I'm Going To Get Pampered *shudders*

Last year I won a £400 voucher for Experience Mad by sharing my birth story in a competition.  I nominated QWERTY Mum as my hero for being there when my daughter decided to make an unexpectedly  impromptu appearance (almost in a coffee shop full of people having lunch!)   She was a brilliant birth partner and I was so glad to have won the prize so I could treat her to a luxurious spa day.

I've read through a whole list of pampering experiences and I have just booked us a Spa Day at Fairlawns Spa which includes a Massage and a Bathing Ritual Treatment in addition to all the other saunas, hydrotherapy pools and whatnot!  I'm not going to lie to you...the all day grazing bar was very influential in my final decision of venue.  I doubt though that it will live up to my imagination.  I'm thinking a Willy Wonka Smorgasbord, but the reality is probably more akin to a rabbit's stable diet.  It is a health spa after all.

Whereas most people would be delighted at the prospect of being pampered, rubbed and bathed...I'm actually in panic mode.  I have a bit of a "being touched" phobia.  Now don't get me wrong, certain touching gets a big thumbs up from me...for example cuddling my babies, hugging friends and anything involving my husband. But having strangers touch my skin brings me out in a cold sweat!  I feel the same about hairdressers which is why my hair has been the same for my entire life.  My unimaginatively styled, drab, long locks are not here by chance!

Doctors and dentists are not a problem for me.  It is something about the beauty industry that terrifies me.  I'm  just so uncomfortable with it.  I'll endure half an hour with a hygienist, but I quake at the thought of a pedicure. I did though have a fabulous spa date with my husband at Centre Parcs a few years back.  It generally involved misbehaving ourselves in various steam rooms and swimming pools and culminated in us rubbing various colours of mud all over ourselves in a private room.  That I can cope with.  But add a stranger in a smart beauty therapist's uniform and all the fun is gone.  It becomes serious.  This is where it all changes for me.  The panic sets in!  I'm cringing just thinking about someone having to touch me...ewww!  Why would anyone want to touch strangers for a living.  I just don't get it.

So while other people flock to hand over their hard earned cash to the multi-million pound industry...I'd rather nip off to the supermarket to do the weekly shop or sit on my laptop writing blog posts about how much I don't like being pampered!

However I am willing to give it a go in the name of research.  I'll take a deep breath and grin and bear it....that or I'll have a full on panic attack mid massage!!

DIY Pampering is as close as I get!