Tuesday 21 June 2011

The Bathroom

This is the lavatory, the sink is outside the bathroom near the doorway.

Inside the bathroom, with hot and cold shower.

In one of the forums to which I am a member, I posted a question to gauge the people's preference when it comes to the use of a "tabo at timba" or a bucket and a water dipper as compared to using the shower. I got  mixed reactions, some say that they prefer to use the shower while some say that they prefer the "tabo at timba". Growing up and being from a poor family, we didn't always have the luxury of having a hot shower in the house. My siblings and I grew up using icy cold water from the faucet when taking a bath. If we wanted some hot water for a bath, we would heat the water in a pot and mix it with the icy water in the bucket just to break the cold. Every time we threw a dip full of water on our bodies, we would shout, yell, jump and sing to the top of our voices just to get our minds off from the cold water as it was not really hot, just lukewarm. We didn't care if we sang out of tune, the bathroom was our recording office! The cost of using electricity is very expensive and we could barely afford it. According to a survey that was done some years ago, we ranked the highest in Asia when it comes to electricity cost. Using the tall tanks for a piped-in gas for heating water in the bathroom was not an option either because it was also expensive and we would rather use the gas for cooking food. Nowadays, with the influx of goods from other countries, we have the luxury of choosing from among the different types of hot shower gadgets that are readily available in the market.