The most important time: 'me time'

It's been a long time since I've been sat amidst the bubbles of a bubble bath and actually enjoyed it. I'm usually rushing about, quick dip here and there, not really spending much time to mull over my thoughts just as the bubbles wash over me.

I used to spend a lot of time doing this during my Masters degree in York. I'd buy myself a bottle of wine with the intention of it lasting a while, I'd throw down the books - literally - or wish I could throw away the laptop in a fit of rage when something wasn't right (usually stats related), run myself a bath with Lush's latest offering of delectable bath time goodies (my favourite is still the Twilight bath ballistic), light some candles, turn off the lights, and bathe in sweet bliss with a (large) glass of red wine in my hand. It gave me a chance to escape the stress built up from crooning over books, papers, and my laptop, hammering away at the keys to try and deliver something relatively coherent (only for it to be returned cover in red pen a few days later), and it also gave me a chance to assess the situations in my life - boys, money, bills, and back to work again. I only ever really jumped out once my skin had aged 50 years to the point where I resembled an extremely dried up prune, or when the water was more tepid than blissfully warm, or more importantly when the wine ran out. It was actually perfect. It was very important 'me time'.

Travelling around Australia (and my little stint in Thailand in November) I definitely didn't have access to a bath. Heck, more often than not my showers were symbolic of broken taps that squirted water in every direction and temperature changes from icy cold to scolding hot... And back to cold again. Brrr! Sometimes I'd be in a place so warm (with no air conditioning might I add) that the cold water was warm and as such a refreshing cool shower made you sweatier than before. Wonderful! 

Then came what was coined the 'pool shower'. Who needs a shower when you've got an ample swimming pool?! The backpacker/island lifestyle experienced on old Maggie (Magnetic Island) holds some very strong memories (some that had to be relayed back the morning after might I add) but it was there where makeup (and shoes) ceased to exist and it was completely socially acceptable to swim in everyone else's grime and consider yourself clean... Oh Maggie.

Now I'm back home I'm relishing this whole idea of 'me time' and pure relaxation. When you're travelling, as wonderful an experience it is, it's very difficult to just be on your own when you're in a hostel or small town say. There's always someone to bump into and it's not necessarily a bad thing- definitely not - but for someone who's both introvert and extrovert and displaying their more introverted characteristics (I'm not making this up - this is me all around) then sometimes you just want to sit in that corner with your coffee doing nothing.... But how on earth do you say that to someone without sounding rude?! I know I can't just run away and take a bath whenever I feel like cocooning myself in comfort and excluding myself from the real world so I need to find other ways that do just that...

Maybe it's time to get back into running... Or take up knitting. Reading would be a good one...? Something! Time to hit the drawing board!

Any suggestions of little hobbies would be much appreciated. I'm one of those "I want to do everything" and then does nothing. I need to focus on a couple of things instead of planning to do anything and everything and setting myself up for failure.