return to worldwidereview.com,
the home of critical reviews
From: bathtime Category: Art Date: 04 February 2009 Time: 06:06 AM Review: Who'd have thought it. Sundays is couples day. And bathing costumes are worn. Most of the actors and actresses are reasonably young and toned and there is the occasional glance of appraisal, but quickly the idea of living in this damp bogeyman environment grows normal and the loungers covered in folk reading the sundays, the busy sauna with it's smokey oaky shelves of hot bodies, and the freezing plunge pool which may host a bearded sea god who will give you a soapy massage with his mini-mop (apparently Jewish in origin and unique to this spa), even eating a toasted sandwich and hot chocolate at a plastic table in your bathers in big room in west london, the toilet with the window open letting the cold air in, the little shabby corridor to the big swimming pool, become your new normal. And all the steaming, hot rooms, tiles and towels, ferns, stairs, and decadent but not sleazy atmosphere of damp will give you cheerful soft red cheeks, as you burst out into a dark night with the snow fluttering down glimpsed in the glow of a street light.