Magical mystery tub

I’m reading my way through a stack of old issues of Metropolis (my sister recently handed me all the back issues from my subscription that she received after I left the country in September ’06), and this Susan Szenasy editorial from March 2007 really resonated with me.

I love having a good soak in a a good tub, a pleasure that’s become an acute craving now that I can’t even guarantee a quick shower with hot water in the shithole where I currently live. Oaklands had a pretty spectacular tub, but even that was easily surpassed by the at my friend’s flat where I house-sit from time to time. That one is pure heaven.

I agree with Szenasy’s basic requirements for a good tub: deep, made of metal rather than plastic, with a good angle for reclining. I’d add one more feature that can make or break a good bath for me: natural light. There’s something about a generous flood of natural light — even weak, midwinter British light — that completes the experience for me.

Sometimes a nice, hot bath can be so perfectly relaxing that I struggle with it. I’m so used to being tense and stressed out that I can feel my whole body rebel against the relaxing effects of a long, hot soak. In a twisted way, I have to concentrate on letting myself unwind. Sad, but true.