Monday Memories

Last week I remembered something long forgotten. I remembered that when I was a teenager I used to play my music loud, really loud, while I was in the shower.

I'm taken back to Cairns, to our Kewarra Beach home and I'm 15 years old ... just a few weeks shy of my sweet 16th birthday (but that's another story in itself!) Each morning, I would get up about 7am and stumble the short distance from my bedroom to the bathroom.

The bathroom was decked out in black slate, with wooden and white enamel fixtures, and gold (not the real deal though) fittings. The shower was black slate, as was the bath beneath it. Unfortunately for my mother, the grout was white (which is a real pain in the bum when you live in the tropics and mould grows in the blink of an eye!).

As the water warmed up, I'd make sure my tape was rewound, cranked up and in I would get. I would listen to Jenny Morris's "She Got to Be Loved." Normally I'd get to listen to it twice - with a wet interlude where I would have to get out and rewind the tape. It was my 15 almost 16 anthem. I'd hammer it out, in my slightly flat voice, thankful that both the water and the volume of my tape recorder drowned (literally) out the racket.

"She got to be loved
She got to be loved, got to be loved .."

I'd often have my sister walk in grumpy and turn down the music - she was yet to hit the teenage years (and it was ACDC from memory that came blasting out of the different bathroom then.)

So last week, armed with our little CD player, I put my new favourite album in (because I'm old enough to remember that music used to come on vinyl and be called an 'album'). With the groovy beats and tunes of The Cat Empire pumping I enjoyed my 4 minute shower (because we're on level 5 water restrictions here in Brisbane - 140l of water per person per day!), rocking out under the water. It was a huge thrill and I felt 15 all over again (just with new baggage now!) It's also been great for getting into the feel of what is coming up in my NaNoWriMo novel.

Give it a try - play your favourite music LOUD in the shower for a morning ... if not, remember something really simple that you enjoyed doing as a teenager and just do it. Don't think of any reasons, let alone all the reasons, why you couldn't possibly do it. Then come back and share ...