Tandoori Chicken, Steamed

So, as I'm sitting here waiting for talent to show up, turns out it'll be a few hours- instead of coming from make-up and hair, he'll be coming from Lebanon. Seems there was a slight problem somewhere in production and instead of booking him a flight well in advance, they did it at 10pm last night. Um, okay. Gives me time to blog.

We had a three day break this weekend! Weeehooo! We had a three-day break because they told us we deserved it....*snicker*...Sorry I can't say that with a straight face. The truth of the matter is that we didn't have any actors. They were all off shooting other projects. Fine by me! While the idea of sleeping the ENTIRE weekend flitted across my mind, I knew that in order not to fall behind on the build Chris and I had to go into work for at least one of the days. Ugh. Well, to take the bitter edge off of that nasty little pill, we decided to treat ourselves to a spa day on Friday. I had read a few articles about 'traditional hammams' or steam bath treatments, both Moroccan and Turkish. All opinions laid on the positive side, so I thought I'd be adventurous and book a traditional Moroccan Hammam- and at the cost of $45 for an hour, how can you go wrong? Chris opted for a relaxation massage- still budget friendly at $35 for an hour. Of course, keeping in mind the adage of 'you get what you pay for', I was a little wary. Still, an adventure is an adventure. Turns out I was not to be disappointed.

The spa was an old converted house and the interior was very relaxing, done up 'a-la-Moroccan' with rich colours on the walls, fluffy cushions, dark wood and lush tapestries draped in doorways. We were greeted by a small French-Egyptian man (who later turned out to be Chris' masseuse) and steaming cups of tea. I still haven't figured out why for the love of God they serve scalding hot tea in delicate glass cups that you can't pick up without asbestos gloves. Within 10 minutes I was shown upstairs to the change room then subsequently found myself in my skivvies in a room so dense with steam I couldn't see a few feet ahead of me. The hot steam felt incredibly good- I was already relaxing. Then a small woman in a one-piece swimsuit came in and told me to lie down on the tiled platform and proceeded to slather me with an olive oil and clay based soap- everywhere. When I cleared my eyes from the steam and looked down at myself, the first image that shot into my mind was that of tandoori slathered chicken. Properly 'basted', she left me to steam for 10 minutes. Having me sit up, she washed off the gunk with cool water which, after the initial shock, felt really nice. Next she pulled on this blue catchers' mitt-looking thing and began scrubbing me down. The very first pass on the back of my calf felt like she was taking a skin graff. Once the endorphins kicked in, it was actually quite invigorating. I just lay there and let her go to town. I snuck a glance at my newly revealed skin... GROSS!! It looked like someone had taken handfuls of grey pocket lint and smeared them on my skin. Except, of course, THIS WAS MY SKIN. Ugh. "I shower everyday" I said embarrassed. She smiled and said in broken English that everyone is like this, that it was the pollution in Cairo. Looovely.
She left me to the steam for another 10 minutes, where after followed another cool water rinse-off and then she had me sit and she washed my hair for me. Ahhhh... sooooo wonderful and relaxing. Leave-in conditioner, full-body lotion, face mask and another steam followed; I walked, no, floated out of there in a high state of bliss. More hot tea and cool honeydew juice was waiting for me in the lounge. I can understand how this type of spoilage was once reserved for ancient royalty.

Oh, and Chris liked his massage. ;)