CosquilleArte Tickle Spa
Relaxing is probably one of the last words people use to describe tickling, but at the CosquilleArte Spa, in Madrid, Spain, they actually use delicate tickling techniques to relieve clients’ stress.
I’ve seen some pretty bizarre spas since I began writing for OC, from resorts treating guests to wine, tea and sake baths, to clinics that use crude oil as treatment, but I never imagined someone would get the outrageous idea of using tickling as a stress-relieving therapy. But what I found even more ridiculous was that the idea actually worked and CosquilleArte has become one of the most popular spa venues in the Spanish capital. It wasn’t until later, when I learned the tickling methods have nothing to do with the terrible torture we all had to face from childhood friends, that this unusual form of therapy started to make sense.
Instead of jabbing their fingers into clients’ sides and armpits, like I’m sure you and your friends/siblings used to torment each other, the massage therapists at CosquilleArte gently trace their fingertips and soft feathers down their backs and other sensible areas, and adjust their touches according to how ticklish every person is. Although most first time customers clench when they’re touched, they leave the wacky establishment a lot more relaxed than when they came in.
CosquilleArte is the brainchild of Isabel Aires, a public relations specialist who loves to be tickled. She used to be tickled gently, by her father, so she would go to sleep, and one day she just thought “Why can’t I pay someone to do this, in the same way as I can pay for a massage?” She learned there was no tickling service available, so she decided to open the world’s first tickle spa. Together with two experienced massage therapist, Isabel had to invent tickle therapy, and judging by the success and popularity of CosquilleArte, I’d say they did a pretty good job.
The unique salon’s clientele varies from teenagers to 70-year-olds who pay €25 ($35) for a half hour of tickling, or €45 ($60) for a whole hour. It might sound like wasted money, if you’re still thinking about those dreaded armpit or sole tickles, but we’re talking about pleasurable, relaxing tickling, like your mother used to do to when you were a baby. It seems adults love the sensation of being tickled just as much as children, because Isabel Aires has already received calls about her tickle spa from as far as Russia and South America. She’s now considering setting up franchises and is discussing the possibility of making tickle massage available for in-room, for a large Spanish hotel chain.
CosquilleArte Tickle Spa
Doll Addict Collects $2 Million-Worth of Antique Dolls
Kathy Libraty, an antique doll collector from Brooklyn, New York, has spent the last 25 years searching for antique dolls, and now has an impressive collection of over 1,000 items that’s worth around $2 million.
Believe it or not, Kathy’s fascination with dolls didn’t start when she was a little girl. In fact she remembers she was more of a tomboy and had no real interest in dolls or any girly stuff. Born in France, she and her parents immigrated to the US when she was only 4. After graduating from Brooklyn College with a BA in Art, her passion for photography took her to Europe and the Middle East, where she took a real interest in history and old art. When she and her husband, Frank, bought an old Victorian house, Kathy decided to pursue her love for antiques and started attending country auctions. She was intrigued that people sometimes paid large amounts of money for wigless doll heads, broken limbs and crooked-eye dolls, but not enough to start spending money on them, herself.
It wasn’t until one day, 25 years ago, that Kathy Libraty really became addicted to collecting antique dolls. She and Frank were driving around the neighborhood when they saw a man emptying boxes of antiques into a dumpster. She saw a doll’s leg sticking out and told Frank to stop the car. They went up to the man and asked him if he was going to throw all those things away, and he just replied “Yeah, it’s all dirty old junk”, so they offered to take it off his hands. When they got home and looked through the “junk” they found a rare 24″ George Borgfeldt doll, several composition mama dolls, and a broken bisque Cuno and Otto Dressel Shoulder head doll. She often wondered what other treasures that man had thrown away in the dumpster that day, but the wonders she managed to get her hands on inspired her to go out into the world and discover her own priceless treasures.
In her quest to find more an more antique dolls, Kathy Libraty traveled more than 100,000 miles between America and Europe, where she found most of the items in her collection. Her dolls range from only 2 inches to over 3 feet in size, and cost from one meager dollar to $50,000. Husband Frank and daughter Elisa are also passionate about antique dolls, and help Kathy recondition them. Some of the dolls are restored and sold to other collectors, but some of them she just can’t bare part with.
Although she has over 1,000 rare antique dolls that take up most of the space in her Brooklyn house, and has reached a point where she has to sneak new arrivals past her husband, Kathy just can’t stop collecting dolls. And it turns out her addiction is financially beneficial, as the price of her antique dolls has already reached $2 million and can only go higher.
