It’s been too long since we had a giveaway, hasn’t it? So let’s remedy that.

The other week I was staying at a house in Martinborough, trying to decompress after my day job was disestablished, and I had a bath. In fact, I’d primarily booked the house because it was advertised as having a double spa bath (and a gas fire), and I was looking for total relaxation. In a bid to be all blissed out, I dumped in a lot of bodywash, and turned the bubbles on. Uh oh! The bubbles ended up going up to the height of the bath, and kept growing even after I turned the bubbles off. I was somewhat hungover and shaky, and the drive over the Rimutakas in the dark had somewhat taken it out of me, and I was a little bit convinced that the bubbles were alive and trying to kill me. I didn’t stay in the tub for much longer after that!

But possibly the most memorable bath I ever had was at a bathhouse in Japan on a school trip. I can’t remember where we were, but I was in seventh grade, and I was on some trip somewhere. We were staying in a small family inn, and one night the teachers decided that we’d go to some posh bathhouse at a large hotel. It was some small amount like 500 yen to get in, and it was so posh. At Japanese bathhouses, you sit on a little stool and scrub yourself clean with a handheld shower before you get in the big tub to soak. This place had a really large big hot tub inside, as well as a freezing cold dipping pool, baths of a couple of other temperatures, and most memorably, a large hot bath outside. It was February-ish, so it was cold outside, but the tub was still surrounded by jasmine blooms, and the smell of them in the hot steamy air will always stay with me. Being very self conscious me and some of the American girls were wrapped in towels, while the Japanese girls were straight in.While it was a segregated bathhouse, the male area was just on the other side of the fence, and naturally, we could hear the 12 year old boys on the other side trying to stare in at us. One day when I build my dreamhouse, there will be an outdoor bath. There won’t be any young boys around it though. Well, not 12 year olds anyway…

So, now the prize. I have a brand new bottle of Eithne Curran Bodywash that I won from Good Magazine, and I think you should have it as I am overwhelmed by bodywashes right now. I’ve tried their shampoo, and it seems really simple and clean and natural, and smells delicious, so I reckon this bodywash will be lovely too. All you have to do to win it is leave a comment telling me about a memorable place you’ve bathed. I’ll draw a winner at random next Wednesday, July 28. Hurray! (PS: don’t forget to email us photos and descriptions of your favourite outfit while you’re at it!)