Travel Review: Wonderful Spa Break – Part 2 – Enjoy Life’s Imperfections

On Day 2 of our mini break, after a delicious ‘full monty’ breakfast, it was off to Cheltenham for some ‘sight seeing’… but first – HOW do they get poached eggs to be SO PERFECT? We have a competition running in our family to see who can cook the best poached egg and after many attempts, I thought I was doing pretty well, until I saw these…. Does anybody know how to get them so perfectly formed and if so – PLEASE tell me the secret!!!

There was a time when my eggs would just shred to smithereens in the pan of water.. I’ve now mastered the art of keeping them in one piece so hopefully one day I will cook one as perfect as these.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step (or a few cracked eggs)…..

Cheltenham was only a short drive from the hotel and we managed to park easily in the centre of the Town. One of the benefits of travelling ‘up’ to the top of a multi storey car park, is the opportunity to look ‘down’ on the world, from a different angle.

So often we keep our gaze fixed to the ground, without looking up to take in the wonderful architecture that is such a wonderful part of the UK Heritage… It never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to have such wonderful buildings around us and sometimes we need to change our view, to change our perception…

We so often look for ‘perfection’ and think that ‘perfect’ is what we should aim for and I’ve certainly wasted lots of time and effort in the past aiming for ‘perfection’…. thankfully, I now see beauty in the ‘not so perfect’ and enjoy looking ‘beyond’ the norm or blogging a ‘not so perfect’ post or photograph.

I have my moments of ‘insecurity’ when things don’t look ‘perfect’ and then I think ‘hey ho, Let’s Go’ because I’m sick of waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ or the ‘perfect photo’ or the ‘perfect blog post’ when the world isn’t ‘perfect’ and I certainly never will be and thankfully now don’t want to be (fat chance anyway.. haha).. so why wait, when it just means less time to ‘live and love life in the moment’! Enjoy living life ‘imperfectly’ and you may be surprised at what ‘joy’ you find…

And then again……. having said all that….. Cheltenham is ‘pretty perfect’ when it comes to wonderful buildings viewed looking up from ground level….

And although there are lots of ‘classic British’ features, the Town also has a Continental feel to it, with the sculptures and tree lined avenues running through the shopping areas. I loved the mix and range of shops too… I’m sick and tired of the same old ‘chain’ shops which make every Town or City feel the same… but in Cheltenham, mixed in with the ‘chain stores’ were some lovely Art Galleries, quirky gift shops and individual clothing boutiques…

It’s probably just as well that more Towns are following in Cheltenham’s footsteps or we’d all be ‘broke’…

Oh go on… here’s the ‘uncensored’ version….. Yep we’re still amused by ‘nudity’!

Aching feet after all the walking and back to the hotel to enjoy the wonderful Spa facilities and a luxury Espa Facial treatment… Pure indulgence and total relaxation…..

Being honest, the facial was ‘good’ but at £69 (I didn’t admit that cost to hubby…), I thought it could have been better… The leaflet promised an assessment of my skin type but I didn’t really get this as the therapist simply asked me what type of skin I have and which areas I wanted her to work on.

Maybe I was expecting perfection and all my wrinkles to disappear for that price… probably unrealistic expectations thus leading to slight disappointed – the wrinkles are definitely here to stay!

Oh and obviously a SPA review has to contain a bit of ‘nudity’ (well not quite…)….

The Spa pool, sauna and steam rooms… were absolutely lovely and although I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the ‘hydrotherapy pool’ as I didn’t think the other hotel guests would appreciate being photographed, I did sneak a quick couple of ‘not so perfect’ photo’s and videos (censored… haha) in the sauna and hot tub…

Part 3…. You’ll have to wait for the ‘uncensored’ videos in Part 3 .. WARNING though… only watch if you like ‘horror movies’!!

So – the moral of today’s post:

If you EXPECT perfection, you’re likely to spend a lifetime seeking and never finding it… or being constantly disappointed. Enjoy the imperfections of life!

 

Part 3 To Follow…….