The first house I owned didn’t have hot water on tap. You had to heat a boiler. But I was working as a postman at the time, and getting up at 4.20am to leave for work at 4.35 – I had it timed to the second – meant there was no time to heat water. So I got used to getting washed over the sink in cold water, then washing my hair in cold water too.
Every morning at 4.25am I’d have my head in a bowl of cold water. In winter, it was very cold water.
Anyhow, I decided this Christmas that in honour of those long-gone days living in the cold -water 2-up 2-down, I was going to start taking cold showers again. And every day from then I’ve started off with a hot shower then gradually dimmed the temperature until it was running cold.
Been doing this for a month now and today as I stood beneath the cold shower, I thought, why am I doing this? It’s stupid. Why not take luxury when you can get it? I mean, when I used to take a cold shower or even just a cold wash over the bathroom sink, I had no choice,.
Now, I have a choice.
So I thought, bugger this, I’ll take a hot shower from now on, and I turned the water hot again. It was lovely. Why did I spend a month taking cold showers? What on earth was I thinking?
Then I turned it cold again.
I’m used to it.