No, not THIS Spa, THIS one..
Much as I would love to be heading to the legendary Spa Francochamps circuit in Belgium for the annual Bikers’ Classic on the first weekend of July, I am afraid the second of the two spas is going to have to suffice.
I have wanted to have a spa in my yard for years. When we came back to Wollongong at the start of 2004 we used to go down the coast and visit my good mate, Les Randles and his lovely wife, Sue, regularly. Les had been a mate since the 60’s and shared my passion for motorcycling, things mechanical and many other interests as well. And he and Sue had a spa in the back yard which we used to enjoy every time we visited. Of course that led to price checking and the shock that it would costs us thousands if were to have one of our own; backburner time.
Les has long since passed away, RIP, and our visits have decreased in number but the idea of the spa has remained and checking prices from time to time on ebay has become a habit just like typing in “VFR750” has been. Not long ago I watched one for a while as it seemed well-priced, but I didn’t take close note of the expiry date and the auction ended while I was on the road. Oh, well, c’est la vie, as they say (well, that’s what the cheese-eating surrender monkeys say anyway.) Some weeks later an email popped up saying that the purchaser had failed to pay and the spa was available again at a considerably reduced price from that originally advertised. Further, the email said, it had not been re-listed and I could have it for that price if I contacted the owner.
It didn’t take long to consider the offer and accept. Fortunately, I have a good friend at the speedway who has a tilt-tray truck and who would charge me what I thought was a negligible price to go to Gosford and pick it up for me. So, I ended up with a nice second-hand working spa under my pergola.
Excavating half of the garden at the end of the pergola and levelling the ground was an arduous task and ended up with me doing much more manual labour than I an supposed to be doing, but I persevered and got it done. Then, on the weekend, my wonderful son-in-law did the tricky bit of laying the pavers and levelling them out so that we could install it. Between all of us we muscled it into place and set it up.
Then my wonderful, creative wife did the landscaping/arranging/layout so that the whole area would look as “spa-y” as possible and the end result is what you see here today. Heated up the water during the night and I had a quick try-out this morning. Mmmm, I had forgotten how nice it felt. I can see us spending even more time out under the pergola than we already spend. And, with our sauna at the back of the garage, about 10 metres away, well, what can I say. The resort is open for business.