When my Mother retired last year the firm presented her with two day passes to The Sanctuary Spa. Let me first tell you that my Mother and I work for the same firm and so everyone looked to me for gift ideas... that's my sisters department. The spa day was also my sisters idea, the second day pass was the idea of my boss because she thought my Mother would like the company, and because she couldn't see me sitting around in a robe and flip flops all day, the second day pass was intended for my sister. However, somehow, I ended spending today at The Sanctuary Spa with my Mother.

And now for the Dollhouse reference. Any review, article or write up about Joss Whedon's 'Dollhouse' always says how much the facility looks and feels just like a spa, that's because a spa really is like the Dollhouse. Everybody is dressed in their robes walking around with a very docile nature or lounging on comfy couches around the Koi Carp Lounge, some taking a dip in the relaxtion pool or the exercise pool, there's even one room that reminded me disturbingly of the sleeping chambers and when someone asked me 'Are you ready for your treatment?' I wanted to laugh hysterically.

My day:

11.00 - Arrive, register, change, tour.

11.15 - A few lengths of the exercise pool, just to get the blood pumping, and just because I like swimming

11.45 - Head up to The Lavender Suite for my 'treatment'. I chose a full body massage with essential oils.

12.00 - Treatment begins with a lovely lady named Andrea, who leaves me to change into some fantastic temporary pants, helps me choose which oils I'd like and the proceeds to do amazing things to my body to make it relax so much that I wobble when I finally leave the room.

13.15 - Finally locate my Mother in the Koi Lounge, because we'd forgotten to arrange somewhere to meet after our sessions. After a rest, so that the Shea Butter I've been practically basted in has been absorbed into my skin, we head up to the restuarant for lunch.

13.45 - It is a bizarre experience to sit in a restaurant where everyone is wearing exactly the same thing as you. I dined on a Goats Cheese and Red Onion Tart for starters and Organic Pan Fried Salmon with crushed potato and spinach for my main. (Crushed is just a fancy way of saying mashed but with the skin still on.) It was all delicious.

14.45 - Returned to the Koi Lounge, intent on reading a little before my next session. I managed about six pages before I fell asleep with the book on my face because I was so darn relaxed.

15.30 - I wake up in time to attend my next session, The Sleep Retreat. This is where ten of us enter a darkened room and head to an assigned bed. We press a button on the remote and the bed starts vibrating, then put on some headphones and a very ethereal voice tells us to relax and enjoy our meditative journey. There was something about water and birds and grass and a hammock... zzz zzzz zzzzz zzzzzz

16.00 - Back to the Koi Lounge, I staked out a bed and a blanket and fell asleep for another half hour.

16.30 - Shower, change, sign out, leave.

I spent half the day wet and half the day asleep... it was surprisingly exhausting.

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Snagged from geekgrrllurking

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My parents are ballroom dancers, in fact, that was how they met over forty years ago. So both my sister and I have dancing in our blood; we've both gone through the obligatory childhood phase of disco dancing, filled our teenage years with contemporary dancing, and experimented in our twenties with ceroc. In her thirties my sister has come full circle and discovered ballroom for herself, I'm still teetering on the brink of actually doing it myself.

Growing up we watched our parents at family functions, dinner/dances and parties. To my sister and I it was just something that they always did at these type of events and we paid them no real attention. But something was soon to change both of our attitudes towards that whirling, twirling, fancy footwork thing that they did to strange pieces of music. Strictly Come Dancing came to our television screens in 2004 and changed the public image of ballroom and latin dancing for an entire generation. They were using music that was in the charts, while still introducing golden oldies that your parents have on vinyl and classical pieces that you know you've heard in film trailers. The costumes were sleek and modern, not polyester and ruffles. The dancers had attitude and sex appeal, instead of plastered on smiles and far too much hair spray. It was... cool.

