During this summer holiday, me, my daughter and my mother spent two days in a hotel, because we were visiting a big water park here in Norway. This was my first long road trip after I had purchased my car, so we were planning on going to the water park, the day after we arrived.
When we arrived at the hotel, and checked into our hotel room, we quickly noticed that something was wrong with the shower. The shower wouldn’t lower its temperature, so I almost got scolded while desperately trying to have a quick rinse. The summer heat had taken a toll on me while driving to our hotel, because the AC in my car didn’t work.
The hotel worker tried to fix our shower, but came to the conclusion that it was out of order. So we got transferred to another room, with a big bathtub.
After we had carried our luggage to our new room, we all went for a stroll downtown and had dinner at a restaurant. Then we went back to our hotel. It was getting very late, and it was bedtime for my daughter. While we were brushing her teeth, she got very excited about the hotel bathtub, and wanted to try it out. But since we were already several hours past her bedtime, I told her that maybe she could try it out tomorrow instead.
The next day, we went to the water park, and spent almost all of our day there. This was my daughter's first time visiting that water park, (and that water park is GIGANTIC). So in other words – she was having a blast!!
After spending almost an entire day at the water park, we had all gotten pretty tired and planned on going to bed early that night. So after all of us had showered, we went out to eat dinner. When we got back to our hotel room, I told my daughter that we were getting ready for bedtime, but then my daughter raises her voice upset and says: “BUT MOM?? I haven’t taken a bath in our bathtub yet?!”
It took me a few seconds to process that she was still excited about trying out the hotel bath tub. (Considering we spent a full day at the water park).
Then she says: “Uhm, mom?! Have you forgotten that I was taking a bath in the bathtub, today?! You said yesterday that I could try it today!”
I looked at her and asked: “Do you still want to take a bath?”
She answered and said: “Yeah!”
So I drew her a bath, and I filled the bathtub with a lot of bubbles. My daughter got super excited and yelled: “Yay!! Bubbles!!”
She was having a blast, (once again) and spent the next 45 minutes having the time of her life in that bathtub. I was still a bit surprised over the fact that she seemed to find equal amounts of joy from taking a bath in that bathtub, as to spending a full day at the water park. Seeing her so excited over that bathtub, also unlocked some nostalgia within myself. It got me thinking of how much I also used to love being able to take a bath in a tub while growing up.
I would always ask if I could use the bathtub whenever we were visiting one of my relatives from our hometown in Sweden. My relative lived in a typical Swedish apartment block that was built in the 1960s. It was my father's uncle, and he lived in an apartment area that is called "Gärdeåsen", in my hometown in Sweden. My family and I had also lived on the same block as him when I was a baby and a young toddler.
Later on, we moved one more time, and then we also moved to Norway for a year, and then back to Sweden. So for the next few years, we lived in an apartment block nearby my relative's block. And when I was 6 years old, we moved into a new house. (And this house didn't have a bath tub).
Four years later, we moved to Norway again, where we ended up staying permanently. (And this house also didn't have a bathtub).
So from age 6 until age 17, I always used to borrow my relative's bathtub whenever I came to visit my hometown in Sweden.
There were so many things that had changed during all of those years. My physical home had changed several times during that time frame. I had gone from elementary school, to junior high, and to high school. Life had changed in so many ways, but my relative still lived in the same apartment, with the same furniture, with the same interior, and with the same bathtub. They always stayed the same during all of those years. So whenever I came to visit - his home and that bathtub gave me so much joy and a sense of peace while growing up.
I actually enjoyed it so much, that when I was old enough to take a bath unsupervised, my relative would always knock on the door (after I had been there for over an hour) and ask:
"Lina! Are you okay in there?!!"
And I would always answer:
"Yes!"
As a teenager, I remember that sometimes I would get annoyed when he would knock on the door to ask me if I was okay. (Because I would get startled when he knocked on the door while I was in somewhat of a deep meditative state, haha).
Unfortunately, my relative passed in 2014. So now, looking back, I've realized that these little moments are some of the memories that I value the most.
Moral of the story:
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