Weekend doings

[strange_complex]

As for the weekend, I spent Saturday sleeping in blissfully, and then lounging around in my dressing-gown on the sofa, drinking coffee, writing about Doctor Who and finally watching the end of Dollhouse. Even the Sci-Fi channel had clearly more-or-less given up on this, as last weekend they stopped bothering to show it one episode a week, and just

Comments

[viscount_s]

The Harrogate Steam Baths are astonishingly good. Well worth the trip - and well worth the cardiac arrest when you get into the plunge pool.

Of course, there's no point in becoming de-toxed if you cant get toxed afterwards - as such, I'd recommend a trip to the Grove Cafe in Headingley after you've got all relaxed...

S

[strange_complex]

Well, I live in Headingley, and indeed walked though the shopping centre on the way back from the station to my house. I can't think of the Grove Cafe, though - whereabouts is it?

[viscount_s]

Its on Cardigan Road, directly opposite the Rock Shack.

The Grove is, unquestionably, the best curry house I've ever been to, and the combination of sauna & curry makes for a very happy viscount.

S

[strange_complex]

Ah, right! Thanks for the recommendation. I was definitely ravenously hungry by the time I got home, and it took a supreme effort of will to stay true to my current diet and not dive into one of the many delicious-smelling takeaways I passed on the way...

[huskyteer]

I would love a proper Roman bath experience (perhaps without olive oil and strigils, though). I was fascinated by the baths at Bath when I was little, and enjoyed the bath-centred module of GCSE Latin.

Cheaty research question: was mixed bathing a total no-no in Augustus's day, do you happen to know off the top of your head?

[strange_complex]

Ah, yes, of course - that was one disappointment. No free state grant of olive oil, or slaves to rub us down with it. :-(

I'm not 100% sure about the Augustan era specifically, but the general approach to bathing so far as we can tell does seem to have been to keep men and women separate. This would either be done temporally, with women going in the morning and men in the afternoon, or spatially, with a different set of facilities for each sex.

[huskyteer]

Cheers - that's very helpful.

And what a great icon!

[strange_complex]

Thanks! Yes, I should have used it for the whole post, actually, but managed to forget that I had a specific Roman bathing icon until just now.

[the_lady_lily]

I am going to have to try some Turkish baths when I'm back in the UK - for some reason, it doesn't feel like something I want to do on this side of the Atlantic, and I don't know why.

[kissmeforlonger]

It was lovely!

[boblink]

Mmmmm baths, wish there was something like this here in Bristol. I heartily agree with the idea of using this kind of place in a social fashion rather than just for cleaning/exercise. To an extent the hot pools in Wellington worked but only to an extent.

[strange_complex]

Actually, there are some new hot baths in Bath now. Apparently they are fed by the same hot spring as the Roman baths used, but are across the road from the Roman complex. I assume they have found some way to deal with the bacteria that caused the Roman baths to be closed for actual bathing in the '70s. It all looks ultra-modern, anyway.