So the premise of the show was to pair a professional dancer and a celebrity with no previous dancing experience, eight couples in total. The celebrities were the stars who attracted the audience and the professional dancers did their best to whip them into shape and tap into their potential. By the end of the first series professionals Brendan Cole and Anton DuBeck were celebrities in their own right. (Brendan has since appeared on the West End stage as Billy Flynn in Chicago and Anton has hosted several shows for the BBC.)

By the third series popularity of the show demanded more couples, extending the length of the series. Among the new professional dancers to be added to the line-up was former World Champion Karen Hardy. I fell in love with this woman the moment that I saw her dance; she doesn't just dance with her body, she dances with her soul and it is incredible to watch. I read somewhere that when she retired from professional dancing she felt as though her life was over, but Strictly Come Dancing gave her a little bit of it back.

In the fourth series she was paired with a cricketer, Mark Ramprakash. At first so shy and reserved Karen was afraid she would never get any fire from him, but she did and they stormed through the series to take the trophy. I voted for them, a lot. If I'm honest I voted for her because she stole my heart.

Karen's husband Conrad has an account on YouTube and has posted several of Mark and Karen's fantastic routine's. I've chosen to highlight their Argentine Tango because it was slick and sophisticated and sexy. (It was also something that not even Karen had danced before.) Afterwards, check out their Salsa and their Cha Cha Cha and their Samba... just check out all their dances, they are made of awesomeness!

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Passion and Perfection

Unless I'm buying a new book from Amazon, or a new dvd from Play, or a new desk from Argos, then most of the websites that I visit online are related to television shows that I obsess over, or films that I am not so patiently waiting to see. In every show, and a few of the films, I'm always looking for the connection between two of the female characters. Whether it be maintext (Helen/Nikki or Rachel/Luce), subtext (Xena/Gabrielle or Idgie/Ruth), or animosity that could possibly be, deep down, read between the lines, true love (Sarah/Cameron or ... nope, can't think of a film pairing to follow that up with at the moment), I'm always looking for more than what I get to see onscreen and fan fiction is the best place to find it.

Whenever I get into a new fandom, and find a new pairing, my first port of call is P&P because there's a good chance that others have seen what I have. Archived in this multi-fandom website is fan fiction, fan art, fan videos and graphics for a plethora of shows and films and theatre; ranging from Star Trek: Voyager and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to Fried Green Tomatoes and Loving Annabelle and Wicked even has it's own section. It's also great that shows like Birds of Prey, Women's Murder Club and Nikki and Nora, axed before they had a chance, are given new life by dedicated fans who have vision and loyalty.

The website has been around for a good few years now, providing some of the best that the femslash has to offer. Ralst, webmistress extraordianaire, has built a friendly, encouraging and creative community on an international scale that I hope she can look at everyday and be extremely proud of... even when the backlog looks overwhelming and she's struggling with real life and getting those last few hundred words of her latest story ready to go.

Now, let's go see what's new on the Passion Perfect lj community...
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Snagged from geekgrrllurking

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"I'd give up forever to touch you, 'cos I know that you feel me somehow."

That right there is the reason why I love 'Iris' by The Goo Goo Dolls. To experience a feeling so powerful that you would sacrifice everything for it. The idea that love can transcend all barriers; life and death, mortal and immortal, good and evil, are all just obstacles to be challenged. It's what we all dream about, isn't it?

According to stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre posh people can substitute any word in the English language to mean drunk. Hence 'gazeboed'; it could also be 'car parked', 'trampolined', 'pajamaed' or 'paninied'. I'm not actually drunk but I'm wearing the tee-shirt I got last night when I went to his live show at the O2 arena.

The first time I saw Michael McIntyre perform was in an eight minute segment at The Royal Variety Performance in 2006. I was in stitches for the whole sequence; from the fear of not being able to remember his chip and pin to the odd walks we adopt when trying on shoes or walking through a metal detector. He's one of those people who observes the little things in life that we're all to busy to notice but the moment he brings it up you relate to every single detail.

