23 Apr 2019
The Best Hen Do A Girl Could Ask For
When I first started writing this post, I was experiencing a too-much-to-drink-too-little-sleep-excitement-comedown hangover. It was a particularly tough one to shift but I put that down to the magnitude of the good time had, and why I am only just getting back to writing this.
I just checked my messages and it was literally only 4 weeks after I got engaged – in Jan 2018 - that I asked my two gals Becca and Liz whether, hypothetically, they would be up for organising my hen do. To which their response was:
OH MY GOD I CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING I WOULD LOVE MORE.
So, like, I think they were keen?
But even I couldn’t have predicted the amount of effort they would put in to make it special for me. I came away from the weekend feeling so very loved and so very lucky.
So, at the end of March, Alice came to pick up myself and Jordan and we hopped up the M1 laden down with tunes and car snacks. With various chats and a service stop, it felt like the journey passed really quickly and suddenly we were only an hour away. At which point, Becca rang Jordan and suggested we take a pub stop. A delay tactic I was always going to be on board with. Probs come as a surprise but, er, I really like pubs?
We stopped at a pub in the heart of the Peak District aka middle of no where for a good hour before driving down a pitch-black country lane to an old converted barn. Jordan disappeared into the night and Alice and I assumed he would never return but – hey – he didn’t get murdered by the chickens and I was okayed to come into the house.
The house, by the way, is here if you want to have a nose. Although I think it was nicer than the pictures on the website. There was a big kitchen, games room, living room with a wood burning stove, huge master bedroom with views of the peak district, and a surprising number of cabin-style rooms plus a mezzanine accessed by a very narrow ladder! Oh and the downstairs bathroom was like a more rough and ready version of the egg-toilets at Sketch.
It was huge and open and quirky and I bloody loved it.
I came in through the door where four of my hens were waiting for me with a glass of bubbly. The entrance hall had been decorated with pink balloons, fairy lights, a big gold ‘Hello Hens’ balloon sign, pink ribbons and absolutely loads of photos; baby photos, hilarious photos and lots of photos with me and my lovely hens. And this continued throughout the whole house! In my room, there were balloons on the bed as well as two ribbon-wrapped gifts.
There was immediately plenty of prosecco flowing and I remember feeling a buzz at being surrounded by all my favourite people. Once everyone had arrived, and had a drink, we cracked on with pizza making! I barely remember my pizza (apart from Alice’s usual disgust as to how I can have tuna as a topping); just everything being a really happy blur, as more and more people arrived and more and more prosecco flowed. The aim of the evening was to have an old-school sleepover and once we’d moved to the sitting room, I could open my presents, which included a pair of beautiful pyjamas! They’re white (obviously), personalised with my initials and genuinely the softest pjs I have ever owned. My other present was a beautiful bridal headband, complete with veil, and I promptly wore it for the rest of the weekend.
Next up, we had our first hen-do game, which was to get into teams and make a wedding dress out of toilet paper; and I then had to judge which was the best one. I couldn’t stop laughing as I watched all my friends jump up and start throwing a mad amount of toilet paper around (personal favourite was the three-metre long train that Dan created…)
We topped off the sleepover with some sheet masks which made us look alarmingly like Hannibal Lecter, and plenty more prosecco...obvs.
The next morning, I woke up with a significant prosecco headache which was immediately remedied with a lazy morning and eggs & avocado on toast.
On a side note – Lizzie accidentally ordered 36 avocados and this greatly amused me all weekend.
We went for a walk through the beautiful countryside, marvelling at the gorgeous scenery and settled in the same pub as the previous evening, braving the outside seats so we could see the views.
On the way back, we decided to go off-road and climb a bit of a hill/rock because we knew there would be some cracking views behind them. Led by Dan, who I can always count on for being game for some off-road hill climbing, we re-created a bit of a ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ vibe, trying not to fall down a badger den. But the views were totally worth it.
Back at the house, Liz and Bec had prepared us the most magical afternoon tea. There was beautiful china, hand cut sandwiches, home made sweet treats including a huge cake with a ‘Kate’s Hen Party’ topper and the most gorgeous iced biscuits – all hen themed. And over half of it was vegan! If I absolutely had to pick, I’d say those biscuits were my faves. Liz had baked all the sweat treats herself and those biscuits wouldn’t go amiss in a professional bakery.
After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we headed to the games room for a game of BRA PONG! Yes, this seriously made me chuckle. We split into teams, drank more prosecco and got silly by throwing ping pong balls into bras (I won’t tell you whose…)
After I’d downed two pints of water and glammed up for the evening, I came back downstairs to find the table laiden with crisps, dips, snacks and omg the most epic cheeseboard I have ever seen. There were SO MANY CHEESES, and they’d bloody labelled them and everything! And if that’s not a sign that it’s gonna be a good evening, then I dunno what is.
