My first Hen Do (aka Bachlorette Party)!

A few weekends ago, I was invited to my former colleague and friend Charlotte's Hen Do. Hen = Bachelorette and Do = Party. It was a lovely full weekend away in the English countryside, just outside of the beautiful town of Bath. Charlotte is getting married in early September to another one of my current colleagues Giles. I was the only colleague from work invited to the Do, and the other gals there were friends of hers from home or University. This is the view from the back garden of where we were staying in a lovely village called Chew Magna for the weekend.

We spent the weekend at a large farm house, which has been modernised a bit for groups of hen parties to hire out for weekends in the summer. The owners live in the home attached, and provide things such as the linens, breakfast food, etc. The owners also realised that many of the hen groups were heading into Bath for a spa day, so they decided to build a spa on sight. So now across the street is an outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and treatment room.

We all arrived on Friday afternoon and settled into the house. It was a beautiful warm day, so we were able to sit out in the back garden, eat canapes and wine and get to know one another with some fun games. We stayed at the house for dinner, and Charlotte cooked as a thank you to all of us for coming.  We then did some more fun evening Hen games - like 'Pin the Trunks on the the Hunk' who was  George Michael during Wham days - so British! We also got Charlotte up karaoking and pretending to be dancing to Riverdance. Finally, we designed Charlotte and her friend's 'wedding dress' with toilet paper and plastic, in which they looked beautiful of course in the outcome!

Saturday we were up to have breakfast at 9, so we could be across the street by 10 for the spa time. The weather was probably 60 degrees and mainly cloudy. But that didn't stop the British girls for going for a swim! I didn't know if I thought they were crazy or impressive. . . Everyone took turns with 30 min spa treatments such as facials, back massage or pedicure. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch again in the garden as the sun began to peek out. After lunch, everyone was tired and wanted to rest a bit before our night on the town. So naps all around.

We gathered together at 5pm for a few more games, before we started to get ready for our night out. A minibus was collecting us at 7pm and driving us into Bath. We first went to the roof top bar of a pretty cool new gastropub in downtown. It was definitely chilly, but was a fun start. Then headed to our dinner location, which was a Spanish tapas place and really yummy. It was a cozy intimate setting, so a bit loud, but it worked out well. Last we went around the corner to a perfect downstairs bar lounge, and had a few night caps. All in all, we were very civilised group - as the girls kept saying. We were in fun dresses and outfits, with a splash of green, and our bits of '80's accents to show that we were a hen do all together. Much better outfits than other hen dos in Bath, which were just pretty embarrassing!

Sunday brought a final nice cooked breakfast at the house, cleaning up and then everyone parting ways around 1pm. It was lovely to meet some new ladies and Charlotte's friends were extremely nice. It was fun to hear about their reminiscing days, just like I would do with my friends, but in a different culture. Fun to hear about many topics that were similar and many that were different (music, tv shows, hair/clothes styles, relationships, etc.).

And then I took a nice big nap when I arrived home that afternoon!