Bathside reading....

That's a euphemism innit? Reading in the dunny.

Many, many years ago, I did a Big Chill weekend. That is, about 4 families (pre kids, so technically, about 4 couples) descended on some friends in Sumner (Christchurch), who had bought a rambling old house on a corner section about a block from the beach. This house, I kid you not, had about 20 rooms. There were rooms within rooms (almost) and doors leading to more rooms.

We drank a lot, and the Giesen's winemaker, Marcel Giesen, gave us a tour of the winery (we drank the latest vintages from the barrels, using long pipettes) & then brought 2 cases of wine to dinner, which we attempted to consume during & after, before going to bed. In fact, most of us got hammered & sloped discreetly off sometime in the wee hours pretty much leaving Marcel to it in one of the rooms somewhere deep in the labyrinth. Chances are he's still there. He had enough wine to keep him going for years.

This place had several bathrooms too, and each "bathroom" was equipped with a book, suitable for reading while otherwise occupied.

Notes were compared & it was generally agreed that the best "bathroom" reading book on offer was the one furnished with a collection of Bob Jones' newspaper columns. These columns were the perfect length for your average visit. That particular bathroom was much favoured...

I've had "bathrooms", in the past, stocked with magazines in a rack. Latterly though, my suggestions for dealing with surplus bookshelves - and I use "surplus" guardedly, because bookshelves are never surplus, in fact, we need bookshelves badly in our current house, we just have nowhere to put them, and so we have several languishing in the basement, even though we have a spare room just bursting with unshelved books we're reluctant to toss - have been spurned. Apparently it is not a good look to have a wall to wall, floor to ceiling bookshelves within easy reach of the er..."bath".

"How about internet access?" I've also asked, but in the end, it'd have to be pretty hands free, don't you agree? I draw the line at TV.

So it is with... um... some relief, that I note that the practise of reading is going into the (water) closet. About time.

Stuff.co.nz: Smallest room becomes the reading room