Shirin Delsooz

My Life Adventures and Thoughts

Drying My Hands in the Public Arena – the Environmentally Friendly Way

I was at Dora Keogh’s Pub the other day, puzzled at their hand drying system. I discovered this contraption in their washroom to be one of the most brilliant and efficient  way of drying hands in a public washroom. Its a reusable towel with a rolling system. After you dry your hands on this towel, you roll it down and a fresh clean space becomes available for the next person. After the roll is done, the owner will provide a freshly washed new towel roll, and the cycle continues. Here is a visual break down.

Step 1. Confront the contraption.

Step 2. Dry your hands.

Step 3. Roll it down for the next person to use.

For more information on where you can acquire this towel dispenser, check out http://www.darmanco.com/papertowel.asp. Encourage your local businesses to implement this brilliant idea into their washroom facility!

The Cleanest Public Washroom in the World.

The new public washroom in the newly renovated Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto

The other day I stumbled across the public washroom in the newly renovated Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and my! what a pleasant surprise it was! Just look at how clean it is, just ready to be used.

If only this picture could convey how pristine and clean it was!

Singing in the Subway

To make a banal commute interesting, I sing to myself. The unwritten rules of public etiquette preaches this to be unacceptable, but after giving this much thought I decided to go with my instinct. My mp3 player turns on and I can’t resist the urge to chirp away, and why can’t I?

If I enjoy singing I should be able to sing, its not a privilege exclusively for loonie people. If the only consequence is a crowd of strangers ignoring and judging me like they would anyway, so be it. I live for me, not for people I will never see again.

People bring many disturbances to the public realm as it already is, including pesky sales pitches, obnoxiously loud cellphone chatting, cellphone rings, smells, and so on. To put up with all that and remain quiet is a TALL order, I need to go into my zone and do what I got to do, or else I’ll really go crazy. Besides, no one has complained about the singing so far.

And I also meet interesting people along the way. A few weeks ago I met a guy who wanted to know what song I was singing while I was waiting 10 minutes at the subway platform… (and I must say by the way the acoustics at the subway are amazing, I just love the echo). The song was “Sweet Surrender” by Sarah McLachlan (don’t laugh). So the guy then tells me, “Oh man, I had the most WEIRDEST weekend of MY LIFE!”. Indeed it was a very strange story he needed to get off his chest involving an after hours club, the mafia, an invitation to a super luxurious condo, and a thick envolope full of Euros, Pounds, and American and Canadian dollar bills. I can only imagine why he decided to open up his life to me. Perhaps maybe my singing was an icebreaker, adding personality from a public crowd that often feels anonymous and apathetic.

Today another guy at the subway comes up to me and asks me what song I’m singing. (I must confess, it was “Sweet Surrender” again). This guy politely introduces himself to me… and get this… he is blond and PERSIAN! I never met a blond Persian person, I heard of them, but never seen them! Very interesting. I told him about my show at the Bread and Circus next week and he said he would come. What an interesting way to promote music!

Even the subway conductor digs my style! The dude asked me to come sit at the seat beside his operational booth and begged me to just sit through an entire subway lap when I got to my stop. I couldn’t unfortunately! I was in such a hurry I forgot to tell him about my show and website. Oh well.

So you see folks, the world of music brings colour to our bland existence, and nothing leads me to believe otherwise!