Day 4 of leave.

Finally used that voucher Dom gave us and spent the day at Spa Botanica after dropping the girls off at Science Camp.

It's a lovely setting but I tend to feel like a bit of a fraud at these lush places. I'm just an average nobody, making an average salary. What makes me so special that I get to be pampered? I'm neither lady who lunches nor tourist! But I must say it was pretty special, and perhaps we should take up the kids' suggestion to make June 5 spa day every year.

It was a 3.5 hour long indulgence. I started with the mud wrap. First time ever, and probably the last too. Does that mud stink ever! Besides it was icy cold when she slathered it on. That wasn't the problem though. The problem is that they wrap you in a thermal blankie and expect you to stay cocooned for 30 minutes. The moment she told me to relax I knew I had to wiggle my foot, rotate my ankle, move my arm -- worse, get up to pee!! That was not psychosomatic, I swear. I left a trail of mud to the toilet *eternal shame* Luckily I got her to cut short the worm time and I got to hop (had to cos was wrapped up in a plastic sheet) to the shower in 15 mins.

Next up was the scrub and vichy shower, which has seven shower heads on a horizontal boom-like thing that the therapist rotates over you so that you have the bliss of warm water from seven heads drumming on your entire body from right to left. This lasted for 25 minutes and was sheer heaven though I did feel bad about the amount of water we wasted when so many places on earth are experiencing drought...I don't think we'll get one for the house.

Then it was to lunch at the hotel coffee house before we walked back for our final massage. Very nice, and the flotation and lap pools afterwards were the just the icing on our cake of indulgence. I don't know that I care all that much for the spa thing but once in a while it really is a treat. I could imagine we were on holiday in Bali or Phuket or some place exotic with legendary service.

The one way I could tell we were in Singapore was by how most everyone was obsessed with the time. After our morning session, the therapists could hardly wait to bundle us off to lunch, and the driver who dropped us off at the restaurant in a golf cart repeated twice that the shuttle back was at ONE FIFTEEN (we didn't make it) so we could make our ONE FORTY FIVE PEE EM massage. When we finally got back and I was ready for my East West the changing room receptionist said to me severely, "It's 1.50". I dunno what she expected me to do, apologise profusely? but it has to be Singapore if we are all slave to the Schedule.

Talk about the tyranny of the schedule. Had to wrap up by 4.30 to pick up our dear children, who begged to go off with Danielle and Althea upon being picked up. D's dad very calmly agreed to take them (and feed them AND drop them off later), to the joy of all. J and I went home and got in a 4km run AND dinner with mum and dad before we hared off to our first Arts fest performance.

Which was the Vilnius City Theatre performing Romeo and Juliet. It seemed like a good idea at the time to go watch Shakespeare in Lithuanian. And it was. This one was set in a pizzeria (and what do you know, flour plays a significant role) and was of course in contemporary times. It was very good actually. The actors were convincing and the expressive language conveyed the passion and poetry without the audience needing to actually understand it (but there were subtitles, projected via powerpoint). The director said later that he was apprehensive about the reticent Singapore audience but was relieved to discover that people are all the same and will respond to what they can sympathise with. It's Shakespeare after all. Is there a playwright more universal and timeless? I doubt it. J and I discussed the play the whole way home afterwards and through my makeshift supper.