Neil Simon’s play, The Odd Couple, showed how two apparently mismatched roommates, the uptight and meticulous Felix Ungar and slobbish Oscar Madison, could actually rub along together, and indeed how their differences could complement each other.

There are many such instances in all aspects of life, of seemingly unsuitable pairings working, such as with food, where Chefs now seem to go our of their way to combine unlikely ingredients; sausage and marmalade sandwiches as shown, being just one example, and one I’ve tried funnily enough – once!

The animal world has countless examples of unexpected symbiotic relationships, and I was really spoilt for choice here. But it would be a shame not to shoehorn a fluffy kitten pic into a wedding industry blog post when you’ve got the chance!

The point of all this is to highlight that although my entry into this industry is as a wedding car chauffeur, I do have another skill, which I’ve decided would be a waste not to use. And although at first glance they might seem a random combination, they do make a good fit!

During my slight mid- life crisis, which I documented in an earlier post, I decided that I wanted to be doing something more than just running my insurance business, which, as interesting and as busy as it was, just didn’t fulfill me on every level. I am by nature a friendly and tactile person and I was introduced to Shiatsu, an ancient Oriental form of massage, and I was completely taken by it! This resulted in me undertaking a three year course with the European Shiatsu School, over weekends and any other spare time I could muster, and spread around between Malvern, Bath and London.

It might seem strange that I didn’t go on to use all that learning professionally, but I already had a full time business and I justified it in that I got an awful lot of personal growth from it. I didn’t waste the training though as I used it frequently on friends and family, which seemed to go down well!

When I sold my insurance business about 10 years ago, I did eventually put my training to use and got an additional qualification through the ESS in Seated Onsite Massage and set up a new company, Tactus Onsite Massage, which took seated massage into the corporate and events world, the highlight of which was providing seated massage backstage on Barry Manilow’s “Ultimate Manilow” UK Tour. This led to an invite to be the backstage massage provider for Van Morrison on his tour, but unfortunately, I was indisposed and unable to take up the offer. At this point in my life, events overtook me and I had to close the company.

So, back to the point!

One of the great benefits of any form of massage is that it can de-stress, and what more stressful time is there than the run up to a wedding?

This photo is of my course tutor and it shows the mechanics of how seated massage works, and that the recipient is clothed. Sessions are usually 20 minutes per person, and would be ideal for a Bride and /or Groom, plus any other person involved who needs to chill just a little, especially in the last few days before the big day! Alcohol and massage don’t mix though, so not at Hen or Stag dos!

It’s called Onsite for a good reason as it’s mobile, meaning we take it to the clients home, workplace, wherever!

So that’s it – I’m venturing into the wedding market wearing two hats, and I’m certain they go better together than sausages and marmalade!

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