Water

Water is a piss of for me.  In a huge big fat way.  Yeap so living in HK the water from the tap was drinkable but tasted ghastly and even the poorest of the poor bought bottled.  In Dubai the water from the tap again is drinkable and I did so for a couple of years but being desalinated I got fed up with the taste of it so we drink bottled.  Dubai tap water means my crap hair (this is for you Juanitz) is super crap so god knows what it does to the intestines.

Good, fine.  Buy water  when in Asia and the the MENA region.  Completely get it.  Many of the Pacific Islands too - go to town.  Stock up on the stuff.

But really????  Here?????  When I'm sitting in rural France?  It makes absolutely no sense to me seeing people in the supermarkets buying bottled water.  The water from the tap is cold even in high summer.  Like super cold.  I have the comparison of Dubai when the water is bath temp out of the tap in summer (I have woollens to prove it, they shrink and I need to chill water to wash a jumper there).  Here it's cold but not just that, it's sweet.  It's glorious.  It tastes far far better than any bottled variety.  My only comparison is Titirangi when I was growing up, the water in Tit was similarly sweet.

When we ski I find it utterly astonishing to see people ordering bottled water for their table.  Huh?  WTF???  The water coming out of the tap is cold crisp mountain stuff that's better than anything you can possibly buy.

And the thing that pisses me off the most is when waiters do the whole "and what water would you like" sort of bullshit.  I am proud to say tap but I really think people get intimidated with the upsell and get a bottle.   It happens in NZ, it happens in Aus, it happens all over Europe (other than Spain). Where it doesn't happen are those great cheap places we all know and love who know if they push the bottled stuff their customers would walk very fast to the exit.  Spain does deserve a mention.  They'll serve tap at 'the best restaurant in the world' and I know this by going to that place (El Celler de Can Roca) twice while it held the esteemed number 1 position (subjective and I'd never say something was the best in the world but that's another story but it is, undoubtedly, extraordinary).

My idea of a great restaurant now is a plonk water on the table, no questions asked (if of course it's OK in that region).  Rule by default.  One can always ask for bottled "would you like still or sparkling with that" grrrrr... rather than the other way around.

What a wasteful society we live in.  We have incredible drinking water on tap if we are lucky enough to be born with and live in our right to passage (place of birth in this instance).  Our taxes pay to pump the stuff into our homes and yet there is still the propensity to buy the bottled version.  Shame shame shame on us.