The Gateway to your next Massage

 

Visiting Daniel Beauty may be your gateway to various pleasant massage experiences, we trust. There are some pubs named The Gateway also. Here is one in a town in Berkshire (see picture) near a Railway Station.

 

With beauty treatments, as with going to pubs, there can be some similarities, such as enjoyment, feeling refreshed, good company. At The Gateway in Woking, the home of your friendly masseur/therapist, at the Woodham Lane entrance there are two small white fences either side of the road. These could symbolise gates, though there are also some nearby at Woodham Waye (see satellite picture on Google maps).

 

If going via The Six Crossroads Roundabout, don’t go too far along Woodham Lane as it’s about 3 miles long! Turn off at the white fences about half a mile along.

 

A gate is an entrance or exit to or from another path, track, etc. Maybe go through that gate as a new experience, and have a massage or other treatment. This may be as a new experience, or as a return visit. You might travel the shortest route, yet it may seem a scenic route, literally, by car. Or a pleasant walk, taking in the geographical features of the area, via part of The Saturn Trail by the Basingstoke Canal.

 

If travelling from Woking Station end, don’t miss the Monument Road Bridge turning, or you may go on for miles! You will have gone too far, and might see the massage therapist waving to you from his back garden, (and you wave to him too) which backs on to the Canal. But by then you will be on the opposite side of the Canal, with no bridge for quite a while – or turn back to the last bridge.

The Art of Massage

An artistic link with massage and other treatments could be plausible, in a painting by Bernardo Strozzi, who lived c.1581-1644. One of his nicknames was ‘Il Cappuccino’, not ‘Coffee-man’, but because he was a Capuchin monk at one time!

I have not been able to locate a picture of him, but it is said he looked like Claudio Monteverdi the composer, who lived 1567-1643(see picture) who Strozzi painted c.1640.

 

One of his other paintings is ‘Vanitas’ (Vanity) or ‘The Old Coquette’ (The Old Flirt) from about 1615 (see picture). More refinedly this is called ‘Old Woman At A Mirror’. With beauty treatments, you will know aestheticism, beauty-enhancement, though you won’t end up as mutton dressed up as lamb, of which the picture may give some impression, if only slightly.

 

In some treatments such as Sports Massage or some Waxing, it may feel like a similar sounding word, asceticism, self-denial of enjoyments, bearing of pain, though all for a good outcome!

There is massage available, as fine as that is, and hopefully enjoyable, we trust. There are also treatments such as body waxing, botox/facial aesthetics, facial treatments, intimate waxing, and threading. And there are varieties of massage too, depending on your requirements.

Yet there is beauty in ageing too, maturity and experience gained, not only relating to the physical body, but also to the areas of soul and spirit. This again links with Strozzi as many of his paintings are on spiritual themes.

Come along to be beautified, if not beatified (made saint-like), though you may feel heavenly after your massage treatment. Remember, Strozzi was a monk at one time!

A Massage Treatment For Eu?

 

No, not an item relating massage with the European Union (EU) – phew! – but do read on.

 As an introduction, some things in life may have obscure links, or not be apparently obvious straightaway. Many pupils in my Secondary School, would dread the notice-board announcement of occasional ‘Headmasters Assembly Today’. He covered various subjects, though if we were not interested in the subject, it could seem an endless 15 minutes of waffle.

 

Hopefully your massage or other treatment is not catastrophic, in the meaning of causing great damage, suffering, disaster, etc. Thankfully there is another meaning of ‘catastrophic’ as a literary term referring to the ‘unravelling’ or conclusion of a drama’s plot.

 

The writer J.R.R. Tolkien was born in 1892 in South Africa - the same country as your friendly masseur! Tolkien died in 1973 in the U.K. He coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’ adding ‘eu’, meaning ‘good’. Though spell-checker may not like it! So the whole word means a sudden turn of events at the end of a story which ensures the protagonist (main character) has an outcome such as positive, favourable, good, etc. This will be so for clients at the end of their sessions, we trust.

 

Tolkien wrote many books, which you may have read, or seen as long films. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is cited as one example of a eucatastrophe. Massage and other treatments may be long, though they won’t be long-winded! And some may be short.

 

All being well, the massage treatment you have will be good for ‘eu’ (you). If one asks ‘How was your treatment?’ we may reply ‘eucatastrophic’ in the literary sense, and baffle them with this word at the same time!

Having a Massage - is it all Greek to you?

 A Greek Massage?

No, not a Blog on some exotic-type of massage – sorry if that disappoints! But some linguistic background, if we were describing a visit using Greek – as you usually do – not?!

 Anyhow, if we find a massage or other treatment ‘amazing’, and were writing a review of our (hopefully) utterly amazing beauty treatment, a world we would use is ‘thambeo’. This is from the root word ‘tremon’, meaning to tremble, shake, etc.

 

Part of a previous Blog (29 October 2020) may link with this: “We may be sometimes not wanting to feel too cold, though we shiver to aim to get warm; nor wanting to feel too hot, though we sweat to aim to cool down”.

If we may shiver, sort of involuntarily in a massage, it may give us harmless trembles or shakes, even when it may be warm weather. Maybe this is something subconscious, as when we feel in ourselves that we are enjoying the experience. Due to the weather or not, if shivery, the masseur will kindly provide a luxury towel or two to cover us if we wish – for the part or parts not being massaged at that time, that is!

 

As an aside, massage may also help nervous conditions in some ways, such as bringing relaxation and peace. The idyllic setting can also help, being located in leafy Surrey, and in a quiet road.

 Another word we may use is ‘ekpliso’, meaning to strike with a blow. Not to be alarmed though, as this is not in the sense of a punch-up (you’ll be glad to hear!). It is in the sense of being a mind-blowing type of thing. We may also experience this in sessions.

 Have another amazing visit soon for a massage! It need not be ‘All Greek to you’, as the saying goes.