From Paul Tester, author of The All Day Girls, this is the second set of sightings during New Year celebrations.
Now on the Internet, I have seen torrents of pee like these girls produced, but at the time it was a new experience for me. Nothing will ever convince me that these two girls were just about on the limit and only just managing to hold their pee.
Another girl who must have been very near her limit was a tall slim girl about 20, wearing very tight jeans and a white jacket. She was almost running to the Ladies, and when she found they shut she quickly jammed one hand between her legs. Then looking desperately round for some alternative place to pee, she seemed to come to a quick decision ( I do not think that she had much time left to decide about where to pee, and had hardly been able to wait until she found the Ladies). Still, with one hand pressed between her legs she ran out into the street, and down the first side road she came to. There were plenty of people about, but she did not seem to care how many people saw her holding her crutch, perhaps because she knew that if she didn’t, they would see an expanding wet patch between her legs.
Finally after about fifty yards, she came to some parked cars. Without hesitating, she immediately went between the first two. She had been running so I had not been able to keep up with her. By the time I had caught up, I saw that she had pulled up her jeans and ran off, back the way she had come. I was left with the sight of a steaming, foaming, puddle of pee on the road between the cars. She had been so desperate that she was willing to pee in the street, in full view of anyone walking past. Since she was only out of my sight, squatting for about fifteen or twenty seconds, she must have let go a real high pressure torrent. The typical output from a bladder full stretched to the very limit, as hers must have been.
These two sightings suggested to me that most of the Ladies celebrating in Trafalgar Square were prepared to hold their pee almost to the limit of their capacity in the hope of finding a proper Ladies toilet, and would only consider going in the street, or a doorway off the street, if they felt the only alternative was to go in their knickers. The last sighting was an other example of this.
Two girls had arrived at the Ladies. These were not the typical, casually dressed, drinking and partying type who made up most of the crowd that night. They were both smartly dressed, wearing skirts and smart jackets. Both were standing outside the Ladies, obviously horrified at it being shut. One was saying, “It’s shut, what are we going to do? Is there another loo somewhere?”
“There must be somewhere, they can’t shut the loos on a night like this.”
“What can we do? We must find one quickly, I’m really desperate.”
“Where is it? What can we do if we can’t find one?”
Standing with their legs so tightly crossed, they could hardly keep still, they were both very desperate, and so distressed that neither could think of what to do. Each kept asking the other, “What are we going to do?” “Where could another loo be?”
Neither could face the fact that there might not be another Ladies toilet that was open nearby. I knew quite well that there was not, but it was not for me to tell them. I could also have told them what they were going to do. They had three options:
- Wait until they got home and use the toilet there.
- Find a dark corner or doorway and squat and pee there.
- Wet their knickers and pee down their legs.
Option 1 was clearly beyond their abilities. Option 2 was something they were not prepared to consider. Option 3, which was going to happen soon anyway, was something so outside their experience that they were not even going to consider it, but would have done anything to avoid.
For some reason I did not follow them as they walked off, looking for the other Ladies they had convinced themselves must be somewhere near. As they left I heard one tell the other, “ I told you we shouldn’t drink so much!” Good advice, but far too late to do them any good.
They might have found some super-human endurance to hold on until they reached home, but more likely I think that they would have tried to wait, but one eventually one would have started to lose control and wet herself and been forced to squat in the street, when the other, nearly as bad, would have joined her. I should have discreetly followed them and watched this happen.