fish and the canal

Just recently I subscribed to a website called Groupon and another called KGBdeals, which offer meals, health and beauty products, holidays - all sorts of things – at much reduced prices.  One of my friends had had a very special pedicure treatment, through one such offer, and recommended it!  Thus, I found myself one day a couple of weeks back, sitting in a beauty parlour (me? !!!) with my feet being nibbled by a load of little fishies, in a tank of warm water!  Garra rufa fish are apparently well known in Thailand for their penchant for eating the rough dead skin off peoples’ feet, and at the moment it is very fashionable over here!  I have to say it was very enjoyable – if not extremely tickly!    The fish immediately swarmed to my feet as I dunked them in the water, and began to nibble – not bite.   It felt like tiny little electric pulses, or as a child at the Ideal Homes Exhibition had thought, while watching granny getting the same treatment, like a million tiny kisses on your feet!  How sweet!  I sat there for about 20 minutes or so being nibbled – boy, is my left foot ticklish! – watching the fish as they moved from one spot to another doing the biz, and finally had my feet dried off by the young beautician, rubbed over with a file, and finished off with a massage with lemon balm  or something smelling pretty nice!  It felt great!  Must do it again sometime!

Not far from the salon, at Ratho, is the Union Canal one of Scotland’s former great waterways.  For the Millennium it was restored to its former glory and the Falkirk Wheel constructed to lower boats down to the Forth and Clyde Canal to continue to the west of Scotland. The tow path is popular for walking, so as it was quite a pleasant day – showers had been forecast - I decided to take a short walk along it to take photos of the old Inn at the end of the bridge in the village.  There were wild flowers growing alongside the canal and in the hedgerows,

and the birds were singing,  and I just kept walking saying to myself – I’ll just go to the next bend; Oh that tree up ahead looks interesting; I wonder what the view is like along that stretch of the canal up there;

Could I photograph that better from further along…… so in fact I walked quite a distance – on my newly treated feet that felt wonderful! 

Eventually I came to another road bridge, and decided that this was definitely the point at which I would turn back.   It was also the point when I realised there was a boat coming along the canal, and in the next few minutes it passed me, and the passengers all waved! 

Another boat passed on its way back to Ratho and this one passed on its way west.  What a lovely leisurely way to travel! 

It seemed a long way back to Ratho, but by that time the forecast rain had started, so that was probably why it seemed longer.

At last I got back to the Bridge, where I retreated to the inn for a pot of tea.  I had a book with me – can’t remember why – so I found a nice comfy sofa in the bar, supped my tea and read my book.  Why not be leisurely too!  I almost thought of staying for a bar supper, but decided against it when a further pot of tea was delivered to my table – bought for me by a man I had exchanged a few words with when I came into the bar!  Oh- oh!  Supper at home, I thought, and after one more cup of tea I politely excused myself and left!!! 

I’d had a lovely afternoon, so it was OK! 

Talk again soon.