Chinese water 'torture'

It's torture that our own utilities don't use some of their millions of £ profit to pay artists to design utility inspection covers.

Our globe-trotting ambassador Lucy recently spotted this water manhole cover in Beijing. The pattern apparently shows the map of the water system.

'Manhole' summit in Japan

Prompted by an article in Private Eye's Funny Old World column I've discovered that in Japan there's recently been a 'manhole' summit attended by hundreds of inspection cover fans. I'm not sure a coal hole cover event would attract quote so many but it's worth a thought.  More details here: http://japanistas.com/en/archives/63510