I missed my best friend’s 30th birthday party. I am a bad friend. There’s nothing I could have done about it – I had a work trip actually. But I still felt horrible. So, what better way to get back into the good books than a surprise day out in London? 3 girls in the big smoke for a day of glamour, pampering and gossip. I couldn’t wait.
Our first stop was the ‘I don’t feel posh enough to go in here’ Gordon Ramsey restaurant at Claridges. The £30 three course lunch menu was amazing as you would expect – just beware of 3 things. One, you need to be able to work an iPad (if you want to order some wine anyway). Two, they will be extremely attentive and ask you how everything is exactly when your friend is disclosing some juicy bit of gossip. Three, they will welcome you back to the dining room when you return from the ladies. This third one was particularly disconcerting because I then started wondering if they were going to ask me how it went while I was there.
Anyway, back to the matter in question. It was here that we decided to tell the birthday girl about her second ‘activity’ of the day. It went like this:
‘How do you feel about fish?’
‘Well, I like eating them’ (Nervous laugh)
‘What about them eating you?!’
‘Ahhhhhhhhh’ (Terrified/excited scream – I couldn’t tell which)
So off we went for our first fish pedicure. It was a long trek along the length of the Portobello Road so I was hoping that our treatment would live up to all the hype because my feet were killing me by the time we finally arrived. I didn’t really know what to expect but when I saw the fish my heart started beating a little bit faster. They were huge. OK. Not huge. Not even big. But big enough for me to have second thoughts.
Needless to say there was a lot of screaming that ensued in the following 15 minutes – yes, that is how long it took me to muster enough courage to put my feet in the water. Not only am I a bad friend, but also a wimp. I think it was the fact that even as you put your feet close to the water they all swarm towards you with a look of abject hunger in their beady little eyes. Visions of piranha 3D flashed into my head.
If you are being put off by my tale then read on because when you eventually do put your feet in it is actually very pleasant. The fish don’t have teeth so they just kind of suck your feet – heaven for anyone with a foot fetish (I would imagine). Despite the fact that our courage deserted us, all the other people in the salon were a lot braver than us and found the experience really relaxing. The birthday girl had a great time and even decided to have a fish manicure!
What was the end result I hear you asking? Well, 100% of the people surveyed (me & my friends) said that their feet actually did feel much smoother. Apparently, the owner of the salon said that some people love it so much that they come back every week. I have to say that I did feel that I had bonded with my fish by the time I left. But maybe that was the champagne talking!
If you do decide to take the plunge and start bonding with your very own fishes – I can highly recommend that you follow it up with sing along Sound of Music. What else can keep you laughing that much for so long?! Although I think you could probably give the late night Chinese and night bus a miss! All in all one of the best days out I’ve had in ages. And hopefully I have now regained my best friend status.
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