Baths and showers

Due to "reconstruction works", the shower has now been reduced to a heap of rubble, the direct result of which being there is no chance at all of it being used for the rest of the week, which majorly sucks, as I hate baths. I had originally intended to take my daily ablutions at the showers in the gym (an idea which, trust me, I wasn't that wild about either) but for one reason or another it got too late and I didn't fancy walking/cycling to the gym in the dark. So I ended up climbing into the bath, which I do in only 3 circumstances: (i) in romantic circumstances with somebody else (and then that wouldn't be for the point of the bath); (ii) in France; and (iii) in times when the shower has been reduced to a heap of rubble.

It wasn't too bad in the end - poured in alot of bath bubbles to amuse myself and I do like my sandalwood bath cream; heck, I've got sandalwood in everything, from linen spray to candles. I would have liked a rubber duck to play with, but since I've already got tons of stuffed toys I decided a long time ago to draw the line at rubber ducks... one has to grow up some time. While running the water, I tried to think of movies with baths in them - which wouldn't be hard, you would think; after all, every self-respecting horror movie would have a bath scene. But as I was alone at that time and it was pitch dark outside... trust me, I did NOT want to think about horror movies.

I ended up thinking of the bath scene in Birth (one of the boringest movies I've ever seen with Lauren Bacall in it) viz, basically Nicole Kidman gets into the bath with 10-year-old Cameron Bright, who is at that point believed to be the reincarnation of her dead husband. It had sparked quite a flurry of discussion - though I was personally more outraged at the gender implications; this is like discussing Germaine Greer's "The Beautiful Boy" all over again.

Nevertheless, during my bath last night, I couldn't help but think of the particular shot of Nicole Kidman, frozen with eyes turned sideways, fixated for a long time on the door, behind which stood Joseph, her fiance, even while Cameron Bright sits stolidly in front of her. Surely that must be the epitome of what what having an affair is like: always staring sideways with averted eyes, watchful of doors that could suddenly open, never seeing the lover in front of her, even though he is naked and immersed in the same water, and that close to being entwined with her forever.