RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT

When I was small, I never envied adults at Christmas - at least, where gifts were concerned.

I was convinced all the best prezzies came in large, cube-shaped boxes, wrapped in shiny, gold foil and tied up with wide, red ribbons. And they were almost always meant for children.

Adults got long, flat boxes full of scarves and ties and socks and all the sorts of things they might just as well have bought for themselves.

In fact, that was how I finally realized (somewhere in my mid-40s) that I'd become an adult. My mother asked what I'd like for Christmas, and I caught myself saying, "Well, I could use some socks and underwear."

It gave me an awful shock. 


But slowly, I've become resigned to my fate - even if it has taken some of the fun out of the Holidays.

So, imagine my surprise, when I recently went surfing for a gift for another senior and discovered the LavNav Light!

If the pictures in the advertisement were somewhat puzzling, the description of the product left no doubt as to its purpose.  

"The LavNav makes the toilet a lot safer and easier to use at night without irritating your partner. Bathroom lights can be painfully bright in the middle of the night. So, why switch them on? The LavNav turns on when you approach and turns off after you leave, shining with gentle yet sufficient light where you need it, when you need it."

And as if that weren't enough, it lights up in two colours: red, for when the toilet seat is up; green, for when it's down. So, aside from making late night bathroom visits a lot safer, this modern miracle of practical science also has the potential to save countless marriages. 

Even for those of us who live alone, it would make navigation easier and add a touch of Christmas colour to a room that rarely gets any Yuletide decoration.

My only concern is that inventors and tinkerers won't be able to leave well enough alone, that they'll be tempted to add a computer chip that allows the NavLav to speak... or worse still, play music!

And if they do meddle with a good thing and redesign the device so that it can play tunes, I don't even want to think which ones they'll choose.