Torture?

Iron-wife and I were talking this morning what we should do for the last Saturday we are together in Shanghai. She'll be off to Beijing on Sunday morning and onward to HK Wednesday night and then teach a different course from Thursday morning at 730am to Saturday evening. Non-stop action for her this coming me. Me, I'll be heading to HK/Macau on Tuesday and then back to HK on Wednesday night, staying there until the 15th morning before me arriving in North America again. I was to leave on Sunday but was overruled. Didn't realize Sunday was the Mid-autumn festival; and it will be 2 years since we laid eyes on each other. Wow.... And we will be in HK; that was where everything happened. So..... Needless to say...

Anyway, the torture was stemming from the discussion of what to do for Saturday. Then iron-wife's idea was to have facial. Well... Not on Saturday but today. She booked me one. Good timing as Air Canada might have to charge me extra having a big red pimple on my nose! And with the air quality here and I walked all over town, pretty much lots of dust and oil blocked my pores. The facial lady wasn't far from our apartment, just 5-minute walk. It was a renovated ground floor one-bedroom place sitting in the middle of downtown within rows of old pre-20 5 story high buildings. First, I was relaxed with all the scrubbing and washing on my face. Hmmm... OK. Then she asked about that big red pimple on my nose. Yes, it started about 3 days ago. Then I heard some drawers opened. And next thing I knew, as if I was a patient in the OR waking up in the middle of an operation with my eyes bandaged shut. I felt lots of pressing on my forehead, around my nose, scraping, scraping then the grand finally, poke, poke, squeeze, squeeze.... She announced all the gunk from the pimple were extracted out of the "area". More scraping and pressing. My face had been just worked over. Hurts like hell. And she asked during her "operation", had I have one before. Nope. She announced, it will be better and less painful next time. O.... So after tolerated these pains on my face, I was once again back to the land of comfort. She washed my face again and then applied mud on my face. Relaxed.... All threw out the initial ordeal, I did not realize until now, that I had my fingers crossed tight, very stiff. After the mud, there were facial massage as well as some other cream or toner on my face. Then a 10-minute massage on my upper shoulder and neck. OK, that I could take. More please ;-) An hour after my facial experience, it ended with RMB 320.00 (CAD 55.00). I think my face is happier and lighter without all those gunk from the pollution.