I always thought I'd be a grown up when I grew up

phil_girl's hen do on Saturday was fab. Thoroughly so :) You know someone's a great friend when you can lose touch with them for 10 years then feel just as comfortable & happy as ever with them within 5 minutes of meeting again :)

Captain Phil and her Slap Stick took her scurvy pirate crew out for a turkish meal with associated live music (fat bloke singing "Delilah", "New York, New York" and "I Will Survive" in Turkish) followed by belly dancing and then disco. Great fun, and we'd all made far more effort than any of the other hen parties there. Though I was ready to stab the next person who yelled "Ahoy There" or other nautical catchphrases across the sreet at us. I know how Hamster felt on the way to Norway with James May, now.

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People will never stop using their cars until cars stop being fun, and trains take less than 5 1/2 hours to get between Stockport and Staines.

Yes, Staines is archetypal suburbia, but it was a lovely change seeing bookshelves in people's houses instead of playstations and racks of DVDs. I think I'd be happy anywhere south of Birmingham, really.

The truly evil bit wasn't being on my own in the hotel (drinks with the others followed by a nice meal an then making a mess in the bathroom I didn't have to clean up), but was being able to watch the first half of "Brainiac" in the mornings. If it hadn't been for the ad break, I wouldn't have made it out of the door.

(I was on a training course if you were wondering - I can't think why else I'd go there).