Sunday 13 November 2011

Frolickling Fiendish Feet Fish and more


I thought I would capture a few minor updates here in a separate post.  One thing that appears to be popular here in the UK (or at least Derby) is fish pedicures.  I don't recall seeing them at all in the States.  I'm guessing that's for health/legal reasons and there have been some murmurings here that it isn't 100% safe.

At any rate, you basically stick your tired, calloused feet in a tank with special fish that literally eat your dead skin.  What a novel idea (. . . . for Kuk).  I purchased a Groupon voucher (coupon) some time back for a minimal investment and Kuk finally cashed it in on Saturday.  From the website:

The nibble loving Garra Rufa fish feed on the dead skin, bacteria and impurities of the human body, leaving you with smooth, baby-soft, and young new skin. The nibbling of the fish also helps release the tension in your feet and boosts blood circulation, relaxing both body and mind.

Kuk's view:  I could feel the nibbling and it tickled.  My feet did come out amazingly smooth.  I didn't care for it when they moved on to my ankles though.  Glad I did it, don't need to do it again.

Let's hope any of the hepatitis / HIV customers were sitting at the other tanks . . . 

A few more miscellaneous comments from the weekend:


I still try to do the bulk of the grocery shopping on either Saturday or Sunday.  Here's the result:  our poor, overstuffed refrigerator.  I particularly like the large broccoli stalk propped up this week (that's good that we have too much fruit & veg to fit in the lower bins).  By the end of the week it will just about be empty save a few sauces, etc.  I find the weekly emptying to bring a peculiar sense of satisfaction that I can't really explain.  It's just as well that the fridge doesn't hold much since things don't really keep that well anyway.  In fact, it's usually canned vegetables and powdered coffee creamer by Friday.

In the that doesn't happen back in Indy category:  this past week the fridge was empty enough that we decided to eat out or get take out (that's not the rare part).  It'd been awhile since we went to our "local" (pub) but Nicole emphatically requested Indian takeout.  What?  She's a big Chicken Tikka Masala fan (the national dish of England).  We are fortunate that a really nice restaurant (Anoki) does 50% off for takeout during the week so that's what did.  It's essentially been Asian weekend since we had that for 2 meals and Korean for another two.  Yummy.

I thought I couldn't be shocked about prices but I was wrong.  My car had been giving me ambiguous, sporadic warnings that I finally figured out was a low oil warning.  There are no Autozones here so I decided to buy a quart (okay, a liter) at the convenience store (you have to go in to pay anyway).  Holy cow.   Regular fossil fuel oil was 7 GBP (pounds) and the semi-synthetic I bought was 10 GBP.  That's $16 for 1 quart!  I can get my oil changed for that at Car-X back home.  I'll have to look around to see if there's a better place to pick that stuff up because that's ridiculous.  That's one of those subtle things about living in a different country -- you aren't exactly sure where to get certain things.

More on our weekend adventures in the next post.  Thanks for reading.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, having a nearly empty refrigerator is a odd, yet nice, feeling, isn't it? I felt that with a smaller fridge, I was more "in-tune" with the leftovers and what needed to be eaten. I can't imagine, though, trying to fit a week's worth of food for a family of 4 into one of the European fridges! Is your UK fridge maintain a warmer temperature than your US fridge? That was our observation ... from the one fridge that we really used.

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  2. Somehow we manage. I failed to mention our smaller overflow (aka beer) fridge that we purchased as well. But for the most part, the groceries are all in the main fridge. Since I don't trust the meat to last all week, we do freeze the end of the week items so that helps with space too (not that the freezer is big enough either!).

    Hadn't noticed the temperature since we've dialed it in. Too cold though and it will easily freeze the items in the back!

    Thanks for the comment.

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  3. Only Kuk tried feeding the fish? C'mon Steve, stick your feet in its all part of the adventure.

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  4. Only 1 Groupon -- it was a solo affair. I was too busy filling the fridge . . .

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