Weekending: Edinburgh (March 2015)

Edinburgh is one of my favourites. I've been there with friends and with boyfriends, for romantic trips away and to the festival. I have been there enough times to have my favourites that I always visit as well as always having a list of new places to try. On our most recent trip we (me, my boyfriend, my friend, her husband) were there mainly to visit a friend, but my boyf and I decided to make a long weekend of it to get the most out of the city.

Travel

We got the train there and back - going up at around 11am on the Friday and returning about 2.30pm on the Monday. My friends who joined us got the sleeper train up overnight arriving Saturday morning and then flew back Sunday evening. Like most UK cities, Edinburgh is easy to reach via a number of travel options, and if you book well enough in advance then it's more than affordable.

Accommodation

Once again, we stayed in the Nira Caledonia hotel - one of my favourite hotels in the world. This was my third stay there, and we definitely had the best room I've stayed in there so far as our bathroom had a bath with jets rather than just a shower that I've had in previous stays. The bed was as big and comfortable as I remembered, and I gave the huge bath a go (and used the jets, though be advised to not try and figure out how to turn them on until the bath is full) which was delightful. The hotel gifted us a bottle of wine as well which was a lovely touch. We ate there for breakfast all three mornings during our stay, and also ordered some room service on Sunday night, and each meal was exactly what we were after. I cannot recommend the Nira Caledonia highly enough - with the lovely staff and relaxing rooms I can't imagine staying anywhere else in Edinburgh.

Food

Friday night - burgers at Red Squirrel - one beef and one chicken. They were awesome. We also shared a beetroot salad which was deffo in my top ten salads.

Saturday morning - breakfast at hotel (I believe I had poached eggs on toast, followed by some fruit and yoghurt)

Saturday evening - Hanams. We left it until that afternoon to decide where to eat, and after some googling I came across Hanams, which serves Kurdish and Middle Eastern cuisine. It's also BYOB with no corkage fee, which definitely made it a cheaper meal. Definitely one I would return to if I was in the mood for that type of food.

Sunday morning - breakfast at hotel (think this was my scrambled eggs and smoked salmon day)

Sunday lunch - Set-menu at Wedgwood. This was delicious, and such good value! I'd eaten there before on my birthday last year, and the food was just as inventive and interesting as I remembered. I believe I had goats cheese with curried lentils to start, then sooomething for my main (i'm annoyed I can't remember this) and then sticky toffee pudding. The food here is delicious, and the set lunch menu costs £12.95 / £16.95 for 2 / 3 courses. You can't really go wrong!

Sunday evening - room service. I had a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich, with some chips. Obviously.

Monday morning - final breakfast at the hotel.

Monday lunch - train picnic!

Sights

As we had all visited the city before, we didn't feel the need to do any of the touristy sight-seeingy bits this time around. Instead, we did a few geocaches along the Leith River Walk, and visited the Camera Obscura museum, which, although pricey, I would definitely recommend.

Shopping
The main shopping street in Edinburgh is Princes Street, which is full of all the standard high street shops. A couple to look out for though are Zara, which has a huge section upstairs of their child and baby clothes; Russell and Bromley, which has a great selection particularly from their mens range; and HMV, which has a really awesome vinyl section (I picked up Purple Rain and Blue whilst I was there).

Writing this all up now it doesn't seem like we did much aside from eat. But that's the great thing when you visit a city you know so well - you can just relax and wander and have a lovely time without feeling like you have to be go-go-go all the time. For me, that's what Edinburgh is all about.

Planning the Perfect Hen Do

Planning a hen do can be tricky; it's hard to find the balance between recognising all the traditional elements of a hen do without it venturing into the land of tack. I recently planned a hen do, and here are my 4 top tips for trying to plan the perfect one...

