Another Year Older

“Take pride in how far you've come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don't forget to enjoy the journey.” ~Michael Josephson

Since 2006 Chris and I have been fortunate enough to live in a very beautiful place in Hong Kong – a tiny perch on Victoria Harbor with spectacular views of the city behind us, Kowloon across the harbor and the wide, sweeping waterway stretching out before us to the sea. It’s a magnificent escape hatch, a retreat from the insanity of the Mainland, and we drink up every single moment we spend here!

Downstairs on the 6th Floor is a spa. And not just any spa. This spa is a world-class spa that has earned the coveted 5-Star rating from Forbes Travel for many years going! It’s the kind of spa that people literally come to from all over the world to experience. They book massages, facials, scrubs, rubs, manis, pedis, soaks, saunas and steams - every sort of pampering you can imagine, all on a level that’s simply off the charts!

The spa caters to men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes, and the service makes you feel like you’re the only one in the entire building. Many of the lush and luxurious treatment rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the harbor, so you can drift off watching the ships coming and going from the sea. Or you can snuggle down under the heated blankets in the privacy of a garden treatment salon and escape the outside world entirely!

It’s a place that you read about in high-end magazines, a place that caters to the highest-level customers, and the service is impeccable on every level. The therapists are expertly trained and do everything possible to insure their clientele leaves with an entirely renewed sense of peace and wellness.

I always joke with Chris that we’re “so close, yet so far” from this mecca of wellness – believe me, we feel privileged to even live in the same building with this incredible treatment facility! We’re merely window-shoppers within its hallowed halls of health, hovering hopefully when the elevator stops on the 6th floor to drink in the heavenly, healthy aromas. Sadly, the spa’s pricey poshness makes it pretty prohibitive for most – clearly the intention and probably how they maintain their 5-Star rating year after year!

All that being said…

Once a year on my birthday, my amazing husband calls down to the spa and books me in for a day of wellness and beauty! Clearly undaunted by its peerless reputation, he actually looks forward to conspiring with the spa concierge on exactly what treatments would be best, what pampering they might suggest for a birthday princess on her special day! And always, year after year, he manages to knock it out of the park! Safe to say, it's become a birthday extravagance I anxiously anticipate every March!

Per tradition, after my day at the spa, Chris meets me on the pool deck for a birthday beverage of one sort or another – sometimes it’s Green Detox Tea, sometimes it’s a crisp white wine! No matter what the libation, it’s always the perfect conclusion to an exceptional day of pampering that in every way helps me forget that I’ve somehow managed to become another year older.