Guest Blogger RL
West Midlands' answer to the sea comes in the form of Great Malvern Spa. On alighting from the train we encounter the Malvern hills. It's a beautiful sunny day and they appear majestic in the sunlight.We make our way down Malvern high street (not quite so majestic). My google map informs me that we have a 20 minute walk to our destination and although it seems circuitous, short cuts are fruitless and we arrive slightly harassed at a beautiful white building inauspiciously and puzzlingly located in the middle of an industrial estate.
Inside all is calm and I feel immediately peaceful. We are shown to our changing rooms, and once in our robes, feel completely anonymous and immersed like the other robed spa goers into the tranquil cocoon. The pool is impressive, with an outdoor and indoor area, and treatment rooms boast two saunas, steam room, salt room and two experience showers. MG insists in strident manner that we do everything in "the proper order" as outlined by the manual. Feel that this is slightly contrary to spa atmosphere but feel I will humour her, as futile to argue in spa environment.
All rooms are well functioning and very well looked after and clean, and I'm filled with high hopes for the pool when MG deems fit, and it doesn't disappoint. It's wonderfully pleasant to swim in the perfectly warm pool in the afternoon sunshine.
We decide a massage and facial are just whats called for, and after a relaxing cup of tea by the pool we head to our respective treatment rooms. I've now been wearing the robe for so long I don't know how I ever managed without it, and when instructed, I find it no trouble to lie on the heated bed and be massaged with essential oils. The therapists are really excellent. After rudimentary questions regarding preferences for essential oils they remain silent, and I can feel all the stresses and strains of life falling away. After, MG and I meet in the relaxation room, where we lie cocooned on beds watching the sea on a giant screen. It reminds me that spring will come after winter, and "next year I'll like spring just for spring, as the thrushes do" (see Charlottte Mew, ed).
Feel utterly bliss and we both agree that we are entirely subsumed by calm, zen like feelings of positivity and light. We go everywhere very slowly and carefully, needing only our robes and exuding essential oils everywhere we tread.
With Blackberry and iPhone cast aside no emails can intrude. We speak only in soft voices and everyone is most courteous and polite to each other. Wonder if they might let me live here? MG thinks possibly not (she has now become so relaxed that she has gone full circle and become stressed), but it's a thought. Back out into the cold night, greasy but well rested and content. A definite tonic for both.
Ed - the highlight for me was psyching myself up for the "icy drench" - warnings in the manual it was only for the VERY BRAVE only to discover on drench that it was in fact probably warmer than the sea gets in August, at 15-20 degrees, which gave me a very superior feeling. Four days later RL and I are still floating on a zen like cloud of peace and calm and all is aligned in the way of hope. Or something. MG
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