And then the hen do games really kicked off. We started with wine tasting which was hilarious because the majority of us know nought about the grape. The girls had told us which cheese paired with each wine and so I was both cheese and wine tasting and yes, basically in heaven.
Next up, a power point was whipped out and we played a game of ‘Gary or not Gary’ which genuinely made me snort. Turns out Liz and Bec had persuaded G to photograph various body parts (yes, at one point, I also did wonder where this was going…) which I then had to pick out in a line up if you will. G says he can live with the fact that I didn’t correctly guess his elbow.
As is traditional, a game of Mr and Mrs followed. I was asked a question, and then they’d also persuaded G to film a video with his answers to the questions! If I got it right, everyone else had to drink. If I got it wrong, I had to drink. Turns out G and I know each other sickeningly well so I wasn’t drinking nearly as much as expected!
It then turned out that the gals had spent rather a long time on social media digging out old and embarrassing photos of my hens (I made a mental note to clear out my facebook photos asap) and we had a couple of ‘who is with Kate in this picture’ and ‘what is X doing in this photo’ games which was highly amusing.
We then descended into chaotic fun. There was a good while where we all sat in groups around the table nattering & drinking, and then I think we moved into the living room around midnight where photo and video evidence would suggest there was a lot of singing and dancing. A lot. My personal favourites were our moving rendition of Heather Small’s ‘Proud’, belting out the the entirety of ABBA’s back catalogue and Liz, Becca & Jordan’s theatrical performance of ‘Africa’. My sister said I was pouring myself another glass of wine when she was heading to bed around 3am. I definitely remember checking the time around half 5 in the morning and vaguely wondering if I would wake up in time for checking out.
Yes, we were very hungover in the morning, and yes we took an hour detour for emergency Mcdonald’s on the way home and yes Jordan ate 20 chicken nuggets.
And yes, I had an absolute blast.
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| Just some of the Instax shots! |
Shout out to Alice for some of the crackin' photos in this post!
17 Apr 2019
No Normal For A While
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| Photo by Aleksandr Ledogorov on Unsplash |
All in one go, I am stupidly excited and also questioning the sanity of my past self. G and I are squeezing so many milestones into such a short space of time, that I’m wondering why one of us didn’t say a few months ago ‘er, do you reckon that could be a bit… busy?’
But we didn’t.
So here we are.
Last week, we made an offer on a house. An offer that was accepted. We haggled with the vendors whilst they were climbing Ben Nevis – a detail I really rather love – and the estate agent secured us a deal. G text me whilst I was sat in a café, attempting to write and find some calm after a hectic couple of weeks. I chucked my laptop in my bag, poorly wrapped my flapjack in a napkin, threw calm out the window and ran through town leaving a trail of oats behind me.
I am now trying to get my head around mortgages and how much shit we seem to have to pack up and the cost of kitchens and how many pink cushions is acceptable in one house?!
(Answer: one can never have too many pink cushions. G disagrees.)
Oh yes, and we are still about to get married. And go on the trip of a lifetime. Right now, I have no idea when I will next be able to sit down without any plans or commitments. April 2020?
In the space of 48 hours, we had a mortgage advisor appointment, a registry office planning meeting, ceremony venue planning meeting, dress fitting and third house viewing, all whilst haggling over the house price with the vendors via the estate agent and still going to work.
This was all after just getting back from a trip away; so there was no time to unpack, put a wash on or indeed, have any semblance of tidiness around our tiny flat. I ran out of clean underwear for crying out loud.
Sunday morning was emergency tidy-washup-laundry-bins out time and I have a feeling that most life admin is going to take place during emergency snatched hours like that over the next few months. Either that or I buy more pants.
8 Apr 2019
Just Popping In To Say Hi
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| Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash |
Hello, hi, it me. How we doing lads?
I’m currently in Suffolk sat in the living area of – wait for it – a windmill! I mean, a converted windmill obvs. I feel an actual windmill wouldn’t be that comfy to sleep in. It’s G’s birthday weekend and I’ve surprised him with a trip (he didn’t know where we were going until this morning). He is currently driving over from work and I’ve just spent the past hour and a half having a nosy around the local area. Can report that Woodbridge, Suffolk is very cute. Lots of pastel houses. In front of me is a glass of wine, sour cream&chive dip and some rather sexy chilli & nacho cheese tortilla chips.
I am relishing the silence. And being away. And the chips-dip-wine combo. Basically just digging this entire set-up.
It has been ages since I just rambled away to the page without much thought or direction and even longer since I’ve had the time to do so.
So last night, G and I went to view a house! Because apparently planning a wedding and our America trip just wasn’t enough for us to be getting on with. We think we want to go back for a second viewing so that’s kinda exciting. The house hunt has officially commenced! I’m sure at some point I will go into further details about the whole experience and where we’re moving to but right now, I don’t have much space in my head for anything but wedding/houses.
