Drying off

I was listening to my mum giving my dad a hard time the other day.

It seemed to be a ridiculous argument in the first place.

Mum was saying that dad should first dry off with a face-cloth before he used his towel.

That way his towel wouldn’t be sopping wet after he’d showered.

Dad scoffed that he’d never heard such a ridiculous notion.

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That’s what towels were for – to dry yourself after you’d had a shower.

Mum tut-tutted and ground her teeth impatiently, “But,” she hissed, “your towel does not get dry in the winter unless I put it out in the sun.

“There isn’t always sunshine!”

Dad moaned, “It’s cold in the shower after the warm water’s been turned off.

“I’m not messing around with a little scrap of face-cloth.

“No ways.

“Forget it.”

“Just try it,” yelled Mum.

She stomped off and caught me listening.

“Eavesdropping is sneaky, Sibo,” Mum shook her finger at me, “and you can use a face-cloth to dry off first too.”

Eish! The next time I showered, I begrudgingly took that face-cloth and mopped up all the droplets of water before opening the shower curtain and grabbing my towel.

A crazy thing happened – it’s wasn’t so cold.

Because I was already quite dry and not covered with drops, it wasn’t nearly as chilly as it usually is when I get out of the shower.

My towel was barely wet too.

Maybe mum had a point.

The following morning I used the face-cloth to wash my face without thinking.

When I turned the taps off, I looked at that limp, soggy sucker and thought oh no way am I using that.

Then mentally pulled up my big girl broekies and said to myself in mum’s naggy voice, “Just try it Sibo”.

The cloth was still warm and it worked as well as it did when it was dry.

Mum went to boarding school when she was a child and learnt all sorts of nifty lessons, some willingly and some not so.

The towel thing was a necessity. After having a bath or shower there was no way to dry their towels properly in their rooms; damp towels start to smell like wet chickens after a while.

This is a good water saving tip too, because the towels don’t need to be washed so often.

Try it!

Sibo