SAVING WATER

SAVING WATER

Most newlyweds will know that the first few of months of married life presents the task of working out the division of roles and household chores. 25 years ago, my husband and I were doing just that. He developed a really endearing habit in his routine of bringing me a cup of tea or coffee in bed first thing in the morning.

His own experience, in those first few months, however, was rather alarming since he was convinced that his coffee tasted like rubber. He analysed his routine very carefully; checked the kettle, the milk, the coffee and the mug but the irritating taste of rubber could not be identified. Indeed, he even bought a new kettle in the vain attempt to avert the taste. Eventually he resolved that it must be something in the pipes in our flat. Either way, the distaste was there to stay.

I, on the other hand, didn’t notice anything unusual. I had grown up on a farm where water was scarce and we saved every drop we could. Complaints about the taste of water were out of place. Indeed our water on the farm often tasted like rubber, so the rubbery taste in the flat wasn’t unusual at all from my point of view.

Those first winter months of our married life were very cold and one of our treats was the nightly hot water bottle. I would boil the kettle in the evening and fill the bottle lovingly before retiring to bed.

One Saturday morning, my husband slept in and I decided to reverse the treat and give him a cup of coffee in bed. I duly trotted off to the kitchen, clutching the hot water bottle. I checked the water level of the kettle and seeing that it was fairly empty, carefully opened the stopper of the hot water bottle and poured the water into the kettle.

It was at that point that my husband walked into the kitchen a saw what I was doing. After a whole year, he had found the source of the rubbery taste in his coffee:- his wife in the thoughtful attempt at ‘saving water’ had unthinkingly been emptying the water from the hot water bottle into the kettle each morning. At last the mystery of the rubbery taste was solved. I, however, have never lived this story down. It has been a constant joke in our family. “Visitors beware – our coffee tastes like rubber!”