I'm feeling a bit more relaxed now despite the looming deadlines and racket-induced stress because I finally got to go to the beach! I'll be blogging about my out-of-town trip with H and his family as soon as I have the pics. For now, I just want to write about one of the best massages I've ever had!

Back in college, I would go to the spa about once a month--I needed some magic hands to knead away all the muscle pain and bruises from almost-daily cheering and dance practices. (It amazes me now how I could afford it back then. Aside from massages, my allowance was enough to finance my regular waxing trips, manicures, and pedicures! Hmm. Maybe it was coz of the cheap caf food.) I tried counting and I've probably been to over a dozen different spas (not counting various branches of certain chains). The ones that stand out in my memory are:

1. my Orient Spa massage. This was at the penthouse of Crystal Garden Hotel in Makati if I'm not mistaken--it was like a converted hotel suite, so I had a room all to myself, plus I got to soak in the tub pre-massage. It was more expensive than my normal massages, but it was worth it. I have a tendency to lift one shoulder off the bed when the massage gets a bit painful, but the masseuse wouldn't have any of it--she held one shoulder down with one hand as she attacked the other with one powerful hand.
   
2. my Evercrest massage. We used to check into Evercrest when my dad and bro would play golf. The best part about this massage was the masseuse actually stepped on my back--there were special bars installed in the massage room that the masseuses could hold onto as they literally walked all over us.

And now I have a new massage to add to my list: my recent massage at Excelsior Spa. I've been to various branches of Excelsior over the years. It's not as chi-chi as The Spa, but it's where I'd go when I'm on a bit of a budget. Alas, it is now P450, so it's slightly more expensive than it used to be (or maybe it just wasn't a promo hour). But I sooo didn't regret shelling out the cash after Jacky got her hands on me.

So the common room was a bit warm--perhaps the A/C was turned off as it was nearing closing time. They turned on the fan towards the end, which I didn't really like. Plus, there wasn't any music. But all that didn't matter.

My masseuse, Jacky was probably just as big as me and maybe a little lighter, but man, did she have strong hands! She gave me a fairly hard massage--just the way I like it! She didn't spend so much time on my legs (which is good, since it's not my favorite area to be massaged) and instead spent the bulk of the time massaging my back. Ahhh. My last few massages weren't completely enjoyable because I'd get an attack of the tickles once the masseuse worked around my shoulder blades. There was none of that this time. Jacky knew how to work her away around those danger zones.

It's sometimes obvious when the masseuse is tamad. Take for example that one girl who spent around 40 minutes of the time massaging my face--my skin felt raw! Jacky seemed like she relished doing her job, and made it her personal mission to knead every knot out of my shoulders. She wouldn't rest until she got all those suckers out of there. If only I weren't facing down, she might have worried over the expressions of anguish on my face. It was torture. But I loved it! It was one of those masakit pero masarap moments. Hahaha. I told her about the pain in my neck, and she willingly rubbed, squeezed, stroked--whatever it took to make it all better.

Ahhh. Just thinking about it now makes me want to go back for my second massage of the week! I'm sure I'll keep trying other spas (spotted a new one along Tomas Morato), but Jacky, I'll be back!