Imagine you lived a different life.

This could be the road to your house on a mountainside.

On your way, you pass a field of granadilla vines. Then rows of vineyards with tight green grapes, neatly labelled: Merlot, Zinfandel, Shiraz.

There's a place to sit for a moment and talk. There are beehives further on, and the smell of fig trees. Brambles. A giant chestnut tree. A slope covered in agapanthus. If you're lucky, maybe the otter will dash past on his way to the river. Lizards sit on rocks, bathing in the late afternoon sun.

The sea is there, far away in the distance, lost in the haze.

When you eat your cool baby marrow soup on the terrace, this is what you see:

Even the bath overlooks the valley. At night there are frogs croaking. Each one has a name. And this is what you cover yourself with before you turn, and fall asleep.

Make your feet happy.

A friend told me about Happy Feet about four years ago. I've been going there sporadically ever since. I like taking people there - it's a good place to catch up over a cup of tea. So today we sat there in a row with our feet soaking in wooden tubs of warm water: dog baby, pig baby and rooster baby, while the masseuses told us all about the Chinese Horoscope. 

These girls come here, or go to Europe or the States, because they get paid in a month what they would earn doing the same work for a year back in China. They leave family and friends behind and Tina, who worked on my feet, says it feels like a strange kind of jail. She doesn't understand the culture and she feels she can't walk around safely, especially at night. But the money is very nice, she says. 

The old catch 22.
 

Notice my friend's stylish Missibaba sandals.

Be that as it may, it was lovely as always. Your feet get kneaded and stretched and slapped until they're rosy and soft. Afterward, you walk on air. They're open from eleven till eleven every day, except Christmas. And it's one of life's great pleasures to go there after an early dinner. Just make sure to book.

The wallpaper mesmerises...

Missibaba

I stopped by The Palms to say hello to a very dear friend of mine from way back. She's making sandals at Missibaba's workshop. She let me try on a belt that made me feel like Wonder Woman.

Missibaba is well-known for her very covetable bags. 

Beautiful colours. Intricate detail. Meticulous finish.

Need I say how impressed I am?

And the cowgirl in me loves the long fringes.

On my way out, I met a brand new little person.