Pamper me silly

Hanging around Plaza Damas and the Hartamas Shopping Centre the last few days, I’ve come to realize the place is not bad for hanging out. Was in a dreamy state, checking out youth fashion, eating little kuihs, and then walked past Body Glove while they played a song that used to be one of my favs and that I listened to a lot back when I wandered the streets of Melbourne. Kiroro – Nagaiaida. Plenty of interesting shops, nice eateries, Empire records, and even The Times bookshop.

But it seems like the shops for spa treatments, body massage, Thai massage, facials, skincare, dental care, all sorts of care, all designed to enhance your assets, hide your imperfections, are flourishing. Filled with the comings and goings of young ladies, middle aged ladies, old ladies, ladies with babies, with maids in tow, rich tai tais. Corporate execs. Bored housewives. Everything, the whole gamut of the clichéd typed of clientele who would be able to afford to frequent such establishments.

They must be doing a roaring trade. There are plenty of these, and they are mushrooming up all over town. All these places, with the sole objective of helping you feel more relaxed and to exit their centres calmer, more at peace. Or to help you look better. Or feel better about yourself. Just lying around being pampered scrubbed, tweaked, etc.

And it seems to me, the majority of people definitely can’t afford it. To them, their daily worries are about how to save enough to pay off the car, how to pay off the loan and prevent the bank from taking back the house, how to save enough to send their kids overseas, how to save enough for retirement, how to make more money, how to make their business grow. They barely have care or concern for such luxuries that other people take for granted and cannot live without.

I asked an overworked aunt the other day, hasn’t she ever thought of lying down and being pampered like that. And she replied, with an honestly blank look on her face, “what the heck are you talking about?” I then told her, “God gave us this, He made us like this, so we should be happy about the way we are, and if He thinks we are beautiful enough, then we are beautiful enough for everyone else. We don’t NEED touchups. But haven’t you ever thought of, u know, touching up your er eyebrows or something?” she just laughed and said I obviously have too little to worry about.

All these rich tai tais. Sitting around the house. Nothing better to do except go for their manicure, pedicure, pouring out their lonely heart problems to these professionals (the majority, not all) whose real skill is in pretending to listen attentively and nodding enthusiastically, urging their clientele to go on go on while applying their minimal half baked skills.

I can understand if 1 genuinely loves beautiful nails and needs a relaxing massage and spa, esp if 1 is in a stressful environment. But if you are a rich tai tai, with nothing better to do, wouldn’t it be much more fulfilling, much more enriching, and make u much more happier, to do something more meaningful with your time and money? Rather than yet another beauty session. If you really need all this to keep your husband, then it really goes to show you have very little substance, and you chose the wrong man to marry.