Sunday, February 06, 2011

texture, flames, nibbling


Posted by PicasaTexture of a pub, outdoor table top.

Crocuses appear like blue flames in the Grove. A mauve-ish grey, perhaps, best describes the colour. All you see at present are the buds, sharp and pointed like the  flames in a gas jet.  There is not a hint of green, unless you look closely at the base where the stems are  pushing up the flowers.   Beside the crocuses there are decorous snowdrops.

Somewhere I had read of the practice of having your feet nibbled by fish as a form of therapy.  But I didn't expect to see it in Tunbridge Wells.  In a shop in Victoria place are a number of banquettes in front of which are glass sided fish tanks about the size of buckets. The process is called Zoola Fish.  People are sitting on the banquettes their feet bare, their shoes and socks on the floor beside them. Their feet are in  the buckets slightly magnified by the water. And flitting round their feet are little fish nibbling and tickling and no doubt feeding off  them.  For the privilege of feeding the fish in this manner  customers pay  £10.00 for 15 minutes. "Fish massage and pedicure" says the notice in the window. "Weird but wonderful". This afternoon it is surprisingly busy.

4 comments:

CC said...

I think the fish are nibbling dead skin. Sounds like fun, but not in a shop window.
I'd prefer more private fish foot nibbling.
:~)

Anonymous said...

...and there is even a second fishy/massage parlour on Camden Road, Tunbridge Wells, by the name of Shoals for Soles!! Whatever next?

Mrs M

Roderick Robinson said...

I had heard of this but I seem to recall it referred to (one step up from what CC suggests) the erosion of dead flesh, as with lepers. I would imagine TW is somewhat short of lepers, and even shorter of people willing to spectate their mini-amputations.

Unknown said...

Perhaps, who knows, Tunbridge Wells will become the fish pedicure capital of Europe. The practice I believe originates in the Far East.