The past few months have turned into a funny ol’ time really. G and I are right on the brink of big changes which is hugely exciting but also weirdly unsettling. Everything is about to change and yet day-to-day life looks just how it always did. It’s like living in a constant state of anticipation but nothing happening and has left me feeling like I can’t relax a lot of the time.
And, lol, woe is me. I have no sympathy for me either, dw. I’m just acknowledging that, cor, it would be nice to just have a second where it didn’t feel like my brain was whirring at a million miles an hour.
ANYWAY, I plan on totally switching off for the next few days and it will, hopefully, be glorious.
See ya!
P.S. Yes it took me approx. 4 days to actually hit publish on this post. See what I mean about there not being space in my head?
1 Apr 2019
A Photo A Day | 25 - 31 March 2019
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| 25 March 2019 Location: St Albans I can’t even tell you how much I regret not taking the beginning of this week off post-hen; the last two days have been a real struggle. How I spent most of my university days going out several nights in a row is beyond me; oh to be 19 again... But, it does feel like Spring has truly arrived over the last couple of days and I am loving the blossom & daffodils 🌸🌼 |
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| 26 March 2019 Location: St Albans I can’t even tell you how much I regret not taking the beginning of this week off post-hen; the last two days have been a real struggle. How I spent most of my university days going out several nights in a row is beyond me; oh to be 19 again... But, it does feel like Spring has truly arrived over the last couple of days and I am loving the blossom & daffodils 🌸🌼 |
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| 27 March 2019 Location: London Werk werk werk 💻 👀 |
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| 28 March 2019 Location: St Albans Wanting to talk about how it almost felt summer-like today but am starting to wonder if I talk about the weather too much...? 🌞 |
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29 March 2019
Location: Cambridgeshire
First cone of the year, post wedding-dress fitting 😍 🍦
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| 30 March 2019 Location: St Albans Met with my wedding hairdresser and finally agreed on a hair do for ze wedding, surprised mum with a Mother’s Day meal, ate cheese and crackers in front of the TV. Oh and admired all the blossom - pretty enough to stick around all year 🌸 |
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| 31 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans A lazy Sunday in an attempt to catch up on energy before an extremely busy two months. G is now also using the word ‘wedmin’ so that’s where we’re at 😂😴 |
A Photo A Day | 18 - 24 March 2019
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| 18 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Seem to have spent most of the day waiting for work’s system to come back online again which was about as fun as watching paint dry 🙄 Also didn’t provide any remotely interesting photography inspo so I’ve defaulted to the bedroom window view again - never fails to disappoint 😍 |
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| 19 March 2019 Location: Marylebone Road, London Played a game of spot-the-blossom today. Spring is coming.... veeeerrryyyy slowly.... but it’s coming 😍🌷🐝 |
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| 20 March 2019 Location: Westminster, London Seeing Nish Kumar tonight was a welcome relief from the shitstorm that is politics right now (he nails the political rants). In other news, walk past this scene every time my sister and I go for lunch at Leon (which is a lot) and finally remembered to take a picture of it today. That pink bike though 😍 |
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| 21 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Get yourself a mate who sends you an enormous box of balloons to kickstart your hen weekend. Susie Swaby you are always the extra pink balloon in my life 😍🎈😂 |
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| 22 March 2019 Location: Peak District Hen do night one 🐓😍 |
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| 23 March 2019 Location: Peak District Hen do day two 🐓😍 Huge shout out to my gals Lizzie and Becca for organising me the most beautiful weekend. I feel so very loved and so very lucky 😍 |
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| 24 March 2019 Location: A McDonald's in Derbyshire somewhere Epic hangovers require emergency McDonald’s. And yes, I was blown away by the fact that table service is now an option 😮🍔🍟 |
A Photo A Day | 11 - 17 March 2019
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| 11 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Flat is gleaming thanks to Fantastic Services! They gave the entire flat a deep clean, including emptying the bins, and it is so refreshing to be at home and not trying to ignore all the chores that need doing 😂 Great start to the week 👍🏻 #gifted |
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| 13 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans New shoots! Wouldn’t consider myself even remotely green fingered (don’t even have a garden) but this gal came home with me as a gift last year and has since doubled in size. I have done no research on how to look after her in that time and have often feared I’ve killed her and yet... here she is sprouting new shoots again 😍 |
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| 14 March 2019 Location: Mooshies, London Cute pubs + Mooshies + my gal Beth = top date night 😍 |
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| 15 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans New music getting me through a heinous cold 🤧 |
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| 16 March 2019 Location: The Boot, St Albans Friday. Pub. Him. That’ll do 👍🏻 |
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| 17 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Has taken me a while to settle into this one but now I have, I’m very worried about the fate of Flora The Bee & in awe of the imagination behind it 📖 👀 |
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| 18 March 2019 Location: Home, St Albans Finished the weekend with a bit of star gazing 💫 |
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