The Hen Party

Well i suppose this was the next entry in my life which i should write about...i've been trying to sit down and write about it basically since i cam back last week. But things got too hectic once again esp since i was trying to work my ass off so that I could take the thursday off work (which i did...but that is another post! )


So on with the hen party story. This was my very first hen party so I had no idea what to expect. It seems things are def done differently here in the UK. Mostly it is a weekend long event involving everyone going away somewhere, doing an activity and then heading out for a night on the town all dressed up in fancy dress with the bride with her L plates on. (Learners license reference that I dont quite get.) Thank goodness Dr Intellectual banned all fancy dress and L plates stuff!



So the venue for this hen party was Manchester - seemed most logical since half the girls were from Edinburgh and the other half from either london or cambridge way. Dr and I headed off on the train on friday and got into Manchester in the afternoon. The maid of honour had set us all up in a hotel that had more of an apartment feel and her and Dr had the pent house option with 2 floors...one with the bedrooms and the other with a kitchen, lounge and dining area plus patio area for everyone to hang out in. It was a very cool set up and worked very well with us chilling outside drinking bubbly all afternoon and then migrating into the lounge for pizza and wine while we wait for others to arrive.


Once a large bunch of the girls from Edinburgh girls arrived (already drunk from the 5 bottles of wine on the 3 couch train) we got into more pizza and wine and a game of mr & mrs. This was mildly entertaining cept I think that Mr Intellectual answered some of his questions incorrectly (or didnt get the exact point of the game which is very likely) The best part was when Dr was asked what Mr Intellectual would say are her favorite pants (underwear for the saffa's) and after she answered the maid of honour threw and envelope at Dr which had a lacy white thong of hers inside... it turns out that he could only steal her least favorite ones as she would notice if her favorite ones where missing!


Otherwise there was lots of talking and getting to know people and funniest story about Dr. It was rather strange as I was the only one that didnt really know Dr that directly - kept having to say that I was just the gf of the best man! Plus then it also came up that I knew the grooms ffamily before i even knew of Mr Intelletual himself !!!



Then we all heading off to bed with our respective room mates - me obviously with a stranger as I didnt know anyone! It was def interesting heading off to this weekend knowing that I knew the Bride and 1 other person (and not well i might add)

Day 2 - the actual "day" of the hen party. This started off with an inpromptu visit to the manchester Primark (OMG it is HUGE!!!) with a bunch of the girls to go find shorts for the pole dancing session later in the day. Then off to the resturant around the corner from the hotel for brunch and to meet the rest of the girls that were arriving. Food was definitely needed and this was about midday by now. Then bundled back to the hotel for pole dancing stuff and off to the pole dancing session at the manchester fitness first gym.



The "Poletastic" session was pretty good...well I def enjoyed it. I realised that i've obviously been to my fair share of strip joints and actually had an idea of what it was supposed to look like. I found pretty much all the girls very reserved and as none of them had ever been to a strip club had no idea what they were doing. I mean I wasnt amazingly brilliant at it ...but at least I kinda knew what sexy looked like and how to "work it" .... but hey they all tried and that is the point. The one chick i was pair with I thought was amazing mostly because she was brought Morman in salt lake city utah (the "mecca" of Mormanisim) and had only broken away 8 years ago. She was called a slut by her mom for wear trousers just above her knew and a tank top! She w

as really interested in the "sexy" side to the pole dancing and the body confidence that comes with it. I had great fun coaching her :)

Anways...so these are the bruises from just one leg that appeared only about 2 hours later!!! both insides of my legs were bruised and the outside of my right leg and my right calf !! was so funny !

After stopping for some cocktails and organising more booze for the coming evening we head back to the hotel to get ready for the night and order chinese for dinner...


The evening entertainment in the penhouse apartment was a "lecture" about Dr's dating history leading up to the meeting of Mr Intelletual. Was was funny with some very interesting stories coming out. Then the maid of honour had organised a game of "blind date". She had contacted Mr Intellectual and 2 other ex bf's and a "red herring" and got them to answer a bunch of questions like - If you were a take away food what would would you be? - and then got 4 of the girls there to play the guys and Dr got handed the questions to ask. This was all very much set up like the whole blind date tv show (or for another reference like they do on the movie Mall Rats). It worked beautifully !! and of course she did pick her lovely husband to be! She guessed the ex's with no problems but battled with the "red herring" this is because it was my bf C, the best man!!! Was SO funny !!! I picked out that it was him after his frist answer of the fact that he would be a kebab with lashings of Chilli and garlic sauce !!! It was very hard not to laugh too hard at the questions he gave !


The maid of honour then handed out cards with dares for us to get Dr to do once out at the club. But as I guessed very few got her to do anything...it really wasnt her or some of the others thing.

Anyways we finally headed off to the club at about midnight...there was lots of dancing to cheesey music (which if you know me isnt really my thing) and surprising veyr little drinking. Of course this being the UK the bar stopped serving at 2am and most people were out the door by 2:15. We were all back in the hotel in bed by 2:30...This is just dont get!!! I think that maybe when i get it into my mind that this is going to be a HUGE night out i expect only to be coming home with the sunrising !!! but anyway that just seems to be me.



I found the whole weekend very interesting and kinda exhausting in the sense that you are constantly talking to someone and doing that whole getting to know them kind of conversations. I did feel like i was very different to all the girls there. Alot where married or close to marrige and all way too settled for my liking. I still think that if you are under 30 at least you should still be being young and frivilous even if you are in a relationship. I had C going "now dont forget to flirty with all the boy out!!" - i know he is nuts... but my point is that he expects me to go out there and be the bubbly friendly over the top person that I am because i havent changed just because i'm dating him. He trusts me and that is what is important.



I did have a very interesting moment with a chick that is engaged to the other best friend of the groom. She is a very hard and cold seeming chick from Austria. She is very i'm miss cool and your not. I def think that it is just a defence mechanism for insecurity. So her attitude to me changed so suddenly when she saw how i was dressed to go out. She thought i looked supper cool and edgey like I had just come straight from a rock gig. And then she was happy to latch onto me and chatter away about anything and even some really personal stuff...all because she suddenly had a different view of me from my clothes and shoes.


Anyways... the sunday was all about waiting for the train and travelling back in the very cool and quiet 1st class. I think that the food and drinks guy took a liking to me and kept trying to force more packets of crisps and water on me. I know it is his job - but it was just more then his wheeling of the trolley past the other people.

And that is that...my very long post of the hen weekend !!!