Christmas Present Idea

If you are still wondering what to buy for a Christmas present then a Gift Voucher could be the ideal present. How about one for a Full Body Massage, or a Reflexology one. Or even a DeTox massage for them to use after all the festivities. For an older person, a voucher for Chiropody might be ideal. You can contact me on 01522 704294 if you would like to discuss it further.

Anyone who mentions this blog can receive a £5 discount on the voucher of your choice.

And the Winner is....

Tan tan tara!!!!
And the winner of the Name the Clinic Contest is Sue Chan with her suggestion
Body and Sole
Runner up is Annie Wright who came up with the same name but a couple of days later

Well done to all the entrants and thank you for all your efforts. It was fun hearing and reading them. Both Sue and Annie have been invited to the Grand Opening on the 25th Sept at 3pm and Sue will be cutting the ribbon.

You are, of course, invited too and I shall be making a day of it. As you may know I have run a Macmillan Nurses Coffee Day for the past couple of years as a charity event and have decided to combine it with the Grand Opening. The format this year will be -

10am Stalls and Drinks available.
( Phoenix Cards, Jewellery, Virgin Vie, Garden Mirrors and Dangly Doo’s, Raffle, secondhand books ) (As always cake, raffle prize and book donations gratefully accepted)
3pm Grand Opening
7pm Virgin Vie Demonstration

I have also invited other local businesses to bring leaflets showing what they do, so there should be a lot going on that day.
Please do come along and bring friends and family. You are welcome at any time between 10am and 9.30pm on the 25th Sept 2009.

IMPORTANT In order that I can get enough glasses for the bubbly for the Grand Opening, please could you let me know whether you are coming to the 3pm celebration by Monday 21 Sept.

Hopefully there will be a map embedded into this post soon but in the meantime the address is Body and Sole, Lime Grove Clinic, High Street, Harby, Newark, Notts NG23 7EB

Spring Tides and Sorting Stuff

A lot of water has passed (literally) since I last updated this. Yet again Sam and I have been to Norfolk, this time for the Regatta at Burnham Overy Staithe. http://www.overystaithesc.org.uk/php/gallery.php The spring tides meant some very high tides so here is a photo of lots of sea and a pretty boat! Believe it or not we had raced, finished and put our boat away and there was still this amount of water! Those little tufts of green that you can see are usually significant banks. (Sam and I won one race and came second in two others so we were pleased with ourselves)

Anyway, back to the clinic. I managed to find some very good end of line two drawer cabinets at Lincoln Office Furniture, and also a second hand one which are perfect for what I want. (Their website is being refurbished as I write this but it is http://www.lincolnofficefurniture.co.uk/e.co.uk/ and they have loads of stuff.) Dave has made a fabulous desk top for one of them that perfectly fits the space. I am digging out my various cupboards and hoarding places in the house and finding homes for it all in the clinic, or in some cases the bin! You will have to be patient a little longer for further photos because the battery on the camera ran out, but believe me it is all gorgeous. And I am so looking forward to the Grand Opening.

We Passed!

Last Thursday after some exciting drifting around Blakeney harbour (no breeze at 7am), and a slightly more exciting prize giving (we won our class), I had a phone call from Dave with the news that I had been hoping for. The Building Inspector had paid a visit to the clinic and was very pleased with what we (OK, Dave) had done with the building. He especially liked the disabled parking space, now complete with its markings. That is the last visit from the Building Inspector as he has signed the clinic off and now all systems are go, to get it finally ready for use.

By the time that I arrived back in Harby on Sunday, Dave had already left as he is working away for a couple of weeks. Before even unloading the camper van, I unlocked the clinic door to see the changes that had been wrought. Fantastic. The flooring and the door now work together. The sinks are in and hot water comes out of the taps! The internal doors have been hung and just need painting.

So once I have finished the huge piles of washing that always accompany me home after a week of sailing, I shall be grabbing a paint brush and setting to with great vigour. There really is light at the end of the tunnel.

As for sailing at North West Norfolk Week’s 60th Anniversary Event, Sam and I won one race, had a second and a couple of thirds and came third overall in our class. The most satisfying part of it was that we sailed to the very best of our ability and did not fail to sail any races due to ill health (bad backs or hangovers) or equipment failure, although a piece of string was needed to hold the mast in place for the last two races whilst at Snettisham. The photos were taken at Kings Lynn on the River, one of the muddier venues!

To the Foot of the Matter

More painting has been done in the clinic (I promise that there will be some pictures soon). Anyway this is an opportunity to tell you about Reflexology and Chiropody.

