ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Monday, May 21, 2007
enjoying my holiday - 10:04 PM
(filed under 'general')
(entered on my handheld while in sydney & uploaded later.)
i'm now at nicola's house for two nights after three nights at hellie's place. i've been having such a lovely time on my holiday. it's been the perfect mix of time on my own (to walk around & explore or, like today, to catch up on some email on nicola's computer) & time spent with my friends. mind you, any more time on my own & i might have run out of things to do. lol! 
tomorrow, being a tuesday, nicola's working, so i took the chance to arrange to meet with my old friend, fiona. she & i have known each other since i was in was about twenty, so for around fifteen years. she used to live in brisbane, but moved herself back to sydney a number of years ago, after living there initially until her late teens. we lost touch for a little while, but we've remained friends this whole time.
tomorrow evening, myself, nicola & her sister will be going out for the evening for a girls' night out. i suggested to hellie that it would be great if she came along, too, & much to my joy, she'll be joining us. nicola & hellie know of each other through me & have come across each other on flickr, but this will be the first time they've met in person. they're both really lovely & i know they'll get along like a house on fire. i'm quite looking forward to our evening out. 
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a lovely sunday - 06:46 AM
(filed under 'general')
(entered on my handheld while in sydney & uploaded later.)
yesterday was one of the most fun & relaxing days i've had in a really long time.
it was sunday, so hellie had the day off. we'd stayed up chatting the night before for far too long (until about 2am), so we had a nice sleep in & just pottered around in no rush, breakfasting & getting ready for the day.
for the morning, we planned to go to a really cool shop which i'd found on king street the previous day which i was certain hellie would love. it's called "pretty in pink" & despite the name going against everything i stand for (only joking, i'm just not particularly into the colour pink), i was totally in love with everything in there. as i suspected (she loves pink), hellie liked it, too.
i was intending to spend as little money as possible while on holiday, but i spotted the most adorable little red dress with white & blue flowers. stupidly, i tried it on. lol!
aside from the straps being a touch too long, it was a perfect fit & not only suited me physically, but my style, too, & even the shoes & socks i was wearing! it was a much cooler outfit (weather-wise) than the one i'd walked in wearing, so i wanted to wear it out of there. i needed to shorten the straps, though, so the lovely girl who was looking after the shop rustled up a needle & thread, a pair of scissors & a quick-unpick. i sat myself down on the floor out of the way & repositioned the straps held on with a single button each.
terribly happy with myself & my new dress, hellie & i then went off to find ourselves some lunch.
after eating, we took a short walk through the park & cemetery to take some pictures & headed off back to the train station to go to king's cross, where we were going to go to the ginseng spa.
i've been in saunas & spas, but i've never before been to a place quite like this one. you see, the main difference between this spa & most others is that this place has a prerequisite of nudity!
after you arrive & pay, they give you a numbered key on a stretchy, plastic coil which you can wear around your wrist or ankle. it gives you access to your own locker in the appropriate women's or men's spa. inside the locker there's a small face cloth, a towel & a bath robe. you disrobe completely, leaving your belongings in your locker & then hang your towl & bathrobe on your own numbered hanger in the hall leading into the main spa area.
when you walk in, you see a large, open-plan room, tiled throughout. on one side is a row of handheld showers with plastic stools & a little bench running the entire length with bottles of body wash/shampoo/conditioner & room for your own things. the other side has three large 'baths', two with warm or hot water & the third with cold. the water in the largest of the warm baths was coloured like green tea from the ginseng in it.
it was a little disconcerting at first to be standing there totally naked amongst other equally naked women, but after a few minutes, not only did it not bother me anymore, but it felt like the most natural thing in the world. lying in the ginseng bath, just relaxing & casually observing other women showering & washing, getting ready to get into the baths, without my glasses on it was almost like being in an impressionist painting of naked women.
hellie & i discussed how liberating it felt to see other women in all their different shapes & sizes & to not feel inadequate or lacking somehow because not one of us looked like a supermodel. without clothing or makeup or jewellery, there was nothing to distinguish any one woman as better than another. in fact, even if there had been a fashion model amongst us, without the clothing, i doubt she would have stood out from the rest of us, anyway.
we observed a mother & daughter coming in (well, hellie observed it. their faces were a blur without my glasses on, so i couldn't see what hellie told me was a very obvious family resemblance) & hellie said that if she one day has a daughter, she'd love to take her there as a way of helping to build her self-esteem. with no outward trappings to define us as funky or daggy, rich or poor, we felt beautiful & womanly, just as we were.
we also talked about how each woman there was beautiful in her own body, whatever shape it was & that it's only with clothing on that certain parts of our bodies are accentuated or less defined, or hang over or out where we feel they shouldn't be hanging.
after a couple of hours or so of much water & complete relaxation, we walked out of there glowing inside & out. it costs only $28 for as long as you wish to stay & was worth every cent.
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