Bowled Over

The glass is dead. Long live the glass ! Or to clarify, the penchant for glass bowls in UK bathrooms has thankfully dried up. Now glass is back with a vengeance but in the guise of mirrors, dividers, and enclosures. Of course it never really went away, but the current popularity of the material must have buoyed the glass industry in these troubled economic times. Ten years ago glass bowls were all the rage, either perched precariously on stainless steel brackets, or balanced on chrome collars on any available flat surface. They were novel, they looked great, and they were totally . . . impractical. They were not stable, not durable, and they showed watermarks. Infamously, they were an accident waiting to happen if children were around. And there was always an issue with hot water. This glass was not Pyrex yet users filled them with water hot enough to take the skin off a rhino. Not surprisingly, some cracked. This no doubt resulted in blazing rows and court cases in bathroom centres up and down the country. And all as a result of a fad. What silly people we are sometimes. Sadly when the next fad trundles along, we will be just as gullible and just as forthcoming with our hard-earned cash. As a race, our ability not to learn from our errors is nothing short of staggering.