Get Inside Your Hen's Brain

I was lucky with the recent hen do as I had known the bride-to-be since we were bubbas. However, it isn't always this easy and there will usually be people there that have known the hen at various stages of her life. Even though the bride has chosen you to do all the big arranging, don't be afraid to ask for help or advice from everyone else. She will have asked you not just because she thinks you'll arrange something awesome, but also because she isn't worried about you getting on with all her other friends, even if you've not met them before. If you think it would be nice to have something to remind her of her teenage years when you didn't know her, then just ask those who did. The best types of hen dos are always those that have managed to reflect the hen from all the best moments of her life.

Know Your Audience

Although the main purpose of a hen do is to ensure the bride-to-be has an amazing time, you have to also keep in mind who else is going to be attending. If you know the mother of the bride is going to feel uncomfortable drinking through a penis straw then you also know that this is only going to make the bride-to-be uncomfortable too. There are always ways to tone down (or up!) the activities you want to do without it meaning nobody has any fun - on our recent hen do we played Mr and Mrs but stuck to the 'first kiss' questions rather than the 'first hump' questions. Another important one is to remember if there are going to be any under-18s attending (pesky sisters!) - nobody is going to feel more awkward than you if you lead everyone to a bar only to find that not everyone can get in.

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise

The best hen dos are always the ones where the bride-to-be feels like the entire thing, non-stop, from start to finish has revolved around her. The smallest of touches can make this happen - whether it's putting together the best photos of her with all the other attendees, making a playlist of all her favourite songs or bringing a couple of her favourite films in case a pyjama party beckons - and will absolutely make her feel like the queen bee of the event.

Think Outside the Box

When I questioned my friend about the type of thing she wanted to do on her hen do she gave the very standard response - afternoon tea, exploring the town, dinner... All these things are popular hen do activities because they are brilliant things to do, however this doesn't mean that there's no room for a bit of imagination. We did afternoon tea on a river cruise, explored the area by geocaching and had caterers at the cottage rather than going out for dinner. None of these ideas are particularly revolutionary (let's not flatter ourselves here) but were all just different enough to the norm to make it feel like it was a personalised hen do that still ticked all the boxes of things she'd loved on other hen dos she'd been on.

Generally though, the best advice is always just going to be to relax! You've been chosen to organise it for a reason - just keep this in mind and everything will go swimmingly.

Weekending - Stratford-upon-Avon

I recently spent a weekend in Stratford-upon-Avon on a hen do, and although some of the bits and pieces we did were quite hen-specific other parts were definite must-dos for anyone visiting this lovely town for a couple of days. Here are some of my highlights.

* There are lots of choices for places to stay, ranging from budget guest houses to boutique hotels. As there were a few of us though we decided to rent a cottage for the weekend, and settled on the Unicorn Barns. The house was lovely and perfect for our group - the rooms (especially the communal areas) were lovely and spacious and the kitchen was fully-equipped with all the cooking utensils we would need. The house was about a 20-minute walk away from the centre of town which was really nice as well, it meant we really felt we were away from the centre of town in a relaxed setting. However, the communication from the owners beforehand was frustratingly slow and I'm now having problems getting our deposit back so do bear this in mind if you go down this route.

* Stratford-upon-Avon is well-known for it's cultural history, and this shouldn't go ignored when visiting. Our hen was keen on afternoon tea, so we did a river cruise with Bancroft Cruisers which included prosecco, tea and scones, as well as an informal guided tour of the area. This was perfect for us - our guide was the right balance of amusing and informative, and they were more than happy to accommodate any requests we had when booking. This is excellent value for money, and comes highly recommended from me. Post-cruising we continued our exploration on foot - stopping at the RSC (mainly in the gift shop) and also the church Shakespeare is buried in.

* In pretty much every area in the world you can find something a bit more unique to do if you search [google] enough. I wanted to find a museum that was a bit different to the norm for our trip, and found the perfect one in the form of The MAD Museum. We were't entirely sure what to expect before we visited as I couldn't get the website to load properly, however we needn't have worried as this was a fun and fascinating way to spend our time. With things that would enthral both kids and adults, this is placed firmly at the top of my list of recommendations.

