An awesome weekend!

Geth and I are back in Newcastle today after another trip up to Edinburgh.  There’s been…more than a few of those this year!

This last weekend was definitely the best, though.  After getting to Edinburgh and spending the night at Mum and Dad’s on Thursday, we were picked up by Sharpy and Steph on Friday morning to travel to Dalhousie Castle, where we would be spending the weekend.

We immediately bumped into a post-manicure Lisa in the foyer, and after a couple of drinks in the bar, during which the rest of the gang showed up, I went downstairs to the spa for my own treatments.  I had a great massage and a much-needed file and polish for my fingernails, both from Lindsay, whom I really recommend tracking down if you’re ever at Dalhousie.

After sorting out a few things in the hotel room, I headed back down to the bar (we ended up spending quite a bit of time in there over the weekend, unsurprisingly!) for a few more drinks, then down to the restaurant for a really nice pre-wedding meal with all of Lisa and Kieran’s friends and family.  The highlight was some amazing gnocchi that totally made up for the disappointing version we had at the hen do!

OOTD 10th August 2018
Friday OOTD: dressing for dinner. Blouse Canda (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), necklace Claire’s Accessories (2003), belt Flip (2003), trousers Gap (2018), shoes Just Cavalli (2018).

Saturday was the wedding day, which was a great (if slightly blurry towards the end) experience all the way through.  After a hotel breakfast at which I allowed myself to eat ALL THE THINGS (you gotta create that base for a long drinking day), I joined the bride and the other bridesmaids in Sarah’s room for a fun morning of hair, makeup and prosecco.  Eventually we were all ready, and we walked down the aisle for a lovely humanist ceremony, before heading out for fizz and canapes in the hotel grounds with the new Mr and Mrs Leach!  The rain held off all day, so we got photos done outside, and before long it was time for the wedding breakfast, which was another great meal.  The fact that I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecake should indicate how good it was!

The evening saw a fantastic wedding disco courtesy of Geth, followed by a few late-night drinks back in the bar.

OOTD 11th August 2018
Saturday OOTD: the least blurry and drunk-looking shot of me post-late-night-drinks. There are much better ones on Facebook! Bridesmaid dress Issa (2018).

Sunday morning required another large breakfast, as everyone was very fuzzy from lots of drinking and not much sleep.  After some quiet recovery time sitting in the bar and not drinking, we got back in Sharpy’s car and headed back into Edinburgh.

I had some work to do yesterday afternoon – helped along by the Now! ’80s channel – following which Geth and I went down to the chippy where I got a much-needed fried battered half pizza supper with salt ‘n’ sauce.  Only people from the East Coast of Scotland will appreciate the beauty of those words.

OOTD 12th August 2018
Sunday OOTD: comfy recovery outfit. T-shirt Campus Crew for Toronto Blue Jays (2018), jeans Miss Selfridge (2018), trainers Reebok (2017).

This morning, Geth and I packed quickly – we had a fairly early train to catch – and, still feeling a bit fuzzy (a sign of a good wedding!) headed back to Newcastle, where I got on with some more work and Geth played Final Fantasy XIII-2 all afternoon.  We’re now watching WarGames, which I have never seen but was apparently a childhood favourite of Geth’s.  I am really enjoying it, I have to say – though to be fair I’ve rarely met an ’80s movie I didn’t like!

Monday OOTD: I may still be enjoying carrying my bridesmaid bouquet. Glasses Emporio Armani (2017), hoodie Gildan for Resistanz Festival (2016), t-shirt Para (1995), belt H&M (2017), leggings Primark (2018), shoes Zara (2018).

Scotland, and a hen do

Geth and I just got back to Newcastle…again.  We’re back for a good while now though!

We’ve been in Scotland for the weekend, for the respective hen and stag parties of our friends Lisa and Kieran.  We headed off on Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours after Geth’s Canada luggage finally showed up, and managed to beat the ridiculous UK train chaos caused by the thunderstorms by getting on an alternative train and sitting on the floor of the doorway section.  Not hugely comfortable, but at least we got to Edinburgh around the time we were supposed to.

After a quiet evening at Mum and Dad’s, we had an uncomfortable night’s sleep (it was REALLY hot and muggy) and then got up for parkrun, which I will post about later in the week.  On returning to the house, I grabbed the world’s quickest shower and got ready to be picked up by my friend Fi to travel to the QHotels Westerwood Spa near Cumbernauld.

Now! #1, #10 and #100
I also had just enough time to snap a photo of my two new Now! albums with their ancient cousin, because I am super lame.

Having also picked up our other friends Gemma and Sarah, we headed along the motorway to the spa, checked in and spent a pleasant few hours in the hotel bar, during which Steph, Lisa, Nikki and Becky also arrived.  At five o’clock we went downstairs for the treatments we’d booked.  I’d never been to a spa before, so I had no idea what to expect from my face and back treatment, but it turned out to be a lovely massage with lots of oil and exfoliation and so on.  It was so relaxing, I nearly fell asleep!  The only downside is that two showers later, I’ve still not been able to get the oils out of my hair.

After the treatments, we were taken to a relaxation room, where we were able to chill out on daybeds with glasses of water for a while, and then we all went for a swim float in the warmer, shallower part of the pool and a soak in the jacuzzi.

Dinner was at eight, but unfortunately, because the service was really slow and poor, we were in the restaurant for three hours, at which point they still hadn’t served our desserts and we ended up having them brought through to the room where we were booked to have a cocktail and DVD night.  The poor service from the waiting staff didn’t spoil our evening, but it was very frustrating, especially as we kept having to go and chase up our orders (and when they billed us for exceeding our food allocation when we hadn’t!).

Still, we had a good time watching Moulin Rouge! and Monty Python & The Holy Grail, and I had two delicious cocktails – the second one was especially good, as it came with a drumstick lolly dipped in it, and I’ve not had one of those since I was a kid.

After a good sleep, we went for hotel breakfast – I resisted the bread table, as I’ve got to lose my Canada holiday weight this week, but the scrambled egg was amazing (much better than the egg in Toronto – sorry, Grand Hotel), the mushrooms and tomatoes were very welcome, and I got to have a tattie scone, which I never get to do as I’m rarely in hotels in Scotland.

We spent a good couple of hours chatting in the hotel bar again, but decided to skip the lunch we’d booked, as most people were too full for lunch/needed to get home.  We headed back in Fi’s car again, this time with added Steph, and got back to Edinburgh in plenty time for me to go back to Mum and Dad’s and repack my stuff.  I also caught up with Geth, who had enjoyed Kieran’s stag yesterday (they’d spent the afternoon and evening boardgaming – what else?).

We had a much more straightforward train journey back to Newcastle, and are now relaxing with the World Series Triathlon on BBC iPlayer.

Not a perfect weekend, but that massage was so good that I’m definitely interested in going to a spa again!

OOTD 28th July 2018
Saturday OOTD: comfy travelling outfit. T-shirt Lauren Ralph Lauren (bought at vintage fair in 2018, but still available on the website so probably not that old), leggings Primark (2018).

 

OOTD 29th July 2018
Sunday OOTD: my current favourite day dress, in a colour I’ve never worn before but quite like! Dress Primark (2018), terrible hair due to the aforementioned spa oils!