses contraband such as tissues and cough sweets.
It's so me.