Doll Addict Collects $2 Million-Worth of Antique Dolls
Wunderland Kalkar - Popular Amusement Park
The Wunderland Kalkar (until early 2005, kernwasser-Wonderland ) is a recreational center , which from 1995 on the grounds of never put into operation and fast breeder reactor in Kalkar was built. Part of the system is the family theme park Kernie's family park . Managing the park Hennie van der Most.
Wunderland Kalkar is a unique amusement park built on the site of a never-used power plant, complete with a fast breeder reactor, in Kalkar, Germany.
Construction of the Kalkar nuclear plant began in 1972, but was constantly delayed due to technical difficulties and protests from those concerned about the safety of nuclear power. When it was completed, over 10 year later, authorities decided to pull the plug on the project, and the $4 billion complex was dismantled in less than a decade. The fast breeder reactor remained in place, and in 1995 Dutch entrepreneur Hennie van der Most bought what was left of the Kalkar plant for a mere €2.5 million and managed to turn it into a profitable amusement park visited by over 600,000 people, every year.
Wunderland Kalkar has around 40 rides, for children and adults alike, and a 400-bed hotel. Among the most interesting features of the park are the swing ride set up inside the cooling facility, and the climbing wall on its outer walls. Also, chairoplanes, quad bikes, go-karts and a whole bunch of other fun gadgets make trips to Wunderland Kalkar a blast for the whole family.
Wunderland Kalkar - Popular Amusement Park
Wunderland Kalkar - Popular Amusement Park
Wunderland Kalkar - Popular Amusement Park
Wunderland Kalkar - Popular Amusement Park
Bed Race in Knaresborough 2011
More than 25,000 people have gathered in Knaresborough to watch an event where wacky racers run through a town carrying someone in a bed.
The 46th annual Great Knaresborough Bed Race saw 90 teams of bed-carrying racers taking part, with some coming from as far as Germany and the USA.
Each team has to complete the gruelling three-mile course with their beds and while some racers go all out for speed, others are more fussed by the best dressed bed award.
We will let you work out which of these beds are built for speed and which took the course a a more leisurely pace.
A spokesperson for the organisers, the Knaresborough Lions, said they hoped the event had this year raised around £100,000.
Bed Race in Knaresborough 2011
Bed Race in Knaresborough 2011
Bed Race in Knaresborough 2011
Wine Cork
A bricklayer in the Czech Republic's picturesque South Moravian wine-making region is drawing legions of tourists curious to see the elaborate cork-decorated facade of his house.
"It has taken 180,000 wine corks in total -- halved, quartered," Miroslav Svoboda from Mutenice, a small town about 230 kilometres (145 miles) southeast of the Czech capital Prague, told AFP.
At first glance the house tucked among similar buildings on a hillside above the town seems as inconspicuous as the rest, but a closer look reveals the skilfully-made triangular and circular cork and pebble ornaments that adorn three sides of the house.
"On the fourth side in the yard, I've been working on a cork heart for three years now," said the 53-year-old Svoboda.
"The heart's for me," confided his rather timid girlfriend Ludmila, standing above a neat flowerbed by the decorated side of the house which was once covered in ivy.
Svoboda, a passionate drinker of red wine, got the corks from a local vintner -- "a sponsor who wants to remain unknown" -- to give himself a unique present for his 50th birthday after two years of busy work.
He is proud to have relied solely on his imagination to create the ornaments laid in tile glue, and he claims he was the only one to have done the work.
But Ludmila divulged "we cut the corks with vineyard scissors together."
The house has become a tourist attraction for visitors from the region as well as abroad who sign their names in an improvised guest book, which "includes one environment minister," Svoboda said.
"The first reaction was incredulous, uncomprehending. Now it's back to normal," added the bricklayer, before pausing for a few seconds to try to recall his motivation for the painstaking work.
"I haven't figured that out yet," he chortled.
Wine Cork
Wine Cork
Wine Cork
Wine Cork
Wine Cork
Wine Cork
Most Pierced Woman Gets Married | Body Piercings
For someone covered from head to toe in nearly 7,000 metallic piercings, one extra ring might not be anything particularly special.But the latest addition to Elaine Davidson's collection could be her most cherished ring yet, as the world's most pierced woman today married.
Miss Davidson, who at a recent count had an astonishing 6,925 piercings, tied the knot in Edinburgh, where she lives and runs a shop.
The 42-year-old was accompanied to a registry office in the Scottish capital wearing a white gown as well as pink and flowers around her hair.
