Because it's not worth it

I've just finished The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling and I have to say I was very disappointed. One dimensional characters, too much 'grim reality' and a slow plot led to a very unsatisfactory read for me. I was surprised and was hoping for better. And sadly, I can't really recommend it.

What I also can't recommend is a massage by a company called Vital Cosmetics in Edinburgh. I got a Groupon voucher, which meant that for £19 I got a treatment worth £49. Actually, thinking about it, I do think it was worth £19.

I was shown into an office block complete with officious receptionist who took 5 minutes and 23 seconds to open the door for me and then I was shown in to what was an office that had a massage table in it.

I started to feel a bit sorry for the masseur but then her phone went off just as she'd got going and she asked me if it was ok for her to go (all the way down 2 floors) to reception as the receptionist was trying to get hold of her. What could I say? I'm hardly going to say 'no' when I've got 55 minutes of my hour treatment to go. Actually I probably wouldn't have said 'no' even if I'd got 5 minutes to go... call me coward if you must!

Luckily she had turned off the overhead strip lights so she got plus points for that, but the massage itself wasn't what was expected. For the first time ever I started on my back, which meant that when I came to the end I had a lovely imprint of the face bit of the massage table on my face, which lasted for hours. I felt a right whatever walking around Edinburgh to get back to my car.

However, because I like to finish on a positive note: I'm now part way through Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book that's definitely worth it.