I'm part of a group of lovely ex. work friends who meet a couple of times a year for a catch up. Over the years since we all worked together, most of us have moved further afield from the workplace and live some distance apart from each other, so when we get together it's usually for an all-day do. We've done everything from race days, theatre and dinners, shopping trips, sightseeing in various cities. And spa days. So. Many. Fucking. Spa. Days.
Guess what the majority vote for the next meet is? I am increasingly starting to loathe spa days. I have a disability and as I get older, my mobility is getting more of a challenge, so I find spas tricky to navigate - they often involve a fair bit of walking and wet floors aren't my friend.
I find the whole experience the polar opposite to relaxing. All that hopping between one hot, sweaty room to another, hot tubs of water stinking of chlorine and probably other people's bodily fluids. And in the rare event you do find a room you like, after two minutes, a friend will announce "right, on to the next room". The constant clock-watching of waiting for your treatment time. The 20 minute 'free' treatment where you spend the first 15 minutes trying to relax and praying that the bored therapist doesn't massage your roll of fat and michelin tyre stomach. Trying to work out what time you need to start not getting wet again, so that you don't squelch your way into a restaurant for the healthy lunch offering, and sitting in a rigid panel of cardboard towelling bathrobe while you eat the buckwheat and quinoa sunflower seed special. Spending 30 seconds in a sauna fighting the onset of heatstroke, before trying to explain to your friends that a bucket of ice really isn't going to make you feel totally amazing. And to top it all, fighting to put your skinny jeans back on in a hot, humid changing room.
I am going to use my increasing unsteadiness on my feet as the reason I'll decline this get together, which is absolutely not untrue. But I'm curious to know if anyone else shares my dislike of spas and if so, why? I feel I must surely be in the minority, but I just don't get it!