And for the special occasion she naturally kept her trademark piercings all in place, along with green, yellow and blue paint markings on her face.
Her husband, Douglas Watson, who has no visible piercings, was dressed for the 35-minute ceremony in a dark blue suit with a blue shirt and tie.
She was also accompanied into Edinburgh Registry Office by two bridesmaids dressed in pink.
The Brazilian-born former nurse first broke the record for most piercings in May 2000, when a Guinness World Records official examined her and found 462 piercings on her body, including 192 on her face.
Miss Davidson has previously said she never removes the rings and studs, which she estimates weigh a total of around three kilos.
She also insists there is no pain involved in the piercing, and that she sleeps every night with every piercing still in place.
However, she revealed in 2009 that she doesn't like being pieced and suffers for her art.
She said in February 2009, when she had 6,005 piercings including 1,500 that are 'internal': 'I don't enjoy getting pierced, but to break the record you have to get to a high level.
'I wanted to break the record.
'My family don't even like tattoos or piercings.'
On her own website, Miss Davidson, who also sleeps on a bed of nails and has walked on fire and glass, says she enjoys extreme sports and theatre, but does not drink or smoke.
Most Pierced Woman Gets Married | Body Piercings
Most Pierced Woman Gets Married | Body Piercings
World’s First Amphibious Ice-Cream Truck Sails the Thames
HMS Flake 99, the world’s first floating ice-cream truck, was seen sailing the river Thames, yesterday, trying to attract attention to the decreasing number of land ice-cream trucks in the UK.
The mobile ice-cream business in England has definitely seen better days, as the number of ice-cream trucks has dropped from 20,000 to around 5,000, in the last 50 years. They have been banned in areas like housing estates, parks and outside schools due to concerns regarding childhood obesity and noise pollution, and the rising prices of ingredients and fuel don’t help much either. The bizarre HMS Flake 99 was created by Fredericks, the company who makes Cadbury’s ice-cream, hoping it will attract attention to the problem of ice-cream trucks in Britain.
The world’s first amphibious ice-cream truck has sailed past the British Parliament, in London, yesterday, and after a tour of Britain’s beaches, it will embark on a voyage across the English Channel and on to the canals of Venince, next year. It has a top speed of just five knots so you’ll have no problem catching up to it in pretty much any motorized boat, and asking for a refreshing treat, wherever you are.
World’s First Amphibious Ice-Cream Truck Sails the Thames
World’s First Amphibious Ice-Cream Truck Sails the Thames
Thai Temple Offers the Ultimate Chance at Rebirth | Wat Temple of Thai
Wat Prommanee, a Buddhist temple, 66 miles northeast of Bangkok, offers believers the chance to lay in a coffin for a few moments, then rise up and feel reborn…
I for one find coffins to be really creepy and I wouldn’t dream of lying down in one if someone paid me all the money in the world, but at Wat Prommanee people actually wait in line and pay a fee for a chance to do just that. It’s one of the strangest ceremonies in the world, but one that has been rising in popularity ever since the temple started practicing it, over six years ago. Nine colorful coffins dominate the main hall of Wat Prommanee Temple, and hundreds of people lie down in them every day, playing dead for about a minute and a half, listening to religious chants, and rise up at command feeling cleansed and relaxed.
Wat Prommanee basically offers a daily resurrection service that many Thais believe washes away bad luck and helps prolong their life. It makes sense that people wish for a second chance in life, especially when confronted with serious issues, but lying down in a decorated coffin hardly seems like a solution. I mean, what if it doesn’t change anything, right? Well, they just go back and do it again. The ceremony apparently relaxes them and gives them positive thoughts, so many people come back to Wat Prommanee Temple for the chance to be reborn several times over a few years. All they have to do is pay a small fee.
The entire rebirth ceremony lasts just 90 seconds – believers get into the coffin, lie on their backs, close their eyes, a shroud covers the coffins then is quickly removed, people are commanded to get up, say a quick prayer, and are urged to head toward the exit where nine more people anxiously await their new prosperous lives. It just doesn’t get any easier…
So if you were hoping for a second chance at life, give Wat Prommanee a shot, it’s quick and only costs a few bucks.
Thai Temple Offers the Ultimate Chance at Rebirth | Wat Temple of Thai
Thai Temple Offers the Ultimate Chance at Rebirth | Wat Temple of Thai
Thai Temple Offers the Ultimate Chance at Rebirth | Wat Temple of Thai