Hen do weekend

In exactly one week today, my friends Chris and Chloe will be walking down the aisle to become Mr and Mrs Wright. As the Maid of Honour, one of my jobs was to organise a hen do for the bride to be. Although it was rather stressful and quite a lot of pressure, I did really enjoy planning it all and making sure that Chloe had a lovely final 'shin-dig' before becoming a married lady!

Ollie, Chloe and I after several glasses of fizz on the first night

We went to Derbyshire for the weekend, near a little town called Ashbourne and rented the cutest barn and cottage for the nine of us. It was even nicer than I thought it would be, so I was really pleased as finding suitable accommodation for all of us proved to be quite the task! It was called Orchard Barn and Anvil Cottage and it was the perfect little place for the weekend; I'd definitely recommend it!

Over the weekend, we went into Ashbourne and browsed all the cute shops and markets and we also went for a nice meal at The Lamplight there on the Saturday evening, dressed to the nines in our glitzy 1920s best as the theme of the hen do was The Great Gatsby! We spent the rest of our time eating yummy food, drinking lots of fizz and playing silly games back at the barn.

Sophie sporting an amazing bin bag wedding dress

On the Sunday we stopped off at Chatsworth for the day which was perfect and such a nice way to end the weekend. I'd never been before but I fell in love; I'll definitely be going back again soon!

Ollie and Chloe looking regal at Chatsworth

All in all, I think the whole weekend was a success and everyone had a great time. We had lots of fun and laughs and made some lasting memories, and it was an honour to organise and be a part of. I put together a scrapbook for Chloe after the weekend in which I stuck photos I'd taken over the weekend on a disposable camera (forgot how much fun these are!), and some nice messages from all the hens for Chloe to read. I was quite proud of how it turned out, and I really wish I'd taken a photo of it but I was so eager to give it to Chloe I forgot.

So now the next step is the wedding day where my main aim is to not trip over/spill something on my dress. My track record for this isn't great but I'm holding out hope!

Health

Around September time last year, I decided I needed a swift kick up the butt and decided to take up some regular exercise. I'd just got back from an indulgent few days in Rome and was feeling lethargic and generally a bit poopy about myself. I've always been one of those people who likes to keep active - I get really antsy if I sit in front of the TV for too long, and I feel lazy if I come home from my (very sedentary) job and don't do some kind of exercise. Saying that though, I'd begun to notice that I was getting a little slack and wasn't really trying hard enough to keep it up. Motivation stations ahoy! 

I downloaded an app on my phone (which has a rather original name of... "Workouts") that has exercises that are easy to do at home, and I bought some weights, a workout mat and some extremely cheap trainers. To my surprise, I actually got into it very quickly and easily. I started off doing around 30-40 minutes of exercise (a mixture of cardio and strength exercises) 4 or 5 days a week. I actually didn't detest it as much as I thought I would, and I gradually increased the duration and lengths of exercises as time went on. It's been such a good feeling knowing that I'm improving and I feel quite proud of myself when I reach milestones (albeit rather small ones). Last night, for example, I did bicycle crunches for a whole minute without stopping! Not exactly a record breaker, but when I started I couldn't even do 10 seconds without writhing around in pain.

In January this year, I also started going running!! This isn't really a big thing to most people but to me, who is (was?) truly horrific at running, it felt like a gigantic leap. The first time I went running, I collapsed through the door on my return, dizzy and broken. A week or so later however, I started to feel myself improving - the exercise I'd been doing at home for a few months before this definitely helped! I've only been going for maybe 4 weeks and only once or twice a week, but I pair this with my at-home exercises, and I aim to do 5 days a week of at least 40 minutes exercise. Some weeks it doesn't happen, and I try not to beat myself up about it, but I find myself actually looking forward to exercise. I'm not one of those crackpots who say they love it, but I do feel so much better afterwards, and that's what I keep going back for. It's a good feeling knowing that I'm getting fitter and healthier, and that can only be a good thing.

That said, I'm still prone to the odd cake/chocolate scoffing sesh, but now at least I can just run it off... right?