Shower?

This morning I took the closest thing to the "one-minute shower" I've ever managed. Not wetting (detangling, dumping conditioner on, combing) hair saves a lot of time. Yes, I own and wear a bathcap (a friend recently commented on the pointlessness of hotels providing those disposable bathcaps, claiming no one uses them. I do. As does my mum. And those plastic disposable ones are great for doing hair treatments.)

Not deforesting also saves at least 10 minutes. It may be 30 degrees outside but, fortunately, in the office it's still arctic enough all year round to wear jeans, so the Gillette gets a few days off a week.

It wasn't actually as hard as I thought, getting in, washing face and body and rinsing in under two minutes. It helped that I was running late for work anyway, so didn't have time for my usual luxuriating/daydreaming - I find the bathroom an excellent place for strategising and often end up sat on the edge of the bath, fully-clothed, just planning my day/night/life - and hopped in and out.

The swift shower once again made me think about Being Green, and our role as a species on this planet. A friend of mine started a far worthier blog at the same time as I began my general rant, examining how she, and other city-dwellers, can live more greenly. Not as easy as it could/should be. We're a pretty lazy generation, and sometimes collecting my tins to take all the way down 26 floors - in the lift, on my way to work - just seems like too much hassle (or "hassel" as the HSBC cash deposit insists on spelling it; honestly, get an editor). But it shouldn't be.

I cleared and dumped a load of papers last night (including Christmas cards from my final year at secondary school - I did say that I hoarded, after all...). I tried to recycle as much as possible, including the paper box files all the junk had been living in for six years (and there's a good question - I've moved from HK to the UK and back again since my final year of school, with two addresses at least in each place - WHY do I have sixth form stuff still in my possession? I need therapy) and greetings cards. But some stuff, like personal letters (one of my university friends has been a star over the years, sending handwritten cards... I feel like we've been out of touch for the last 12 months, only sending word at birthdays and Christmas... really must work on that) and (unopened) bank statements had to just get torn up and binned. I realise someone could still come across them, but if someone has the tenacity to go through my rubbish and find ANYTHING of value, good luck to them, I say. Because I failed miserably.

Moving house makes you realise a lot about yourself - just how disorganised you are, how much value you attach to inanimate objects when you live alone and thousands of miles from family and friends, and how easy it is to convince yourself that you REALLY might need that Santa hat from carol singing in the mall three years ago. Just where do you draw the line between hanging onto something for the "just-in-case" scenario, and freeing up draw space? And do you dump it, or pass it on to a worthy cause - who knows who might suddenly want a bargain-priced Handover souvenir baseball cap, right?

Or maybe not.

Clearly some habits I need to work on.