Day 72

July 1 2013

Taking thing for granted- About Water and a Beetle.

Rob has done a lot of work on my bike and today was my turn return the favor. Rob likes Volkswagens and Porsches. In his garage he has a project Porsche and a VW beetle which had its engine removed and stripped down. The question was asked if I was able to build it up again. Well I loved to do that as I had done many of them… but that was back in the late 70s, did I still have what it takes and could I access the information stored deep down in a dusty area of my grey matter. Yes …definitely.

Around 11 am I got the work with me reassembling the engine and Rob doing other things around the car. VW's (Volkswagens) were designed before the second world war and produced in Germany for many years until in '78, they stopped production and from then on the cars were produced in Mexico and a variety of other countries. (we are talking VW beetles here) Today the only way to get a good supply of spare parts is buying through an agent who deals with VW Mexico or buy it direct from there. (parts are very cheap)

At lunch time Rob served me a treat of salted herring on some very nice buns and a beer. Sometime later he asked if I wanted another beer but I declined as I did not want to run the risk of assembling the cylinder back to front or doing other silly things. I went back into the kitchen and filled up my beer bottle with…water. Which bring me to the next subject: water.

While filling up the bottle I realized that this was the first time since I departed Australia that I was able to drink water straight from the tap. Every day I had to purchase water from various locations. Living in Australia or Western Europe we don’t realize that in most of the world you definitely cannot drink water straight from the tap. All the way through Asia, Russia and even the Baltic stated and Poland I had faced warning signs when I approached a tap and had to purchase water. The things we take for granted would be an absolute luxury item in most of the world. This far I must have spent perhaps more than 100 dollars on water and now for the first time I was able to drink it straight from the tap without wondering if I would have to face the the negative result from this action the next day .

If you live in a place where you can drink water straight from the tap can be thankful that you live in a country where you are able to this, after all ,clean water is not a God-given right but a privilege that you can enjoy because you happen to be born or happen to live in a place where you are able to.