* As popular as Stratford-upon-Avon is, it should go without saying that there are multiple dining and drinking options. We only ate out once during our trip (as we used Benson's Catering one night who were great - all the food tasted fab and they even washed up afterwards!) and chose The One Elm to do this. Everyone enjoyed their meals and it was very reasonably priced so I would visit again - even if one of our (two) waitresses seemed super grumpy!

* And finally, shopping. It seemed to me that Stratford-upon-Avon had just the right mix of high street shops and independent ones, with a few of us making some purchases during our visit...!

We were so lucky with the weather when we visited as it was generally really hot and sunny, and this really made the weekend just that little bit more special and it really seemed the ideal place for the hen do. I'd never visited the town before so I'm really glad that I now have, and also know a few places to visit again if I return!

London Birthdays

I have had a few London-based birthdays over the years, and they usually go the same way - I start by having a mild anxiety attack on the journey in that I won't have a good time, or my favourites won't turn up, or the venue won't recognise my booking, or someone in the group will drink too much, or someone will cry, or I will cry, or etc etc etc... I don't think I've ever had a birthday where all of the above has happened during the same evening, but I can definitely say that all have taken place at one point or another! 

3 years ago: I had birthday drinks at one of the Belgo's and one of my party bought one of their 32-shot sticks. They did make it home, but they also vomited into a saucepan.

Last year: a boy I was seeing took me to the Savoy for lunch and then to the top of the Shard. All lovely, except my ex upset me that morning so I had one or two teary moments throughout the day!

Last year of uni: a couple of my friends arranged a surprise party for me, though told me about it beforehand and then only invited a handful of people. One of the most awkward events I've ever been to.

One year however, I had the perfect birthday in the perfect venue. I had decided that year that I did want to mark my birthday but to save it being a huge fuss I just picked one of my favourite bars in London, Bedford and Strand, booked a couple of tables and just told people to turn up at some point in the evening. Everyone I wanted to turn up did (and most of them on time), nobody drank too much, nobody cried, there was ample space and I had a lovely lovely time.

For me, birthdays are always a potential nightmare and it goes to show that sometimes the best nights are the ones you don't plan too hard for.

Baby Shower

Last Summer I arranged my first every baby shower (not for a baby of mine, I hasten to add!) Although it may seem crazy to think it now, last summer was a really hot one - and mumma-to-be was already suffering with the sweaty weather, so I decided to have a relatively low-key gathering with just a few close friends rather than having a big-deal garden party or something similar.

Wanting to keep it a traditional affair a couple of us made some cakes (I went for a Victoria Sponge and a chocolate tray bake), and we paired this with strawberries, cream and scones. I'd heard a rumour that pregnant ladies don't like to drink alcohol, so I made two different alcohol-free drinks...

* fizzy water, mint leaves, two squeezed limes and as many lime wedges as your jug will allow

* blended peaches (with the syrupy peach juice that comes in the tin) with white grape and peach juice, plus some squeezed / chopped strawberries

Paperchase do a very cute range of baby shower bits and pieces - straws, bunting and cake decorators - which we paired with all the appropriately-coloured plates, napkins and cups. We all bought the baby a present, as well as chipped in to get mum some vouchers for her favourite spa.

Most of the day was spent chatting, but I thought it would be best to have something to play in case the chat slowed down as the afternoon wore on, so I created a game of musical baby bingo! There are a few websites that can generate bingo cards for you with whatever you want them to say, and whatever size you want (I went with 9x9), so I created a spotify playlist of 36 songs with 'baby' in the title and then got the cards made up! It worked brilliantly well, and once the game was over it also made an awesome playlist to soundtrack the rest of the afternoon.

The day was a great success, and a lovely way to spend a summer's afternoon.