About bathrooms...

As always, there are cultural adjustments when traveling… and here the adjustment has been mainly (no, not yet the driving on the left because our driving begins next week) about the bathrooms.  First, the bathroom in Ariel and Peter’s lovely flat in London contained a built-in towel warmer, a wonderful luxury that I have only seen in the States on some friends’ bridal registries.  Here in our little bathroom at Oxford, there is also a towel warmer, so I’m gathering that these are rather standard.  However, the other differences are a bit more challenging.  The hot water for the shower (and, here in Oxford, the sink) is controlled by a switch which operates an electric water heater on an as-needed basis.  An excellent energy-saving device!  However, stumbling sleepily into the shower results in a very rude awakening if we forget to hit that switch and then wait several minutes!  Then there is the challenge of plug placement.  Anyone who knows me well realizes that I require a hairdryer and a curling iron and a mirror in the same place in order to look presentable for the rest of the day.  UK code requires that all electrical outlets be placed outside the bathroom.  I mentioned this as a new experience to Peter, who grew up here, and he affirmed that of course electrical outlets and even light and shower heater switches are always placed outside the bathroom as a safety measure.  While I appreciate that safety measure, I now have the challenge of using my curling iron without benefit of mirror.  (Of course no hair appliance has a cord long enough to stretch into the bathroom, and of course there are no mirrors outside the bathroom!)  So picture me, in my utterly straight hair, lifting a section of hair with my comb while (I should probably spell it “whilst,” given the fact that I am in a Brit bathroom!) looking in the mirror, and then running out to the curling iron and curling that section rather blindly…. then repeating the process twenty three times.   I hadn’t expected to get so much exercise this early in the morning!  Shall we say I need to set the alarm at least fifteen minutes earlier to accomplish this feat?