12th December 2008, 02:57 PM
Tom, you've obviously not worked for the same units that I have! Yes, I too have attended to feminine hygiene behind a leafless hedge in the rain, gone without drinking for the whole of the working day to minimise my embarrassment, and climbed down the side of a drain out in the Fens to relieve myself crouching at the edge of the water, as this was the only place for twenty miles in any direction where I wouldn't be skylined. It all depends on your stroppiness-to-diligence ratio. If you complain about the lack of facilities - and to be fair, you can hardly expect your employer to hire a bog for every one-person watching brief, particularly when the company doesn't have a start date until the developer phones up and says 'we're starting topsoiling tomorrow' - you're told 'well, if there's no facilities on site, then leave the site and look for some'. I have never actually tried packing up all my kit, carrying it half a mile back to wherever I'm parked, and then driving till I find a settlement with a public lavatory every time nature calls, but I know other women who have. If you're on a watching brief in the middle of nowhere, of course, this exercise can take about two hours, during which time the contractors are up to who knows what. My girly tip is a hooded camouflage jacket that hangs down to your knees - remove hard hat and hi-vi, pull up hood, nip behind bush and nobody can see you even from five feet away, because the jacket covers your shiny white legs and bum.