Further Under the Duvet Read Online Free

beings we saw for miles were the hillside sheep, coloured luminous orange and pink.
    Finally, we arrived. Delphi is in a valley, surrounded almost entirely by mountains which manage to be magnificent, without also being stern and intimidating like a headnun humbling you for not doing your homework. It’s so beautiful, it’s almost shocking.
    The first sign that these Delphi people knew what they were doing was in the architecture. Visitors to Ireland, especially those poor Dutch and Germans who love ‘the nature’, get terribly upset about the rash of ‘bungalowitis’ which afflicts much of rural Ireland. Primrose-yellow mini-ranches aren’t exactly simpatico but there was no fear of that here. It was
very
simpatico – a unique building made from glass, local wood and stone, with funny rounded roof windows so that it looks vaguely like a biggish hobbit dwelling. None of Delphi spa is actually underground, but if it was, with grass growing on the roof for hobbity cattle to graze on, you wouldn’t be at all surprised. It kind of has that magical Bilbo Baggins thing going on.
    We stepped out of the car to be greeted by the best smell in the world – turf smoke hanging in damp air – and in we went.
    With the interior architecture it’s as if they’ve tried to bring the outdoors indoors. Everywhere there are massive windows to maximize the views of the surrounding landscape; natural wood like beech and bog oak (no nasty orange pine) is used for flooring, doors and walls; the curving oak reception desk is supported by slabs of slate, like a mini-Stonehenge; a double-height chimney breast looks like a dry-stone round tower; everything is curved, undulating, sinuous; a stream on the property flows through the hallway, covered over with thick glass. (You can amuse yourself by jumping up and down on it to see how much weight it can take. Answer: a lot. I did it one night after my sixteen-course dinner – more of which later – and it didn’t even squeak.) But it’s extremelycomfortable. There’s no point in having all that natural stuff if it’s not, otherwise I might as well just stay in a tent in the field over the road. The brochure describes Delphi’s style as ‘contemporary-luxury in a wilderness setting’ and that sums it up beautifully.
    And so to the treatments! The list contained all the usual suspects – facials, massages, wraps, etc. – with more interesting stuff like reiki, Hopi ear candles and soundwave therapy also available. But I was starting with an aromatherapy massage, or so I thought. Due to a misunderstanding on my part, I’d inadvertently booked myself a wrap and I’m not a wrap-lover. (For those who don’t know, you’re smeared in smelly stuff and wrapped with your arms clamped to your sides in a heated tinfoil blanket and left to sweat it out for forty minutes or so. Some people swear by them. Not me, however.) I expressed my dismay and right away the calibre of the staff became clear. Sympathetically, calmly and quickly, another treatment room was found and my massage was back on track within minutes. In fact, over the few days I was there, it seemed as though all the therapists – a mixture of Australian, British and Irish – have diplomas in advanced kindness. They were warm, intelligent and compassionate, the effect of which is priceless. Technical proficiency counts for nothing if you feel your masseur is sniggering at the state of your thighs.
    Which brings me to food! Everyone knows that you get fed well at spas; the days of wringing hollow laughter out of a diet of lemon juice and lettuce leaves are long gone. But nothing had prepared us for such quality. Dinner was a four-course extravaganza featuring organic vegetables from theirown garden, locally caught seafood and any number of added extras – amuse-bouches, palate-cleansing sorbets, home-made bread, etc. It was fabulous!
    The following morning Himself went off to learn to surf (it was November, can you imagine!) and