At the massage session yesterday at the mansion house (held in the pavilion because it was a scorcher of a day), Jana’s mother (of the blueberry fame—see The unconventional passenger) came for her second hand massage. Second massage on the hand, not a massage that's secondhand.
Libushka also wanted a hand massage this time, but asked for an additional quick massage of the neck and shoulder ridge area, specifying in English, “Just a gentle massage.” This meant not applying the oil and thus not requiring her to remove her top.
Jana’s mother took to the idea, and asked for one for herself after Libushka. She’d caught the phrase but, not speaking much English, if any at all, she reproduced it as “gentleman’s massage”, which she then repeated to the rest of the people who came along after her.
I rather like her description of the version that doesn’t require them to take off their clothes and therefore allows them to retain their dignity.
Thanks to my most avid reader (and moral supporter) Valerio for pointing out in a separate email that it's not clear what gender Libushka is. I'd assumed that people would know that the "a" ending in a Slavic name (and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese names too?) immediately flags up a woman's name. I have since made a minor amendment to reveal* Libushka's gender.
ReplyDelete*Ha! A pun! (cf. context of removing her top).