LIFESTYLE: #ActiveHen
Friday, 6 June 2014
So hopefully you guys all saw my post about the active hen focus group I
attended a while ago? This weekend our original ideas came to life and we all got to go into London
and try it out for ourselves! This is just the first test run to see what we
though and now they are looking into tweaking with our recommendation before it goes up for sale!
I packed my bag on Friday and headed to Aldgate for 6 pm. The apartments
were a five minute walk from the station and once I worked out that commercial
road and commercial street were two different things, it was quite easy to find - although finding the room was another story haha but it was ok, I got there in the end!
The apartments themselves were really lovely, spacious and just really nice,
we had two bathrooms between us one with a bath and one with a shower which
worked well! I was first to arrive (as usual) which gave me time to scout out the best bed haha I definitely shot gunned the best room, I
could see the shard from my bed. Tthe London
lights were an amazing view to go to bed too and the shard against the blue sky
was also amazing first thing in the morning!
When the rest of the girls arrived we all got chatting over some snacks and prosecco and had a look though our cheeky welcome basket which was great though the whole weekend, it was full for chocolate, biscuits and nuts plus a little photo album and stuff like that! We also each had a personlaised onesie in a goodie bag on our beds as well which we all loved and got into as soon as possible!
After we were all settled in our onesies, our lovely sushi chef, Alister from The School Of Food
arrived for a night of sushi making, this was the part of the weekend that I
was most looking forward to and by far the part I enjoyed the most. I've always
wanted to make sushi and I was super proud of my finished pieces, they tasted so much better than normal sushi and it was such a fun new experience!
After dinner we grabbed a load of treats from the hen hamper, a cup of tea and sat around watching
films and gossiping all night! We went to be quite early since we had to be up
and ready for a yoga class at 8.30 in our apartment.
If you are a sporty person then I think this weekend would really be perfect
for you, buy sadly I am not and I did feel a little like the
younger sister who isn't into fitness but had to come along as the bride wanted her there, you know? I really don't enjoy
doing fitness stuff and find it really hard but the sporty girls really enjoyed all of it so if you like that sort of thing, then I think you would really enjoy it too, it just wasn't my cup of
tea! Of course I still joined in and had fun overall and I think its still relevant because there is
no way that every person that the healthy hen invited on her hen do is going to
be very sporty like her!
Back to the yoga! The class actually didn't
end up starting until 9.15 because the yoga teacher got a little lost! It was my first time doing yoga, (I even had to get myself some new sports clothes from SportsShoes* for the weekend haha) and I did struggle with some of the poses,
especially because of my back issues, what was good though, was that it didn't
matter, I went at my own pace and it didn't ruin it for anyone else, I also
loved doing it in our living room with the balcony door open looking out into London!
After the yoga we had three hours until our next activity which gave us time
to wash, eat, relax and get the next place! I was also a bit worried about this
next part, they package comes with four keys for us all to get on a Boris bike
to ride to our next activity and there was no way that I was going to get on a
bike and ride it though London, Luckily it was a lovely day and some of the
other girls wanted to walk which was great - it took us 40 minutes but it was a nice
walk and we had loads to chat about so time flew by.
We arrived at the park ready for an afternoon of old school games! We did
the sack race, a 5 legged race and loads of other silly things, there were even
medals at the end haha, obviously my team lost but it's fine, we still
got hold of a gold medal so you'd never know hahah.
We then called ourselves a cab back to the apartments and had less than an
hour to all be washed and ready to leave again, it was a crazy rush but we did
it! We were picked up outside and driven though London to Piccadilly Circus for a cocktail class at
one of my favourite bars! I did really enjoy this part, as you guys already
know, I do like a cocktail class and driving though busy London is one of my favorite things to do haha We had our own room upstairs with our own
barman - Roberto - who was great! We were greeted with some very strange looking
bright blue cocktails and then the games begun! Obviously I won the cocktail
making competition and made the best porn star martini while Sian
lost and has to take a horrible looking shot, topped with whipped cream,
without using her hands lolol!! Next we made a long island iced tea and a mojito
plus lots of shots along the way.
We were then able to walk just down the road to dinner at The Grace Bar
which was full of other hen parties who were all very drunk already, it was
crazy but we had our own private room which we were all very pleased about
since - it meant we could hear ourselves talk!
After dinner I really wanted to go clubbing, I was so in the mood to go out
but I was alone on that one so the girls popped to the whole foods store for some
healthy snacks (what?!) and I ran to Tesco to pick up a trifle for myself (more like it!) and
we called another cab to take us home and we were all in bed by 10.30. I woke up bright an early the next day and made my way home to spend the rest of my weekend with Andrew in a super sunny beer garden!
Things I loved -
The Sushi Class
The Cocktail Making & The Bar
The Welcome Basket
The Onesie!
The Actual Apartment & View
The Restaurant Being Close To The Bar
Things I'd Change -
Pre-Arranged Cabs for After Sports Day
Less Free Time In The Morning & More In The Afternoon
Loved The Welcome Basket But Would Have Liked Face-Masks, Nail Polishes. Ect.
The Restaurant - I wasn't too impressed with the food and screaming hens.
Overall, I had a super fun weekend and really enjoyed working on the whole project with some lovely bloggers! It's great to see everyone's ideas come to life from the original focus group and I'm looking forward to seeing the next step! Be sure to check out the HenHub to keep updated too!
Maximise are offering a special promotion for my readers – the bride goes free when you book a hen package. You just need to quote the code: ACTIVEHEN when booking online or over the phone (0208 236 0111)
