An Ode to Drinking Wine in the Bathtub

I dont need to tell you this, but we live in a strange time.

I write this on November 4th. The UK has just announced another nation-wide lockdown and the US presidential election results are streaming in as I type. We live in a strange time.

We are moving into the winter, on top of all of this. The days are becoming shorter and the dark creeps in that little bit earlier with each passing day. Sometimes the days feel overwhelmingly short, other days seem to draw on forever in their drudging gloom. It is going to be one of the tougher seasons for a lot of people.

So, we cope. We find a way to press onwards, we find something that makes the long days more enjoyable and the short days less suffocating, we find something that hits the spot. People take up yoga, buy a gym membership, try knitting, bake obscene amounts of cake. Anything that takes the edge off the angst that is 2020.

It was searching for coping mechanisms such as these that lead me to find my perfect pairing. Once I found it, there was no going back. My life had changed forever. How had I not thought of it before?

I’ll tell you how it happened:

I was trying out various different ideas to ease the persistent pain of existence, so I started with the obvious stuff, the stuff that pretty much everyone agrees is ‘relaxing’ and ‘good for the soul’, whatever that means. Naturally, I tried a bubble bath. It was okay, fairly relaxing, and it made me smell fabulous. But then I got bored and ended up scrolling TikTok for an hour until the water went cold. Was it enjoyable? Sure. Was it life-changing? Not exactly.

Of course, the next stop was to try alcohol, a method I am no stranger to. It has a fairly good reputation for easing stress and promoting enjoyment of even the most boring evening, so long as one does not consume it in excess. Again, nothing groundbreaking, but I enjoyed my night of pinot in front of the tv nonetheless.

And then, one particularly nasty and cold night a couple of weeks ago, pouring rain and pitch dark, I popped into my local shop on my way home and picked up my favourtie red. I was soaked to my skin fron the rain outside so decided to run a good hot bubble bath to warm up.

I poured myself a large glass of red wine while the bath ran and the bubbles frothed. I lit some candles, turned on a relaxing playlist, and turned out the lights, took off my robe and sank slowly into the hot bubbly water. I hadn’t finished my wine before the bath was ready, so I simply brought my glass in with me. No biggie, right?

Wrong!!!

This was, more than anything else in the whole world at that very moment, a biggie. It was more than that, it was bliss.

I took a sip of the wine and sank further into the bubbles. Suddenly my bathtub wasn’t boring at all. Where was my phone? I didn't care. All I needed was my wine and my bath, I could have been in there for hours and barely notice a minute pass.

And that is how I found my perfect pairing. It may not be two food items that go perfectly hand in hand, but I can absolutely assure you - it’s better. This pairing is warm, comforting and, both literally and figuratively, totally intoxicating.

Since my realisation I have tried my pairing with both white and rose wine, and can confirm that it works equally well with all of them (this was scientific research, and absolutely necessary, rest assured). The trick is to lie back and truly allow yourself to enjoy the sensations; the outer warmth of the water and the inner warmth of the wine. This pairing is the sweet escape from reality that I was craving. That is the key reason why this match is such a sweet one - total detachment from the reality of life.

I will be enjoying my perfect pairing throughout the holiday season, regardless of what it holds. It may be simple, but it could not be more enjoyable. As the winter only gets colder, I will be safe in my cocoon of bubbles and wine, waiting out the storm.