I spent some time at Stillness Manor and Spa this weekend.

Sir G decided that I needed a break from the house and very kindly organised a time-out in the beautiful Constantia Winelands. So, on Saturday afternoon we packed up some stuff and headed off to Stillness Manor for an overnight stay.

He also decided to treat me to a deep tissue massage at the Spa that I was so looking forward to because my neck and shoulders were totally locked up and I was in some serious pain.

Anyway, we got there, checked in and offloaded our stuff.

Then it was time for my treatment so I trotted up the path to the Spa and met my therapist, Nadia, who made me feel very welcome and comfortable. I’m not used to this kind of thing, so I didn’t really know what to expect! Anyway, she worked on me for an hour and WOW … it was deeeevine!! Hells, I enjoyed that 🙂 Yes, it was very painful, but she managed to get rid of some of the spasms that have been giving me so much grief lately. Painful pleasure …

And I was so ridiculously relaxed after that I could hardly move! All I could do after that was sit outside on our balcony and take in the magnificent view while Sir G went off for his treatment.

I did NOTHING for the rest of the day. I totally chilled, listened to the sounds of the country side and just r-e-l-a-x-e-d.

About the most strenuous thing I did the whole day was read a few pages of my book … I was seriously ended!

I crashed early (what a pleasure!) and woke up on Sunday morning with just enough time to shower before we headed off for breakfast. I felt completely battered and bruised from the previous day’s massage though and walking to the breakfast room was not easy hehe 🙂

We tucked into a HUGE English Breakfast … wow, so much food! I hadn’t eaten a slap up brekkie like that for years and it was delish, but boy was I stuffed afterwards. And then it was time to check out *sigh* … that really all seemed way too short.

I got back home at about 12 yesterday and decided that I was not going to do much for the rest of the afternoon. I had a few hours to kill before the kids got home from their dad and I just wanted to carry on with the novel experience of RELAXING. So, I did. I left my computer alone and I didn’t do any chores. I just ready my book and had an afternoon nap. Lovely 🙂

I was seriously rested by the time the kids got home for once … I *nearly* went to my computer to check email and stuff, but I managed to stop myself hehe. To be honest, I was starting to feel a bit itchy and a bit guilty about *not working on the weekend* – how mad is that? Sheesh …

Anyhoo, I then did something I haven’t done for months – I fired up my newly swapped-out Xbox and got busy with Burnout. Hells, it was nice to play again!! And yeah, I’m still the Crash Queen WAHA!

So that’s it – that’s what I did with weekend. Virtually nothing. And it was great. I really needed that – I really needed to switch off from everything for a few hours. When you turn off the noisy tap of busy-ness, you completely de-stress.

I seriously need to do that more often and get used to taking time out without feeling guilty. It’s amazing how easily we can get so wrapped up in the rapid business of life that we forget how important it is just to be still for a while and appreciate the value of doing nothing.