Yesterday my lovely guest post columnist Kelly Darmer wrote about shaking yourself out of the comfy rut of routine. She explained, quite rightly, that what we perceive as necessities in our culture, are actually luxuries.

I agree. So much of the world is closed off to us, if, as someone said the other day, “Oh. I could never travel to India. What if I had to use one of those squat toilets? Ewwww.”

She’s right. There can be a rather high ‘Ewww’ factor to some of those toilets. I have often used my trick of dousing my scarf with essential oils and casually wrapping it under my nose so I don’t gag. (I might add, that I only perform this trick once I’m do in the stall so as not to be overly dramatic and insulting and while we’re on travel tips? I highly recommend wearing a skirt, it’s so much easier to hike up than pants. There really is nothing worse than when your pants fall into the less-than-hygienic surroundings, but surely I digress…)

But seriously? You’re not going to travel somewhere amazing because of some less-than-stellar bathrooms? I can assure you that I visited some gorgeous Indian bathrooms as well. And though some of my best trips had some pretty sketchy toilet areas that did not in any way detract from the overall magnificence of the place, in fact, it added a nice hysterical edge to some of the stories.

However. Today I am writing about diving into comfort instead. Mind you, we still had to move away from our own sofa, travel a few hours east but now Kevin & I are firmly ensconced as complimentary guests in the lovely Watermark Beach Resort in downtown Osooyos.

Let me clarify the comfort factor a little further. There are three things that can be relied on with my physical condition;

1. I am almost always hungry, 2. My feet are almost always cold, 3. If there’s a chance to relieve myself of the endless water I drink…I’m in.

In other words, Kevin will ask the usual interrogative-trinity that go like this, “Are you hungry? Are you cold? Do you have to pee?” He’ll know that there will always be at least one of those that will be an affirmative answer.

But since arriving at the Watermark Beach Resort in the desert heat of Osooyos;

1. I am not hungry – We stopped at the funky coffee shop called JoJo’s, had great coffees and really tasty fruit/nut cookies and now are eating the humus, crackers, olives, artichokes and other yummy bits that were waiting in the room…Our dinner reservation is at 7 pm, less than an hour from now, so I should make it 🙂

2. My feet are not cold – They are, in fact, without my usual woolly socks that I wear almost year round. My feet are barefoot and have this lovely pink fleshy colour. Who knew? I thought feet were always supposed to have that pale blue tinge.

3. I do not have to pee – Now you may think that’s more information than you wanted to know, but hey! I’m trying to tell you the real deal here and not only does this place have a sublime bathroom but the whole place is w-a-a-a-y bigger than our Vancouver apartment.

A waffle cotton robe is waiting for me after my pre-dinner bath (J’adore waffle-cotton robes), there is a huge deck overlooking the pool and lake which will be a perfect place for my morning coffee with (wait for it!) 18% real cream that is waiting in the fridge. Bless these people.

And yes, I am thinking this is a far distant land from the ashram I will be in next month.

I hear myself sighing, the kind of contented sigh that feels like maybe I could get used to sliding right into this new comfort zone; at least for the next two days…Peel me a grape.