Bank Holiday fun

The Suffolk Parade Street Fair is an annual event, and each year I've gone it has absolutely poured down. But the stall holders and and entertainers have soldiered on and created a great event. 

This year was different. THE SUN WAS OUT! And as a result, the crowds were smiling and face paints stayed where they should have! 

It was lovely to slowly wander along the stalls and check out the wares on offer. There was a lovely selection of food, as well as drinks obviously. But I was very restrained and only had half a glass of wine in the Retreat (great bar, by the way!).

A couple of pics here... just a couple of places you should check out if you're in the area. 

The Daffodil in particular... highly recommended!

It's wedding season...

And so to the first of this year's weddings!

Two very good friends are getting married this summer (not to each other!) and I do love a good wedding!

Last week was the turn of Kat and Tim.

Beautiful ceremony at the C3 church in Cheltenham followed by the reception at the Tithe Barn in Bishop's Cleeve.

And it didn't rain! WOO!

 

I wore... this dress from Oasis, this blazer from Warehouse and some really old gold shoes from Faith (I can't be the only one that really misses Faith right?) 

Nick was sober as he had to fly at 6:30am the next day. To say we were drunk and annoying was probably an understatement...

It's a hard life...

My friend Holly and I spoil ourselves on a regular basis by whisking ourselves off for a lovely spa treatment. We try and visit a different one each time, will pay for a package and then normally add on an extra treatment. One is never enough!

We both grew up in Cheltenham, and I still live here, so we try and find a local one nearby - luckily the Cotswolds has plenty of spa hotels to keep up happy!

This time we visited Barnsley House. Recommended by a girl at work, it's a boutique hotel near Cirencester. It's near the picture-perfect village of Bibury that we drove through, looking through the windows like gobsmacked tourists - having lived here my whole life, I know what the Cotswolds looks like but Bibury and Barnsley were something else!

Barnsley House is a boutique hotel, and it was just lovely. There was a photographic group taking pictures in the garden. I have already planned my wedding there. (Just missing the engagement ring but who cares!).

We had the halfday spa package and both bought an extra treatment. So we enjoyed an express facial and massage, and then a pedicure or manicure. The massage and facial were fab - I  might have dozed off there - and I loved the pedicure. I hate my feet but I love foot treatments - and now my toes are at least trying to look pretty.

We sat in the lounge reading our magazines (read: dozing), then moved to the pool outside. We used the water jets and just chilled - the pool was heated so was steaming in the chilly Cotswold air! Then we used the steam room - although we're both wimps so we gave up quite quickly!

It was just so lovely to get away - we both have fairly tough jobs (although i fully acknowledge that some might not think they're tough - we're not nurses, teachers, bin men etc etc) so it's nice to escape.

My verdict on Barnsley House? It's wonderful. It's beautiful, the food is amazing (oh god, the lunch - we ate far too much, including their home made bread, and were so glad our treatments were a few hours later as we really couldn't move) and the treatments were wonderful. Loved it, and thoroughly recommend them.

I didn't snap any pics in the spa itself - mostly because I was dozing in the lounge - but did snap the garden!

Sunday wishlist #9

I love a Sunday night window shop...

£25, ASOS

Yep, the Global Technacolour t-shirts are back! They change colour and everything! These are so retro I bet trendy teenagers have no idea about how popular they used to be.

ASOS shift, £48

I need a dress for a wedding in the middle of June... I can't get away with white can I, but this is really pretty!

Dune, £55, from ASOS

WHENNNN is the sun coming out so I can wear these please?

£30, Oasis

Sprinkle a little magic...

This weekend we visited the Warner Brothers Studio Tour - yep, the Harry Potter studio. We bought tickets before the Royals made it REALLY popular a few weeks ago, or rather Nick bought some tickets to make up for something he'd done wrong.

I queued up to buy the final book from a shop at midnight. I've read all of them cover to cover, several times, and have loved the films. So I was desperate to go on the tour - even if it is a studio money making machine!

And I wasn't disappointed! I loved it - the attention to detail is stunning. I genuinely walked around with a smile on my face as I recognised everything, and couldn't stop snapping.

I don't want to post too many pictures, as I don't want to ruin it for you if you visit, but here's a few of my favourites...

Sunny Cheltenham bank holiday

I realised something today. It was a beautiful day, perfect for sitting in a park somewhere with a glass of something, chatting to friends and chilling out.

I realised I could do all that - but would be doing it on my own! Nick was working so that meant I had no one to hang out with. I'm not writing this for sympathy, it's just I've realised I'm one of those people who socialises online instead of with actual people - most of my friends have moved away and live far away, and it's not possible to pop out for a drink. I also hate to be the one who sets up a social event - I get quite upset when people can't come, so I just don't bother any more! Even my 30th was quiet - friends at work made a really big deal out of it (thank you!) but my *party* was rather quiet. And over by about 9:30! (Yeah, yeah, I can hear you saying 'what a loser!').

So today I went for a little wander by myself. In fact, I was in town before the shops opened! So I sat in a lovely park in town and read my magazines. And Cheltenham does look pretty when it's sunny...

And at least my big camera came out of the bag...

Imperial Gardens, Cheltenham

The Promenade, Cheltenham

Outside the Municipal Buildings, Cheltenham. Pretty flowers.

More flowers

Gustav Holst, a Cheltenham dude. Wrote The Planets.

More Imperial Gardens. Not pictured: the rubbish in the overflowing bins!

Then I sat in the garden for a very long time. Reading everything - including The Machine by James Smythe, which I highly recommend - I haven't finished it yet, but it's really good. It just feels tense the whole way through, makes me shiver.

I love the sun - possibly too much. I'm looking a bit beetroot, so will be covering up tomorrow!