Spa Weekend Turned Into An Eventful Weekend :-(

This weekend my best friend and I visited Ragdale Hall; it's honestly the most amazing spa and I'd recommend it to everyone! It's not cheap but I think it's totally worth it and this was my third visit. We have had this booked for weeks; I needed a bit of de-stress and I wanted to take my best friend away somewhere special to try and help her relax a bit given it's approaching two months since her Mum passed away (and quite understandably she is struggling with it all). So I had everything well planned to make this a special weekend for Jess, I even arranged for a surprise bottle of sparkling wine to be waiting in our room on arrival... only our arrival was a little late due to the fact I crashed Jack's car on the way there :-( I feel so stupid and guilty and my main worry was just the fact that I had damaged Jack's car and quite considerably too. I went into the back of a tractor/fork lift type vehicle, so you can imagine which vehicle came off worse! We're fine (everyone keeps asking if I'm ok but I'm just worried about Jack's lovely car!), but the damage to the front of Jack's car is substantial. I was a bit hysterical saying "Jack's going to kill me!" but he's been so lovely and keeps reminding me it's just metal and that he'd rather have me in one piece. I still feel so stupid and guilty though. The car was driveable so we got it to Ragdale and parked up and after a phone call to Jack he started sorting it with our insurer. We still went to the spa (couldn't get a refund that late anyway) and I think Jess still had a good time but I do feel like I ruined the whole weekend for her and I couldn't relax at all despite being in the best place to relax! The car was recovered yesterday morning after our one night stay at the spa and is being taken to somewhere in Newbury today to await assessment - we think it's a write-off but will have to wait and see. Jess' fiancé very kindly came and picked us up from the spa and dropped me off at Jack's parents and then Jack's Dad gave us a lift back to Newbury last night. I dropped Jack to work this morning in my car and hopefully we'll have a courtesy car soon.

Anyway, despite the fact it's all I can think about, enough about the car and let me share with you a few photos of our trip to Ragdale, http://www.ragdalehall.co.uk/, which is located just outside of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. It's in beautiful grounds, the rooms are beautifully decorated and comfy and the facilities are just amazing! There's lots to do there but all very relaxing and the food is lovely, which included a three course dinner on our first evening there, breakfast in bed (you pick what you'd like the day before) and then a hot and cold buffet lunch. Our package included a facial and back massage treatment which I really enjoyed using Clarins products which are my favourite anyway (I blame my Mum for introducing me to expensive beauty products, but considering mascara is about the only thing I wear make-up wise I think I can afford to spend a little more on a nice face cream!). I won't go on and on about our spa experience, but here's a few photos of our time there.

A little surprise for Jess on our arrival

 

Love it just because it's different!

 

This room is called "The Retreat" and it's a no talking room filled with sofas, bean bags and duvets to either chill out and read a book or just to snooze

 

My breakfast in bed!

 

The pool area

 

This is the outside area of the thermal pool - I've been here before when it was snowing and being outside was amazing. This is located in their thermal spa area which has multiple different rooms including a thunderstorm shower, volcanic rock steam room and a rose sauna

 

The Pavilion - Just another lovely sitting area

 

Lovely Food

 

... and lovely desserts!

 

Just a quick note to say thank you for the congratulations on the job front, very much looking forward to starting a new adventure there late next month!

 

Em x