What happens in Bath, stays in Bath...

I am aware that people should mind what they say in blogs. I think I’ve done that quite well so far. With that in mind, I was struggling to find something to write about and after reading several horror-blogs I changed my mind about the possible topic… and I also really want to avoid sounding too much like a grumpy bastard in these posts. In a successful attempt to cheer me up and demonstrate that other people clearly have it worse than me, the BFF gave me a gift before she left (which we’re not mentioning, here or in general)… a book by Oonagh O'Hagan, ‘I Lick My Cheese’. Worth a look, very amusing.

ANYWAY.

Simply lovely.

The Roman Baths

Then the weekend arrived to save me from my foul mood. I escaped London on Saturday morning and headed to the lovely Bath to see Binks, Nat, Becky, Kate and Mullins – aka The Africa Crew. I’ve known this lot for over two years now, we meet up every few months and get really, really... really pissed. Excellent. And it’s like we saw each other just last week. [Bit of background: I went to Africa for 7 weeks in 2009 – starting in Cape Town and ending in Nairobi – camping pretty much every night with this lot in the next door tents.]

The Girls

So Saturday morning I 'danger packed' (vodka, playing cards, ping pong balls and a clean tee shirt) and made my way to Paddington Station where I met Kate and we found our seats on the train. 90 minutes flew by and suddenly we were at the station. We arrived in Bath at 1pm and headed straight for Binks’ and Nat’s house right in the centre of town. Bath is lovely. Like, really lovely. I was only there for just over 24 hours and most of that time it was dark and/or I was really quite drunk but it made a great first impression! I’ll definitely be heading back at some point soon.

Mad pizza cutting skills

We lunched at Market, where I taught the girls a thing or two about flirting and the art of getting a free drink. Binks introduced me to the finest cookies on Earth, Millie’s cookies ain’t got shit on Ben’s Cookies!!...easily the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth, well…top three.

Sparklers!

Mr Mullins didn’t disappoint (does he ever?!) and surprised us all by turning up hours before we expected him – cue girly screams and a stampede to the front door. After hours of F*** The Dealer, Ring of Fire, I Have Never, Spillage is Lickage, sparkler amazingness and lots and lots of Amarula we went to Fuzzy Duck at the Bath SU and treated ourselves to jagerbombs and Blue VKs...so, so classy. A short bus ride down the hill back to the house and chicken nuggets and curly fries at 4am - what more could a girl ask for?!

It was exactly the type of night I've been missing since term started again and all I can see on my Facebook news feed is...

'Oooow Monday hangover, brutal'

'Two for Tuesdays?...Two crates of beer maybe'

'Wednesday social - EPIC'

'Freshers got schooled last night...back on it today, yeaaaah'

'LECTURE CANCELLED, pub??'

'Heading to the pub for the game, see you there 12 noon'

'Heading to the pub for Super Sunday, see you there 12 noon'

The morning brought a big fry-up, a Rugby World Cup semi-final and then to the pub for the Arsenal game. It was so good to get away and see some familiar faces and have a proper catch up. I bloody love those guys. A special mention goes to one Becky Wild… there are simply no words…and even if there were, well, what happens in Bath will forever stay in Bath (expect those sneaky pictures that end up on Facebook and you're too slow to de-tag!).

Christmas, every day.

The trip also made me realise that it's so important to get out of London at the weekend - during the train journey I remembered this country has some crackin' countryside - and as a-mazin as London can be, well... Hampstead Heath is no Winter Hill or Rivington Pike. Walking back to the train station I stumbled upon a little shop, 'December 25th'... Imagine working there all year round; Christmas hits on repeat over and over and over again. Urgh.

I have a TOP week planned which I'm still finalising the details of so I'll include that in next week’s post but in short it ends in a Manchester gutter.

Girls, get the couch/bucket/funnel/shots/DMCs/beers/music/DVDs/duvets/gossip/banter ready...

I'm coming to get you!!

Until next time (as long as I make it back from Manchester),

Bren x

Ps, The information geek in me is excited to share my ‘Website of the Week’ (it’s new, I just made it up). One of my favourites is the Left/Right political comparison visualisation although I’m pretty sure it was created by a Lefty and so in parts sounds wildly one sided…but aren’t all graphics?!..