Ending the Year with a Bath – By @alexbottner_

By Alex Bottner

Ending the Year with a Bath

I spent Christmas with my boyfriend’s family in Devon. They live in a sleepy, seaside town. My afternoons were spent napping after a day of running around with the dogs in the countryside and sitting by the fire.

His family live in a sixties build house that doesn’t have a shower, which meant that I got to do something that I don’t normally get to do: take a bath. Armed with a bath bomb, Netflix and wine, I tried out different shows that I wouldn’t normally watch.

First on the list was “Great News,” an American comedy series about a news producer whose mum starts interning at her work. With Tina Fey as the executive producer and a solid cast, I had fairly high hopes, but the corny humour made it painful to watch. My drunken self was convinced that I could write a better episode, and I have been putting my money where my mouth is by writing an alternative episode to the show as my passion project…it’s a lot harder than it looks.

I gave Jack Whitehall’s travelling series with his posh father a try. Jack tries to hijack his father’s structured itinerary with lad shenanigans, but the most “out-there” thing that happened was Jack convincing his father to go on a group beer bike tour in Budapest…outrageous.

I watched some great stand-up comedy specials. Ellen Degeneres’ “Relatable” special on Netflixis worth a watch. She goes back to her stand-up roots and makes fun of her celebrity status, showing an alternative side to her “Ellen Show” persona.

No matter what I watched, I always found myself budding with ideas after an hour’s soak. Your mind gets to wander and relax in a way that it doesn’t normally get to. I am curious about what a bath could do for my creativity when I’m working on briefs. It may add a bit of time on to my routine, but I think I came up with better ideas in that bathtub than I have when I’ve tried to sit down at a desk and “work.” Then again, it could be the wine talking.