Public Nudity

Last week my son took a trip with Favourite Man to Cape Town. Being a long-road day, the inevitable happened: at some point he really needed to go pee - and there were no public loos in sight.

Well boys will be boys - and men, men - and they're equipped to take a leak anywhere they jolly well want to. Which is why you see them next to the road with the car door open, or find pee-streaks on the side of national monuments (see weekend road-trip to Rhodes Memorial...).

Favourite Man is advanced enough in years to have experience in public relief without shame, but the same can't be said for the kid. He took a long walk to a very secluded spot before he even considered hauling out the necessary.

I guess I should be thankful he has a sense of modesty, but I have no clue how he's going to handle the Public Urinal! Especially if he's next to a bloke who checks him out while peeing.

But you know what - I'm sorta just as bad.

Us chicks don't pee standing next to each other, but there seems to be coyness in the stalls too. If you're dumping a load and someone walks in to use the next door stall, do you stop mid-dump and wait for either noise or their exit to conceal your act? Do you fart if you know you're not alone in the restrooms? And if you happen to let one rip by accident - do you wait until everyone else clears out so you can't be identified as the culprit?

Oops - I do. Seems this public timidity runs in the family...!