Time Out, In The Shower

It’s a new luxury that has emerged with the world’s new way of living; where you’re truly alone — and disconnected — to collect your thoughts for personal place-keeping

- Chelsea Tang

Perhaps the idea of taking a “nice, long bath” might have greater allure if all bathrooms were fashioned like Veronica Lodge’s from the Archie Comics series:

A palatial space adorned with every luxury imaginable — including a giant jacuzzi-Esque tub by a floor-to-ceiling window, through which you can wistfully gaze at the sunset while munching on chocolate truffles. Then, drying off with a fluffy $500 designer towel, before wrapping up in a silk robe prepared by a personal butler.

In that sense, shower time does seem like true luxury.

The reality of it does fall far from that expectation though — not only do everyday bathrooms look very little like Veronica’s, the act of showering is often relegated to a chore; a task to be speedily completed before “properly” relaxing via digital means.

As the world plunged into lockdown a few months back, and #stayathome became the new norm, priorities somehow changed. The Covid-19 pandemic did take much away, but it’s ironically given us what was wished for daily: more time. Of course, that comes with a catch; while the days do pass by a little slower, it’s not necessarily quieter, especially for the many who are living under the same roof with family. There are now new distractions to deal with — instead of that pesky colleague that you can bid goodbye to at 6 pm, there’s now someone’s a particularly loud voice that you have to endure till lights-off. All the after-work boundaries that have been set don’t take effect without an office anymore — it’s staring at the laptop till 10 pm for work while answering numerous Whatsapp messages at any time of the day.