Relaxology
10/08/2004
Went to the Botanics over the weekend
With my brother and the kids. It was fun, though it was a little too hot.
Ok I cheated – I lomo-ed this one. It’s kinda cuter this way though.
I know the cafe isn’t exactly a full blown Les Amis (it’s just Cafe Les Amis At The Botanics), but could they be any more indifferent? They’re not particularly polite, nor friendly, nor helpful, yet they charge an arm and a leg for making you stand in line, then wait for your food, and then eat outside with the bugs. They’ve got a good thing going, don’t they want to keep it that way?
The Reflex
DP and Sam kindly brought me along when they went for their foot reflexology session today. It was my first try.
DP booked a 40 minute session for us all, so they were expecting us when we arrived. I didn’t notice it, but there were 2 men and a lady who walked into the shop, it turned out that these were the reflexologists. The lady chose me over DP, and a big uncle dude with a heavy moustache worked on him instead, who was a little worried that such a big guy was attending to him. Some young guy worked on Sam.
The lady who attended to me went easy on me because it was my first try, so I didn’t experience the excruciating pain described by many. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt. Reflexology basically works on the theory that each part of your foot corresponds to another part of your anatomy. Like parts of your big toe corresponds to your head; the tips of your toes, your sinuses or something; and your arch, your intestinal area. By massaging these areas you can get the energy flowing if there are blockages, and thereby put some balance back into the force. Or something like that.
First they start by warming you up. Your feet are swabbed down with alchohol so you don’t knock your reflexologist out. After that, they start with your shin to relax your legs. Then they cream your foot and start from the toes, down towards the heel, and then the top side of your foot, and down the sides, the the shins again, and then they end off where you’ve the most problems.
The toe parts were nice. No real pain, it was just pressure from the massaging. When she got to the arch of my foot, that’s when I felt real pain. It wasn’t so excruciating that I would pass out, but it was pain nonetheless. When she massaged past my funnybone – a bump in my left foot where I broke it before – I expected to just weird out and yelp, but it went by surprisingly without a hitch. Usually I can’t even bear to touch it. Both DP and Sam put on a stoic face, but they said it hurt too.
It was fun though, and a nice way to pamper yourself. I’m not really sure what the medical benefits really are, but Sam says I’ll sleep better tonight. So I’m getting offline early tonight to continue where I left off last night in One Hundred Years of Solitude, a surprising page turner, and hopefully I’ll wake up bright and early and feeling great tomorrow.
