Brocade Blue: holiday

Friday, August 28, 2015

The India Trip

Brocade Blue Friday, August 28, 2015 0 Comments

The trip I had been putting off for my life and finally I could no longer avoid it

The husband decided to give me a surprise birthday gift-a trip to India no less

What I had been asking was for John's phone

All in all it was a great trip, my cousins were fantastic, their house was big enough to accommodate us, I had an authentic Indian birthday dinner and Viaan had fun playing with his grandparents and my relatives

Although I couldn't help feeling that I may have taken advantage of my parents and my uncle to take care of Viaan while I take a break here and there...and I never helped with the kitchen work, someone is always doing that for me, cleaning up after Viaan's meal (whatever that fell on the floor)

When I came back I was feeling lazy for a couple of days...and the food they stuff down my throat-the Indian hospitality at best. I think I gained weight over there

And when I got back I had high fever and diarrhea. A trip to Al Ahli and 6 hours of isolation fixed my fever but my diarrhea lasted a few days longer...and when that finished my fucking period started.

The birthday cake with both me and my twin sister's name on it

The Indian ice kacang

The famous ram-leela ice kacang shop in Rajkot

My mom's town which went under after the dam was built

The old town was beautilful and the air was fresh....the one piece of India still untouched by pollution

A typical traditional Gujarati house

Another view of the dam

This temple was built with money given by my family

Shopping with mom

Jetpur, a ragtown of saree makers

The famous Jalaram temple

This sight you can see all over India-cowherds and sheepherders and goatherds

The Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. This is where his movement staeted and where he resided

A typical slum

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Doha Review: Dados Beauty Center

Brocade Blue Wednesday, December 31, 2014 0 Comments

You know sometimes you read raving reviews on TimeOut and you get carried away with the flowery words the authors have to say about a beuty center. In reality its not quite the same. I was looking for a post-natal massage and came across Dados from Timeout Doha. This place was reviewed years back and the author raved how good the pre-natal massage was that she definitely will go for the post-natal massage

Well I did that on your behalf and it was just OK. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate it at a flat 5

Why?

Bitch please! I come from a nation of masseurs that Doha simply cannot beat

When I called to make an appointment I misheard the price at 150. It cost me 450 riyals

The interior of the place was nice and kitschy. It is located on the ground floor of Al Seal Tower behind Kempinski. It was easy to find, the directions on their website is accurate and well detailed

When I went in for my appointment, a lady at the cashier gave me a writing board with a bunch of papers clipped unto it, a form of questionnaires and a disclaimer form too

I filled in my details and after about 5 minutes of waiting another lady showed me around. We toured the showers, the steam and the sauna rooms. Then I was given tour of the massage rooms, the hair studio and the mani-pedi parlour. All in all the decor was nice.

My massage room

Glass floor

I was then ushered to the VIP massage room (they use this to impress new clients I was told) and was asked to undress (but to keep my panties on) Then a black lady came in, introduced herself and gave me a nice sensuous body massage. OH, SO THAT'S WHAT POST NATAL MASSAGE IS ALL ABOUT!!!

The Jacuzzi

The hammam

She was kind because she did part with some good advice:

not to keep my head wet (I had washed my hair and shaven myself clean prior to the massage)

she noticed that my lower abdomen area (near the incision) was still inflamed (from the inside) Don't ask me how she knew that!

She also asked if I was using any scar repair cream-I was using BioOil although not religiously. She wanted to sell me their Mamma Mio but I wasn't interested so she didn't push far

All in all the massage was OK, I would recommend this to white expats whom had never had massage done to any part of their body in their lives ever.

After my massage was done I sat on the bed and expressed my milk. They were kind enough to let me do that. Also, as a guest to the beauty center you get to use their sauna and steam facilities for free. Otherwise they're restricted to the tower residents

For the Asians expat missing home massage I will write up another review for another massage parlour that has UNISEX massage services. Dados is a strictly women only beauty center

The hair salon

The products they sell. They carry Mamma Mio brand

I took the courtesy to post their price list here, in case you want to run thru it before you go there so you don't get a shock when you take out your credit card