IT'S time-in-loo time - next Sunday is World Toilet Day.

Yes, there is one – this is not lavatory humour.

The phrase "spending a penny" has long gone.

And there’s now such thing as the "little boys' or girls' rooms."

I was shocked recently to discover on a train journey to Manchester's Piccadilly station that it was 30p for the privilege to use the toilet which meant squeezing past the turnstile where there wasn't any hand lotion left and a temperamental hand dryer.

I applaud any chance to review and improve our toilets.

It should never be a taboo subject.

The World Toilet Day has been in existence since 2001 and the UN has declared toilets and sanitation are a basic human right.

WTD's mission statement says: "Clean and safe toilets are fundamental for our health, dignity, privacy and equality."

I have long been concerned about the lack of public toilets in the places I have visited or worked.

New Brighton for example isn't served well.

The resort wants to attract visitors – especially families yet finding a pubic loo is like some sort of challenge welcome 'the Toilet Trail.' 

It is certainly not fair on our pubs and cafes when people simply use their facilities because they can’t find a toilet or one that isn't 'out of order'.

Disabled people deserve better.

So I am all for the success of World Toilet Day which highlights serious problems at home and abroad and urges people to contact community leaders, councillors or MPs and let them know we all care about public toilets in your area.

We need new public toilets that are safe and accessible and well maintained.

There should be an appropriate ratio of toilets for men and women.

As a regular theatre-goer I feel it is unfair when women have to queue so long at intervals.

Next month there's the National Loo of The Year Awards in their 20th anniversary – so well done to all those winners flushed with success at having pride in their work.

I know where these certificates from the British Toilet Association will proudly go.

Talk toilets – let's all cause a global chain reaction.

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ONE of the worst, lazy trends in modern times is seeing people shopping in their pyjamas.

I can forgive those on the school run who don't leave their cars and won't inflict their dubious sartorial night-wear on our eyes.

But I draw the line at people shopping in supermarkets in their jim-jams.

Now it seems that more than half of those who work from home (six out of ten) spend the day in their pyjamas - unless they have to do a video call. And then they only sport their top half.

In my career as a freelance journalist I have never been able to work in my pyjamas - it is the wrong mind set.

What happened to caring about our appearances?

I am pleased that the pioneering trend for Merseyside girls wearing curlers outdoors as they prepare for a night on the town is no longer widespread.

Hilda Ogden always wore a dignified head-scarf.

This week celebrity role model Rita Ora went to an awards ceremony dressed only in a bathrobe and head towel – oh, and heels.

This is surely a joke gone too far?

Nip it in the bud before it catches on and we see Amanda Holden in even less clothes on the red-faced cat walk.

Today a report says more young people are listening to their mum’s advice such as that sensible adage, "You're not going out like that, are you?”

Lovely Rita – please take heed.

I was once vegetarian for 14 years but as a journalist working all hours I used to survive on Guinness and cheese rolls.

When I went to Oxford the campus canteen I was on their full healthy vegetarian diet.

Alas, I tasted such new fangled delicacies as stuffed aubergines - which back then tasted like roast carpet slippers.

I had so many nut cutlets that when I missed a tutorial one day they found me up a tree.

But thanks to culinary innovators like Linda McCartney there is so much more range now – it's fun finding meat alternatives.

It seems more people are opting for a veggie Christmas dinner.

So here's my 24-carat festive food for thought - how about a Masterchef Vegetarian Special to convert me back.

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A for AWESOME – BBC Radio Merseyside's A Team are celebrating two decades solving problems.

Their work has so impressed our Wirral-born BBC director general Tony "Baron Hall of Birkenhead" that he wants the idea rolled out in other stations.

The man who created it, Mick Ord, is now a PR guru and he told me he is proud of his legacy.

"We once got a call from someone locally who said that he’d been to a village in Belgium where the residents wanted to mark the anniversary of WW2 tragedy in which some British soldiers who tried to save them were killed in their tank.

"They wanted a permanent memorial - a tank ... the same model.

"The A Team put it out over the air and someone responded and offered us one.

"But they couldn’t afford the transportation. So another appeal went out and a local haulage firm offered to take it to Belgium at no cost. And that memorial is still there." 

Tanks for the memory, Mick and the A-listers.

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AND finally ... take good care of your selfie, says the Irish Medical journal which suggested that hospitals should now list selfie-related wrists injury on admission forms as it has happened so frequently.

It seems some people spend a total of 2.2 days a year taking them.

Ouch.

Peter Grant