On Sat, 08 Aug 2015 13:55:48 -0700, sms
wrote:

I spent 18 days in England and Ireland. The plumbing is something from
the 19th century or earlier.

Someone needs to inform the English plumbers that there's a way to have
sink with hot and cold water but only one spout as they are unfamiliar
with single spouts with integrated mixing valves, either with a single
handle or with separate hot and cold handles.

Actually in Ireland I saw a sink that had been retrofitted with a single
spout with a single handle with a cover placed in the hole where the
other spout used to be, so at least one person figured it out.

At one place we stayed I wrote up a set of instructions for flushing the
toilet:

1. Remove tank lid
2. Hold blue piece "A" into white tube in center of tank with left hand
3. Move the flush handle up and down until it flushes (may take up to 20
handles moves before it flushes).

Is it still like that? I noticed that back in the 70's but I'd have
thought most of those sinks and fixtures would have been replaced by
now with something a bit newer with a proper mixing valve. Maybe it's
partly because so many euro places had those little point of use
instant hot water heaters and they simply didn't want people turning
on the hot water tap and figured by keeping the hot and cold separate
and not mixable people just would mostly not use hot water.