Feeling the heat on weekend retreat
Reporter: Kati Coogan
Date published: 23 March 2010
WHAT KATI DID NEXT: WE set fire to a sauna the other week. The sauna in question belonged to a very nice house in the middle of Norfolk.
We were there on a weekend of, if not a lifetime, then most definitely a year, for a friends 40th.
We had booked a retreat, let’s call it, which in essence was a country cottage with a jacuzzi outside in the courtyard and a sauna attached to one end of the horseshoe like building.
Anyway, the reason I’m telling you is because this was the first weekend we had spent sans toddler since toddler was born, apart from one night after our wedding last year — in bed asleep by 7pm, but that’s another story.
So needless to say we were very keen on getting to said retreat, so much so that we left Manchester at 9pm and were not expected to arrive before midnight.
Anyhow, having arrived late and been shown to the room with the biggest bed known to man, ironically all I could think was, “Goodness me, all three of us plus the bump could happily fit in here.” which wasn’t the idea of the break at all.
We settled down to a few days of extremely good company albeit with a bunch of sissy actors, good wine (for him) and some very good food for all of us.
But, at 8am the next day all was to be shattered.
“Fire, fire, there’s a fire in the sauna,” was the cry and I would like you to bear in mind that we were all very much asleep at this hour.
Therefore it was with groggy minds that myself and the husband had to seriously weigh up the pros and the cons of staying in bed while the fire raged around us.
It was quite a long and serious discussion. Should we get out now? We couldn’t smell anything? If the flames were licking the end of the bed we would feel the heat wouldn’t we? Couldn’t we just snatch a few extra minutes?
However, such was the excitement from outside we were forced on to the patio avec PJs.
A sauna is a bonfire. A wooden room with heat. It was like an episode of “London’s Burning”. Which some of said actors had appeared in. Blinkin’ useless, let me tell you.
