My wonderful trip

I arrived with my daughter, Vinette on a  Sunday afternoon. Naturally, within a few minutes she was buying a top at the boutique! (Half price rail!)   

We were provided with a printed programme with the times of our treatments and a timetable which we could fill in with any classes we wished to attend. Vinette was our organiser and wanted to make the most of our stay, so she filled in her timetable and then asked me what I wanted to do! 

We started with Pilates – which showed up our deficiencies in posture and provided us with helpful movements to correct it.  

Then dinner – I must say we expected a salad bar or diet food but were most pleasantly surprised.  There was lots of variety and we were given a four course meal to enjoy. The courses are marked with windows – no window is a light portion and the portions go up to 3 windows. We chose a mixture. 

At this point I must mention the level of service again. There was a heavily pregnant lady behind us who had ordered lamb.  When it came she must have indicated that she did not want it after all. The waiter promptly asked her whether he could tempt her with chicken instead. When she tentatively said yes, his reply was “no problem madam”, disappeared with the lamb and returned quickly with chicken. You see what I mean. 

At this time we were still dressed in exercise clothes! For the rest of our time at Ragdale we were clad in dressing gowns (hired from the Hydro). 

Our first treatment was in the Beauty Spa. We had been warned that there was another Mrs and Miss Bailey staying at the Hydro and so were prepared when the beauticians came out and asked for two of each! Vinette and I were having a back massage (which was wonderful) and the other Bailey ladies were having facials, so we were able to sort ourselves out quite quickly. It broke the ice wonderfully with our beauty therapists. 

There was a seminar on hypnotism later in the evening, which my daughter was interested in attending.  I wanted to see a film on the Ragdale TV channel. However, both the hypnotism and the television lost out. By 9.30 Vinette had turned her light out and by 9.45 we were both asleep! 

We intended to attend the t’ai chi class at 7.35 am the next morning, but didn’t wake up in time! I settled for a quick early-morning swim. Then breakfast was served in our room.  It seemed we had ordered an awful lot of food. But we struggled through it, arguing that we needed fuel for all the activities to come. 

The first of these was a treatment which I had booked as a birthday present for Vinette (and had one myself to see what it was like!) The treatment was Elemis Body Bliss Massage, and the best way to describe it is to quote the brochure:

“More than just a massage! The power of this ancient touch creates sensations of wellness to deeply heal the mind and body, whilst soothing your soul. Your body is lightly brushed before the gorgeously warmed pure massage oils are smoothed over the face and body.”

A perfect description. 

Vinette and I also had Chakra Balancing “to bring body and emotions into total equilibrium with Ylang Ylang and Geranium”. We thought it would be a smooth brush over the body – but it turned out to be a bristled brush which is much nicer than it sounds and very stimulating for the skin. 

After an hour I was so relaxed I had to go to the Retreat (a quiet room for rest and relaxation) and have a lie down for ten minutes to recover! Vinette went off to enjoy Aquatone – exercises in water. When I went to meet her they were still working at the muscle toning; this seemed to include a lot of facial muscles – laughing!  Obviously a thoroughly enjoyable session. 

Lunch! More wonderful food….  After a suitable interval we went off for a swim. We both luxuriated in the Jacuzzi pool, with a short swim and then back to the Jacuzzi pool.  We both agreed, you could get addicted to this lifestyle. 

Then a workshop on well-being and weight maintenance. Everyone was encouraged to participate and although a lot of what was said was familiar, people did come up with things which sparked off new thoughts and ideas. 

And last of all – a facial. When we booked we were able to choose which brand of products we would prefer. We chose different ones and compared notes afterwards.  We both felt we had had the best treatment possible – both being given individual treatments for our different types of skin. Mine older and Vinette’s sensitive. 

Last-minute visits to the beauty boutique for purchases, a quick look at the fashion boutique and it was off to find our cars, with the duty manager helping to carry our luggage out because the porters were all busy! What service! We were made to feel truly welcome and given a wonderful stay at Ragdale. We would recommend it to anyone.  

Thank you laterlife for making it happen, and thank you Ragdale. We hope to see you again. 

Due to the success of earlier offers Ragdale Hall Health Hydro are making another Special Offer to laterlife.com visitors.  Contact  Ragdale on 01664 434831 for telephone bookings and enquiries or see their website:  www.ragdalehall.co.uk or email on: enquiries@ragdalehall.co.uk

Due to the success of earlier offers Ragdale Hall Health Hydro are making another Special Offer to laterlife.com visitors in 2006.

The above article is part of the features section of laterlife.com called laterlife interest. laterlife interest contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and new journalists.

It includes both one off articles and also regular columns of a more specialist nature such as healthwise, reports from the REACH files, mother and daughter and a beauty section called looking good in later life.

Also don't forget to take a look at our regular IT question and answer section called YoucandoIT by IT trainer and author Jackie Sherman.

To view the latest articles and indexes to previous articles click on laterlife interest here or above.  To search for articles about a certain topic, use the site search feature below.

back to laterlife interest

Site map and site search