Nirvana. in The Wind it Doth Blow...

No, nothing to do with Kurt Cobain, I'm talking relaxation. I spent last night at Nirvana Spa near Wokingham and it was amazing.

Rich bought me a voucher for an evening spa experience and I kept not getting around to it - well the voucher will run out soon and rich mentioned, in passing, that there was no ice hockey this weekend, I booked in pretty much straight away :)

There are various pools and rooms within the building and I started at the first one - the Surf Pool. No, it wasn't all about surf boards, it had very strong water jets all around the pool at various heights therefore allowing you to get a full body massage as long as you move around to the different water jets.

It took me a while to relax, going straight from mummying, to driving along the M4 to get there wasn't a great build up but I knew I would get there.

The next room had a large, oval, glass room in the middle which was separated into two halves. One half was a sauna and the other was a steam room. Personally. I much prefer steam rooms and so that was where I went.

Next to the two rooms was a plunge pool. It was about the length of your common or garden bath, slightly wider and deep enough that it was up to my shoulders and the water was cold.

I plunged! Then I went into the sauna for a while. Then I plunged again! And steamed again. I was a bit tense as i had an appointment at 6:15 so I couldn't just let the time flow.

At 6:15 one of the ladies in charge of the private pool came to meet me and three other people, led us through the door and asked us to sit down while she explained what to do. Once her talk was over we entered the pool and practiced lying down, we tried different positions and eventually she turned the lights down while we lay on the surface of a pool which had 50tonnes of dead sea salt disolved in it. The ceiling had tiny lights positioned in constellations and the pool had a gentle current which carried us around. We had half an hour in the pool and it flew past. This part of the experience had to be prebooked and added a lot of money on to the price but I was so grateful for it!

Once I was out of there I went for my 'light supper' (also part of the voucher price) before going outside.

This was the part that excited me the most. Swimming outside is one of my favourite ways to swim and I wasn't disappointed. I hadn't taken flip flops so I stepped out with bare feet and the stone ground was cold, so cold that it made me smile with life. I walked straight up to the pool, took off my robe and felt the cold wind on my body before going in the pool. I swam up and down, loving the feel of the warm water and the cold air. The sound of the wind in the fir trees like the wheels of a horse drawn carriage on the cobbles of Frankfurt. Leaves were flipping about in the air and bats flittered above. And every so often, as the clouds scudded by, a star sparkled in the sky above me.

Once I had swum enough I left the pool and followed the paths towards the outdoor Jacuzzis. I chose the one beneath the fir trees and lay my head back, looking up at the trees swaying back and forth. I felt to alive, so free.

Unfortunately, a rather annoying couple got in. He put down everything she said while she talked about her kids in a non-flattering way. I made my excuses and left.

And swam again.

I still had a few rooms to visit so I went back inside, only putting my robe back on when I had to... I love feeling the weather. Too hot, too cold? Yes please :)

I tried the tepidarium, a room with heated, mosaic tiled beds. I lay on one for a while and the heat felt nice against my back but I was a bit bored so I went through to the Roman pool which provided magazines.

I had the choice of celebs (from A list right down the alphabet, depending on the magazine), obscenly expensive fashion and beauty or The Sun! I went with the obscenely expensive fashion and quickly learned how vacuous some people can be from the interviews and quotes. Not that I'm saying they were totally vacuous but I just don't feel that life is not worth living without Karl Largerfield!

I figured I would steam once more and go home.

So I steamed. And realised that I didn't want to go home yet, I wanted to go outside again.

This time I swam for almost half an hour, I crawled and breaststroked. I back crawled and butterflied. I surface dived and swam along the bottom and I floated on my back watching the sky, watching the leaves as the spiralled down to the ground.

I caught a leaf and kept it. When I finally went in I took it with me as a momento.

I finally drove home at 10, driving through rain so heavy I could barely see and wind so strong the car was blown across the motorway but I didn't lose the amazing chilledness the evening had filled me with.