Ah, the little THINGS
SomeThing I said often in a couple of earlier chapters in my life was: “I could quite easily live in a tent!”. If it meant being able to avoid all the stress and pressure of working in the rat race just to meet mortgage repayments. If it meant being able to spend quality time together and not being too time poor to enjoy the little Things.
Hmmmm…. I wonder if that was prophetic?
Relatively speaking – and speaking as a privileged middle-class middle-aged white woman living in The Lucky Country – I’m not a very materialistic person. Never have I been overly fussed on material trappings (pun intended!).
I loathe shopping. I wear the same clothes, many of them from op shops or hand-me-downs (thanks Hope and Nat 
😉) for oh, maybe at least a decade? I had my nails done and wore make-up properly only once in my life (yep, you guessed it, on my wedding day).
I mean I haven’t always been quite so frugal and new-agey as I am now. Sure, I attempted glamour a few times. In two silly phases of my life I tried, fairly unsuccessfully, to wear really high high-heels. But that was just a stupid attempt to impress the men in my life, I wasn’t being me!
And sure, I’ve wanted Things I didn’t have that others had. Like curly hair! When I started working full time after high school one of my first pay cheques went towards getting my long very straight hair put into a spiral perm. I vividly remember walking back from the swish salon in Cavill Avenue and catching my reflection in shop windows. My hair bounced in slow motion just like in a shampoo advertisement and I tossed it from side to side in time with my steps. I looked sensational! And boy did I feel the whopping $80 more awesome! But sadly it fell out completely within just three weeks. That was the last time I spent even half that amount of money on my hair ever again. Possibly it was also the last time I could stomach TV commercials.
So maybe it’s not so hard for me to go without in this new chapter of my life on a tropical island. A lifestyle that sees me eating rice and fish meals with my right hand, and I don’t shave my legs. A wee bit feral – this life suits me pretty well.
I’m not in a tent; perhaps you could say I’m ‘glamping’. The bungalow is a few steps up from a tent and it’s awesome not to have to share a communal shower block (I said I could live in a tent, not a caravan park!). But there’s not much glamour in the glamping. I have no hairdryer and haven’t used Product for a year (and yet my vanity is intact because my hair has a little bouncy wave in it thanks to the salty well water I shower in and all the swimming in the ocean).
I’ve ditched my jeans and boots for my beloved thongs and sarongs which I wear 24/7 (and my feet are so much happier 
😊).
I’ve no photos or fancy paintings hanging on the walls, but I love my old rainbow affirmation flags and the strings of shells and coral, and my beaded love-heart and little wooden pelican ornament (inherited from Hope and Nat). The little Things.
I have no couch, let alone a lounge room (but hey, I can’t complain, my nonblack cushions stop me from having a numb bum).
I have no washing machine (but I do well to convince myself it’s really good exercise to hand-wash and scrub everyThing in a couple of buckets on the ground).
I don’t really miss anyThing or Things from my comfortable luxurious life back home (although I’d kill for Topdeck and Lindt’s chilli – and pear – chocolate, and the odd soy chai latte… oh and a good rocket and baby spinach leaf salad with one cheese one nut one fruit!!!… but, hey, these Things are more than compensated for by the most delicious fresh and locally sourced Indonesian tucker).
But there is someThing that I do miss terribly, and that is a long hot shower. As much as I appreciate it, the odd pot of boiling water to wash myself with just doesn’t cut it as compensation.
I’m not complaining, mind. The locals wash in rivers or the sea or have their ‘mandi’ soaping themselves up in a full body lather and then washing it off using a bucket of water and plastic scoop. So a shower is a luxury and cold water is fine in this tropical climate. But, my weakness. I just miss standing under a steady stream of blessed soul soothing hot water.
So much so that the other day I flew to Kuala Lumpur just to have one. A boat trip from Gil Meno to the main island. A good hour and a half drive then from North Lombok to the airport, the mandatory two hours at the airport, a three hour flight, a 15 minute walk down KL airport’s never ending AirAsia wing, an hour standing in the queue through immigration (of course several planes landed at the same time), another long walk to the car park and a 20 minute drive to the closest available hotel. With plans to REVERSE that whole trip starting at 6am the next morning. Eeek… the Things you do!
No matter that my hotel room was a windowless box; it was only an overnighter. No matter that the bathroom was the size of your average downstairs third toilet (and in fact the shower was placed only inches to the side of the toilet). I was there to have a hot shower and you can bet your bottom dollar I darn well lapped it up! There was a small water heater in my bathroom and I stood under that hot flow for ever……….. totally mindfully.
I blocked out all other distracting thoughts and focused on the water as it fell on the crown of my head, and streamed down my back. After a while I turned around and let that hot water fall fully on my forehead. I washed my hair in it and didn’t care that it would be straight again. I felt the hot water wash over my face and flow down my entire body. It’s taking a while but I am learning how to make myself be very much in the moment. And during this shower I didn’t think about the past nor the future. I didn’t think about anyThing else. Just that moment in time and space. For any of you that are still working on enjoying that trick, hot showers are the perfect time to practice!
It was the first hot shower I’d had in over eight weeks and it was divine.
I set my alarm clock for 5.15 so I could spoil myself with another in the morning. My last hot shower for another eight weeks.
Ah, it’s the little THINGS.
NB: Btw, the hot shower wasn’t really the only reason for my trip to KL. Unfortunately I’m still travelling on tourist visas and in Indonesia that means I have to fly out every 60 days just to get my passport stamped in another country. Mind you, if the trip didn’t cost money, the hot shower would almost make the whole Thing worthwhile 
😋!
How about you guys? Do you love standing forever under a hot shower? And despite how beautiful it is to live this lifestyle, is there anyThing that you would really miss if you lived in a small basic bungalow on a tropical island?