Reflexology was the very first therapy that I studied and offered to the public way back in 1994. I am a Member of the Association of Reflexologist. http://www.aor.org.uk/

Reflexology is a gentle therapy that works entirely on Reflex points on the feet. The idea is that there are points on the feet for every part and system of the body and that by working the whole of both feet it gives the body a balancing work out. It has been found to help with many ailments especially stress related ones such as migraine and IBS. A Reflexology session is a very relaxing occasion and it is not unusual for the client to doze off. However even without that ‘sleeping bonus’, Reflexology retains it great popularity in my repertoire. Some clients find that a weekly or fortnightly session helps them maintain their equilibrium whilst others like to see me monthly. To find out more about Reflexology follow this link http://www.aor.org.uk/index.php?page=what-is-reflexology

Moving On

Whilst working on some feet I noticed various problems that as a Reflexologist I didn’t know how, and wasn’t qualified to deal with. So I studied to become a Chiropodist/ Podiatrist. (I am often asked what the difference is and the simple answer is the spelling! It is a matter of preference and I stay with Chiropodist simply because that is how I started.)

As a Chiropodist I can deal with the basic nail cutting and hard skin removal and also the more complicated in-growing toe nails, correction of stance problems, and many other foot problems. Often some advice or provision of a simple orthotic or exercises is enough to alleviate a painful problem that has been around for years. The number and frequency of sessions depends entirely on the client’s requirements. Sometime a one off appointment is sufficient, others like to see me a couple of times a year for a check up and still others find that a monthly or six weekly appointment is essential for the comfort and health of their feet. In a few cases I will refer to other Chiropodists who specialise in different fields.

Despite those who think that working on another’s feet is completely gross, I get tremendous satisfaction at watching a client who has had great pain or problems, sometimes for years, almost float out after I have worked with them. And that satisfaction is worth a great deal to me too.

The competition is going great with some wonderful ideas from you. Keep it up, it could be you cutting the ribbon to the clinic on opening day.

I have been continuing with the painting inside so no pictures until I have done, otherwise it really would be like watching paint dry!

In the apparent lull I thought that it would be a good idea to tell you a bit more about the different therapies that I do. Many of you know me as a Chiropodist but I actually started out as a Reflexologist. However today I thought that I would tell you a bit more about the massage that I do and in particular the No Hands Massage.

I first trained as a Therapeutic Massage Therapist in 1997 and loved it. I quickly found clients who enjoyed the relief that my touch gave them and all was apparently rosy. However, because I did not have a clinic of my own I used to lug a heavy massage bench to their house, and that soon spelt disaster for my back. For a while I could not even stand and was visiting the Osteopath every other week just to cope with everyday life. The portable massage bench found a new home. I discovered Pilates (fabulous) and that, together with the Osteopath, regular massage and some very necessary emotional releasing techniques have meant that I was healthier and stronger than ever before. However the type of massage that I was doing at the time still took a toll on my hands and wrists so when I experienced No Hands Massage for the first time I literally jumped up with excitement, (frightening the poor girl who was doing it). She was a volunteer at the Breast Cancer Care Ribbon Walk and I was lucky enough to flop onto her bench at the end of a very gruelling 20 mile walk. That massage was the start of my journey with No Hands Massage.

So how is No Hands Massage different? Well, for the client it is a relaxing and therapeutic therapy that can work deeply into the tissues and muscles. Or it can be light and invigorating or indeed any combination that you need. As a client you learn to take what you need from the touch and each massage is as different as you need it to be. Sounds too good to be true but really the only way to find out is to try it.

For me as a therapist it is a way of delivering the touch with out having to ruin my hands or wrists. A lot is delivered using the soft part of the forearm but the whole thing is about my posture and using judicious amounts of weight, or not, depending on the client’s needs. To find out a bit more follow this link to my No Hands website. http://tinyurl.com/kl3y4d

The New Clinic

The Clinic started life as a cottage that had been abandoned sometime in the 50's and had become almost derelict. Husband Dave was bemoaning the fact that he had nothing to do and was told to 'get on and point up the brick work on the old cottage before the thing falls down completely'. Being relatively obedient, and obviously so bored that anything was better than nothing, he duly started mixing cement and pointing up the cottage. As work progressed the idea of a clinic began to evolve in my mind.

Up until now I have been taking Chiropody and Reflexology to clients' homes and as I live in a rural area this involves a fair amount of driving, which obviously limits the hours that I can work. In addition I am unable to carry out the massage treatments that I enjoy due to the constraints of carrying the massage bench around with me. Early on in my career I had done this and it certainly contributed to back trouble. In January 09 I went to a No Hands Massage course and I was reminded of how rewarding giving massages could be. These reasons also added to the idea of having a clinic at my home, and where better than in the old cottage.

Luckily Dave was in agreement with the idea and the work shifted up a gear or two. Planning and Building Regs were applied for and approved, and Dave began to renovate the building in earnest. As each stage is completed I am getting more and more excited about the prospect of working from home. So many people have shown an interest in what is going on that I am going to use this blog to let you know how it is all going.