The first time I saw him live was at the Hammersmith Apollo in September 2008, we were there when they filmed for his DVD release, the fastest selling stand-up DVD ever. That was an evening of anecdotes about 'man drawers' (the place where half dead batteries, out of circulation currency, older model mobile phones, takeaway menus and the measuring tape live), various methods to induce labour (herbal remedies favoured by the women, curry and sex favoured by the men, and the true properties of ingesting sperm), and why when we go on holiday do we turn off every appliance in the house except the fridge? Why do we trust the fridge?

Last night he performed for an audience of 16, 000, it was one of the extra dates that had to be added by popular demand. We booked the tickets months ago, when it seemed like forever until the performance. But it was well worth the wait. Right now I don't recall too many details of the topics, but I do remember that I laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. There was definitely something about mens changing rooms at the gym, a hatred of Italian waiters flirting with his wife using a big pepper mill, a hypothetical debate between various herbs and spices about why the salt and pepper are so special, and an observation that playing snooker looks like you're tossing off an invisible man standing behind you.

The DVD is released in a couple of weeks, I think I'll go pre-order my copy now. See if we can make this DVD sell faster than the last one.

Michael McIntyre 'Live At The Apollo':
 

I spent an entire hour today just sitting on a wooden bench in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. I was wasting time, so I found the nearest place of calm and simply stopped. I could hear the traffic rushing by on the Victoria Embankment, I could feel the trains from the District and Circle lines rumbling along beneath the ground, but with the grass and the trees and the occasional white cloud in an otherwise blue sky I had found a little oasis.

I just took some time to enjoy the unexpected warm weather, to observe the tourists writing postcards, businessmen avoiding the office, couples looking for an escape. Some time to reflect on life, love, and the fact that the train I was on yesterday evening caught fire!

...

The August Bank Holiday – usually it’s just another day off work to lounge around and do nothing. But not this year, this year we have decided to participate in a time honoured tradition of the Bank Holiday – The Fun Fair.

Deciding to make a day of it we headed to Greenwich for brunch, looked around the local markets before seeking shelter from the mild temperature in the nearest pub. We managed to catch the Closing Ceremony of the Bejing Olympics with the sound muted allowing us to incorporate our own witty commentary. ‘He could have at least tucked his shirt in’, ‘I bet that football will be on Ebay by tomorrow’, okay so it wasn’t that witty.

After refreshment we took a slow stroll through Greenwich Park, slow because it’s uphill all the way. We stopped at the Greenwich Observatory to admire the city view from the home of Greenwich Mean Time. All roads may lead to Rome but Greenwich is the centre of the time/space continuum. Out the other side of the park is Blackheath where the bodies of the Black Death victims are supposedly buried in a mass grave, but today it plays host to the Fun Fair.

We made a couple of laps of the fairground, resisting the cries of ‘try your luck’, ‘come and have a go’ and ‘a prize every time’. I eventually caved when somebody brandished a fishing rod before me and I hooked a duck that won me a teddy bear. Katie won a similar prize but I knew where she really wanted to ‘try her luck’… the shooting range. Knock down seven targets with seven shots to win a prize. Taking up her pellet gun Katie took aim. I am equal parts alarmed and in awe that she knocked down all seven in seven on her first attempt. (Note to self: keep Katie away from Daddy’s shot guns.)

Naomi and I decided to take a gentle ride on the Merry Go Round. As a fan of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit I am happy to say I rode a horse named Olivia. Why is it that despite the fact that Naomi is 33 and I’m 30 and we understand the logistics of a Merry Go Round that we still insist on racing? After this I then convince Naomi to up the wild ride feel by going on the big wheel, which was just fine until they stopped us at the top for a few minutes. I enjoyed the view, but Naomi did not enjoy my rocking the seat. By the time we disembarked she was a light shade of green.

However this did nothing to diminish her appetite and we finished off the day with dinner and headed home. All in all a very nice Bank Holiday. Of course it could have been worse, we could have chosen another Bank Holiday tradition of DIY. No wait… Dad’s coming around tomorrow and we’re boarding out the attic.

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