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Newcastle Sojourn

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 9:31 pm
by Derek
G'day all,
Well today, just managed to properly check out some toilets at major shopping centres in magnificent Newcastle, NSW, as well as the solubrious University of Newcastle.
For those that don't know me, I live just outside of Newcastle in the Lower Hunter, and probably closer to the city and beaches -than many of those that live in the Western Suburbs of Sydney are to that city and it's coastline.
Anyway, the exercise today was both exploratory, and desensitisation work at a low key level.
The first major shopping centre was Charlestown Square.
A fairly "old school" type shopping centre, with the toilets about 20 years old or so, and quite run down.
This was the era when the "trough on the grill" first started appearing, and was all the rage at the time. Cubicles had a very high floor to start of door height, which had I had a tape measurer I would suggest was about 50cm or so.
There were two grill troughs, of which I had success at one large one with plenty of distance from another urinator.
The other one is harder and near the Food Court, and would require quite a degree of recovery level at "peak hour".
This shopping centre is not for the faint-hearted.
Moving on from here and onto Westfiled Kotara, which has had quite a bit of refurbishments, rennovations and extensions in the past 12 months.
This would have to be the most Paruretic-Friendly venue in Australia!!!
Three of the major male toilets had bowl urinals with dividers, one of which being full lenght - ie about 2 metres.
The others were about 1.2 metres high, which if you had a tall guy standing next to you (over 6 feet), he could easliy see you.
I am only fairly short and stocky, so guys my height don't look at each other over the urinal partitions.
Of course for somebody that is reasonably recovered, these toilets are a "piece of cake" - and one can practice very easily here. Not surprisingly, I made mince-meat of these toilets -and fully emptied even at lower urgency.
Only one other public toilets I managed to locate had 2 bowls and 3 cubicles. This was quite busy, with a very high likelihood of having someone standing next to you.
Overall I was very surprised to see such genteel and solubrious male public toilets in Regional Australia, which by and large only cater for the Lowest Common Denominator.
After this, I had a leisurely stroll around the University of Newcastle. Had a look at some limited toilets here, and of course, don't know the busiest ones. This requires further investigation.
During my tenure at the University of Sydney years ago, I only ever stuck to the "quietest" toilets and/or with the most available cubicles, which everyone as a paruretic could identify with.
One day I plan on returning to this elitest place, with a "score to settle" if you know what I mean.
All in all a great day. It is particularly good to take "pre-emptive strikes" on venues that you plan on using more regularly.
However as PAA leader Russell Gibbs has stated, "you never know what you are going to walk into" with regards to male public toilets, and this is a key motivation to recovery.
If anyone from the Newcastle Area, Hunter Valley and surrounding areas wants to meet up for practice, my email address is-
themeades@optusnet.com.au
Best wishes Derek

Newcastle Sojourn and Toowoomba Experience

Posted: Fri May 01, 2009 9:54 pm
by chas
I know the feeling of some measure of success. You wish you could do a 'high five' as you leave. (after you wash your hands of course)

Perhaps I should document the variety here in Toowoomba. None are partition between urinals friendly but some are better than others. The pubs are the least friendly.

Re: Newcastle Sojourn

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 5:53 pm
by Derek
Chas,
I don't know how advanced you are with your recovery, but I would try public toilets with bowls with more than one wall, ie 2 or 3, to minimise the chance of someone standing right next to you, and take it from there.
Surely these exist in a city with 100,000 people like Toowoomba.
Alternatively, try an L-shaped trough, with a low volume of traffic and follow someone else in, and take the opposite corner.
It's been a long time since I have been to the Garden City of Toowoomba, but I really only remember one public toilet at a hotel near the Railway Station.
From memory it had a large trough on side immediately as you walked in, and 2 cubicles at the back of area at 90 degreees to the trough.
The toilet was not particularly AP-friendly, and the cubicles were highly exposed - ie very clear what direction your feet were facing - with fairly high floor to start of door measurements.
Those were the "bad old days" when I would often struggle to even sit down at a cubicle and urinate!!!
How many times I can remember having to hold closed a broken or not properly closing door to sit down and urinate I would not want to care to count- particularly at unkempt "park toilets".
Fortunately I no longer worry about this, and paruresis no longer exerts the stranglehold over my life it once did.
I have relatives in Gatton, at the base of the range, so may get to Toowoomba again one day in the not too distant future.
Hope you have found some pee buddies in Brisbane.
Best wishes, Derek

Re: Newcastle Sojourn

Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 5:39 pm
by chizzie shark
Hi, This is really hard to manage the toilets in Shopping centers. I want to write to the public office here in Sydney, any idea whom should I write. Other than this I think online shopping is best to avoid hassle!