Pedicures

To match my Manicures post. You can't have one and neglect the other after all. I just had a lovely pedicure at the little place at the end of my road. Now I know you can do this yourself but it's never the same is it? I always seem to splodge the paint around and make a bit of a mess of it. And I can never get rid of all the hard skin like the professionals can.

In an effort to try and save money (no laughing at the back please) I've not had a professional pedicure since way before Christmas. That's a long time for me! My feet were sadly neglected. I had a dilemma - did I get them done here or in Hong Kong (where I am going on Thursday)? In the end I decided here as it is hot in HK and I want to wear sandals the minute I get there.

A little extravagant I know as all beauty treatments are a fraction of the price in Asia but my experience is they are good at the scraping part but not so good at the painting part. Also, handy hint, always take your own nail polish as they rarely have the good stuff.

When I last went, my friend and I had a Shanghai pedicure which I didn't know doesn't involve any paint. We sat in those wonderful massage chairs and they put boiling water in the basin by your feet. Putting your feet in that water is a bit of a test as I kid you not, it is scalding. I think I must be a wimp as my friend gamely plunged her feet in - and she was pregnant. Yes, I am a wimp.

Anyway, they leave you like that for a good half hour. Then they moved us to beds and wrapped us up in blankets (it was cold) and those heated wheat things were put around our necks. It was bliss. And they spend 45 minutes scraping all the hard skin off, buffing and moisturising my feet. It was heaven on earth and my feet had never been so soft...

Until my treatment in Indonesia last November. If you've not had paraffin wax poured on your feet, you've not lived. Seriously.

I love having my feet pampered. Happy feet = happy people.

You can of course buy one of those foot buffers and try to recreate the experience at home. If you do this, enlist a friend to do the painting bit. A good friend. And wash your feet thoroughly first. And then repay the favour.