Spaaaa –yeah...

The short-term antidote to my exam hangover was a morning in a hotel room watching ridiculous Golden Globe red carpet coverage with Ryan Seacrest –deliciously mindless, eye candy (not Seacrest but the parade of celebs). I had forgotten about the blue magic wand that is now employed to underscore the fashion dos and don’ts of colour, couture and accoutrements -so very amusing in its ridiculousness.
The more anticipated remedy to my post-exam crash, however, was a 90-minute treatment at a Vida spa. I kinda sorta have the most awesome manfriend around and he booked me for a massage and detox steam treatment. The treatments have fancier names that involve chakras and doshas and I don’t know what else but the important thing is that they feel sooo good. I was escorted (in my cushy robe) into a cozy little den with fireplace and magazines, I filled out a form (that was a little weird) to help the staff figure out what herbs and essences to use based on my “dosha”. Apparently, because I have a healthy appetite, remember my dreams in colour and am thirsty a lot (among other random things) I am a “pitta”. This means I got “essenced” with peppermint, fennel and juniper berries. The massage was first –very relaxing and oily (a good oily). Then I was put into this steam cooker type thing with my head sticking out like one of those magician’s assistants that is about to be sawed in half. It sounds a lot more macabre than it was. The herbs were steamed into this wood chamber encasing my body and this is when the toxins were released through my sweat –or something like that. The next part involved getting back on the massage table to be sprinkled with flour (yes, flour!) and brushed lightly with a bristle brush to absorb remaining oils and exfoliate. I was spared the rotisserie, thankfully but I probably smelled good enough to eat.