Hen Day!

Lorraine (used to Blip but hasn't for years!) is back from China for a couple of weeks, so the opportunity was grabbed, to surprise her with a Hen Do, slightly early, admittedly, given that she's not getting married until September, when she jets off to the US to tie the knot. So I flew in from Warsaw and her mum, sister and four friends flew down from Edinburgh to surprise her on what she thought would be 'lunch with the girls'.

So five became six and six became twelve. It all went according to plan and a lot of fun was had, as we had some snacks and lunch-time drinks in a pub in Richmond, before getting on what must have been the slowest and hottest ever train into London. We made our way to the Langham Hotel, where we sipped champagne, nibbled on dainty sandwiches and savoured delicious cakes in a very grand and air-conditioned room, which got us away from the roasting city.

By the time we left there it was gone 7pm and making the most of our travel-cards we bussed it up to our next destination, to aid the transformation from sophisticated ladies who afternoon tea, into tequila slamming, song-singing ladettes! Our two-hour booking for a private kareoke room turned into three and a half hours of belting out the numbers, buying extra time as the night went on. Shots and cocktails ensured that our throats weren't dry and we rocked out of there at gone midnight, having to negotiate taxi fares home to our respective suburbs, to avoid running for last trains.

We didn't make her do anything horrendous and there wasn't an 'L' plate or plastic willy in sight. Plenty of photos of the day though, including this of the hen and a few chicks, making their way to the train.