Weekend Zen Birthday Weekend!

This past weekend I celebrated my 33rd birthday (July 20th to be exact!).

It also happened to be a weekend I spent away in the Cotswolds with 9 friends as part of the Itsu Weekend Zen competition that I won!

I entered the competition earlier this year via my @indieberries instagram account – (you can see the entry here!) and when the amazing people from Lock-In marketing got in touch to organise the weekend, I gave them a possible date over my birthday – which happened to work out perfectly!

It was SUCH an incredible weekend and we were thoroughly spoilt! I’m SO grateful to Itsu and everyone involved in making such a wonderful experience for all of us!

We stayed at The Landers Cottage in the Cotswalds which was just far enough out of London to make it feel like a proper “get-away” but not far enough to make it feel like we would be spending half our weekend traveling! The Cottage was gorgeous and I almost* wish the weather had been miserable so that we would have sat inside and enjoyed all the little lounges and dining rooms a bit more!

*just kidding, I NEVER wish for the weather to be miserable!

We did however TOTALLY max out on lazing out by the pool and soaking in all the gorgeous summer rays that the UK has been treating us with!

 

We were so super spoilt with our own private chef Daniel – who cooked us up a feast on Friday evening!

Saturday morning after our scrambled egg and salmon breakfast and a bit of chill time, we had a yoga and meditation session with Jan from Cheltenham Chase Yoga and Pilates

She created such a wonderful yoga experience for us, finishing with a beautiful meditation (above). She also left each of us with a little goodie bag of herbal teas (I’m drinking my women’s health tea right now!), a personal note, a Lavender shortbread and an intention card. They also gave me a birthday gift – which was so thoughtful of them! Thank you so much!

My intention card was “motivation” and Warr received “Family” – so basically NOW WE KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS CONUNDRUM. (Lol)

For lunch on Saturday we were treated to a fabulous sushi making class with The Sushi Queen (who among many other places worked at the sushi bar in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant) – she’s also cooked for Geri Halliwell and Natalie Portman – so basicalllllly, if you don’t get too hung up on semantics, it’s like we’ve basicalllllly had lunch-by-association with one fifth of The Spice Girls and The Black Swan.

We learnt so many different techniques and rolling styles (harder than it looks) and how it is essential to wet your hands before you deal with sushi rice – because it is sticky AF. Nigiri being decidedly the easiest sushi to make! haha!

We ended up with a literal boat-load of sushi –

Which we devoured for lunch outside by the pool in the sunshine!

Sunday was a treat day of spa treatments which we had at the Cheltenham Chase Spa – Warr and I both had a “fit for business” back therapy which included an exfoliation, a back massage a back mask and a foot and leg massage – such a treat!

In the afternoon we all met up at the Spa for a very indulgent afternoon tea!

Macarons, scones, cakes, mini sandwiches and chocolate delights!

We spent the rest of Saturday chilling around the pool – (me trying to perfect a co-ordinated handstand entry into the pool with Warren – which was NOT going according to my plan! #comingsoon)

I also spent a large part of Sunday in the jacuzzi having girl chats and getting Anna Marsh – (aka-podcasting-co-host )- to feed me salt and vinegar chips straight into my mouth. (a true story).

#bossybirthdaygirl

(But really we get along great – you should listen to the Kombucha and Colour Podcast)

Anyway, to round up the feelings of a very fabulous birthday celebratory weekend it was completely wonderful! Not only did I feel so super spoiled for my birthday – but I know that everyone on the weekend with me felt super spoilt too – and that made me feel SO happy!

Every person who was involved from The Spa Centre to Jan the Yoga Teacher, to Daniel the chef to Keiko the Sushi Queen, to Suzann and Flo and everyone at Lock-In marketing – to everyone who joined me – thank you ALL for making it such a fun filled wonderful and happy weekend!

A HUGE massive thank you to Itsu for this incredible prize! It was definitely the perfect weekend to get out of the hustle and bustle of London and take some time out!

Thank you, thank you thank you!!

We are all so grateful!

PS. If you by any chance need us to go on any other weekend adventures – we are TOTALLY available!

Perhaps you need us to eat some Itsu pots on the top of the Machu Picchu in our wedding kit to add to our collection?!

I think yes.