Where to Find Soft Water and How To Deal With Hard Water

Problem
London has hard water. It's a joy to visit other areas of the UK which have soft water.

Derbyshire
Swanwick in Derbyshire has a Writers' Summer School in summer. You go there to meet writers, learn to write plays and poetry and short stories and novels. The soft water is a bonus.

Wales
In Springtime, there's a Writers' Holiday at Fishguard in Wales. Again, to Londoners, the soft water is a recurring pleasure.

Madeira
Countries such as Madeira also have soft water. In Madeira, my hair was so soft that another traveller commented on it. She asked what I had done.

After I washed my old night-dress, it felt silky smooth and like a new garment.

London, England
In London, you need to wipe around taps. Be sure not to use a cleaner which damages the chrome plating, aluminium or the enamel surface. This involves a lot of reading of small print on big bottles of ferocious cleaner.

You would not want to use bleach on items which you later use for food. You need to use vinegar on glassware and jugs to clear the white limescale smears.

Limescale
https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Limescale
Own brand lime scale removers can be bought at under £2 from supermarkets in London, England, UK.
https://groceries.morrisons.com/webshop/product/Morrisons-Limescale-Preventer-Gel

Useful Websites
Madeira
visitmadeira.pt
(The abbreviation pt is for Portugal. Madiera is a Portuguese and Portuguese speaking island.)

England
visitengland.com

Britain
visitbritain.com
Derbyshire
visitderbyshire.co.uk

Wales
visitwales.com
writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Water, water, drinking water in Cambodia, London, Singapore, America

Problem
Is the water safe to drink?

Answers

America
Water, water everywhere. Fountains in shopping malls, on every level or every other level of hotels. I suppose that's why Americans are always so alert. They also don't drink at lunch time. Certainly not at the conventions I have been to.

Cambodia
In Siem Reap (the second city and most visited tourist city because of the probity to Ankor Wat) you are told not to drink the water.

In our hotel we were given small bottles of water for tooth cleaning. I thought, if I'm not supposed to use this for tooth cleaning, do I really want to wash my hands in it? I would clean my teeth, rinse my mouth with bottled water, tip a capful over my hands. What about my face? What about washing underclothes? What about my hands in clothes washing water? What about washing a hat, a blouse, a dress, a slip, a pair of socks?

Presumably washing grapes and apples means using bottled water. And lettuce and tomatoes.

A business man going to Cambodia to the capital next week asks me if it's easy to find bottled water. Yes. Hotels have it on the restaurant tables and in bathrooms attached to bedrooms (although not in the wash rooms / rest rooms. Carry your own. Easy to get water? Yes. You can buy it in a supermarket. Your talk-tuk driver will collect half a dozen bottles of water in a pack and give you a fresh one every morning. You will have saved your own bottle from breakfast.

Remember to save your bottled water from dinner. Don't leave it on the table.

At the airport they will take away your water, but usually let you drink it, or they will offer to throw away the water and give you back the bottle to refill later.

England
Drinkable water from London fresh water kitchen taps. In Physics lessons at school we were told don't drink from bathroom taps because that water is not from the main but stored overhead in a tank which could have all sorts in it.

You hear lots of stories about creatures which fall into tanks. I've heard plumbers say nonsense, tanks have covers so no insects not pigeons nor squirrels can drop in. But we had a plumber who investigated a tank in a loft where we were living and produced and piece of rusting metal which he said he'd found in the tank.

Hard water in London. Soft water in Derbyshire at Writers' Summer School.

Singapore
Yes, you can drink from the tap. We do all the time. I also use the tap water in a coffee machine which I hope boils the water. Then the water is too hot to drink, so I add milk and cold tap water.

I don't like the taste of tap water to drink so I add slices of lemon. Lemon is supposed to rot your teeth, being acid. You are told not to clean your teeth within an hour of drinking water containing lemon.


Wales
Lovely soft water in Fishguard, West Wales.

Tips
Concerned about drinking water safety?
1 Drink water which has been brought to the boil.
2 Buy a filtration kit from a camping shop.
3 Buy bottled water. In restaurants drink only from water which has been poured from a bottle which was opened in front of you.
4 Wash the cup before pouring in water to drink.
5 Avoid ice, iced cold drinks, iced tea, iced alcoholic drink, milkshakes with crushed ice, ice lollies.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share my posts.

Water, water, everywhere, but which is safe to drink?

Generally if you see a sign which says DRINKING WATER you might assume the water is safe to drink. But a glass is no guarantee, because hotels worldwide put glasses and cups in hotel bedrooms even when the bathroom water is not safe to drink.

Firstly, is the country known to have safe drinking water? Water in the UK is safe to drink when it's running water. But water in bathrooms in private houses and public buildings may be stored in tanks. You will also see signs on trains in England and Wales: not drinking water.

London 's Hard Water
The water in London is hard. It sometimes developed a cloudiness which may dispel.

Soft Water
When I travel to Fishguard in Wales or Swanwick in Derbyshire I always enjoy washing and showering, and washing my clothes and hair in soft water.

If you really like soft water, when you are in west Wales or the Midlands, take a bottle of water from London and fill the bottle with soft water to drink on the journey back to London.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.