The final day of our Hen Do and it's a full day to appreciate this beautiful villa,.
The theme is White and Gold.
The Hens are in white and the bride to be in gold.
I went for my old Zara dress but almost everyone else was in beachwear.
Today its a real treat as two chefs arrive with pots, pans, plates and food to prepare a feast while the Butler in the Buff creates cocktails for us and a DJ plays some tunes.
After the food and drink there are party games organised by the matron of honour, my daughter in law, Sophie.
I couldn't quite get the hang of the balloon game.
It all ended with two teams competing to make a wedding dress with toilet rolls.
And the indecent proposal?
My daughter in law and my son Joe's girlfriend, Poppy, were seeing the butler out when he uttered the immortal words:
After a relatively early night and all that fresh air I sleep like a log and spend the morning lazing by the pool in my preloved Top Shop swimsuit and charity shop sarong.
As most of the girls are sleeping off the previous night's excess I get a chance to read my book The Black Dress by Deborah Moggarch which I am thoroughly enjoying.
By lunchtime we are getting ready for the Beach Club and a Champagne Spray whatever that it.
I decide to wear this Butter by Nadia multiway dress that I got from eBay and my old favourite Top Shop sandals.
Before we go the matron of honour,my daughter in law, insists on a party game and Poppy (my son Joe's girlfriend proves to be a winner).
Ocean Beach Club was, shall we say, an insight into how the other half lives.
The money wasted on spraying champagne was obscene.
And those ladies by the pool on the right provided most of the entertainment for the afternoon when they arrived en masse on a Stag Bed next to us.
Although the show became x-rated as the afternoon progressed.
One of our party couldn't resist copying their pose!!!!
I wasn't sorry to leave and while the Hen Do is almost over I was looking forward to Day Four the most although there was an Indecent Proposal which I will tell you about next time.
Just a plain row which prompted one hen to pack her bags and do a moonlit flit from the house.
When everyone emerged the followng morning heads were in varying states of soreness and confusion about the events of the previous evening but there was no time to dwell as we were being picked up ay 11 for the boat trip.
As I was first up I enjoyed a couple of hours sunbathing and got the chance to wear my preloved white shorts that I'd bought from Vinted together with an anicent swimming costume.
Then it was time for a quick change into this black crochet preloved New Look Dress and preloved Top Shop swimming costume.
The taxi arrived just in time and we were taken to Marbella port where we caught the boat.
The dress code was black for us and white for my daughter.
And what a fabulous day it was.
For four hours we enjoyed drinking, dancing and sunbathing.
When I saw we, I mean most of us because three hens spent most of the trip lying down indoors with seasickness!
Briony enjoyed a Titanic moment with a mask of Jordan and she looked fabulous.
Just four short months ago she was four stone heavier after giving birth to baby Mason.
Time for a group shot.
I managed one photo with my son Joe's girlfriend Poppy before she disappeared for the duration nursing her hangover seasickness!
After the boat trip we went into Puerto Banus for a couple of cocktails followed by a meal at a fabulous Italian restaurant in the port.
While most of the girls stayed on to party Briony, Sophie and me made our excuses and went back to the villa to enjoy a warm evening in the hot tub as we paced ourselves for the festivities to come the following day.
So, the day finally dawns and here we are - all of us together for the first night only - more of that later.
But lets begin at the beginning.
While hen party was originally used in the nineteenth century to describe a sedate gathering of women in the United States, it lost something in translation when it travelled to our shores at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The practice of women enjoying their last day of freedom before their wedding has something in part related to this female gathering but its also linked to the word 'honey' or 'hinnie' and has nothing to do with birds!
Modern women like my daughter now enjoy freedoms my grandmother's generation could never have dreamed about.
She was a machinest at Burton's factory near Bolton and I remember her regaling us with tales of young women decorated in toilet rolls with L plates tied to their backs.
In those days women generally gave up work to get married.
Most female factory workers were either single or like my grandmother, widowed.
One of the things that links the olden days (as my children refer to pre-1980s days) and today is that generally Hen parties were about taking the bride out of her comfort zone and nothing has changed there.
So history lecture over lets turn the clock back to 2am on Friday May 27th when the alarm rings.
After a quick shower my son's girlfiend, Poppy, who lives with us drives us to my daughter's house and we pick another hen up on the way.
After a 4am pick-up we enjoyed a glass of champagne in the taxi and arrive at Liverpool Airport.
My daughter is nervous and excited. She has left her four month old baby in the capable hands of her fiance.
I am also nervous and excited. I have never been on a Hen Holiday before.
I didn't have a Hen Do when I got married and the only Hen Do I had been on before was a rather sedate afternoon tea for the oldies when my daugher in law got married to my son in 2018.
I am excited about the prospect of some sun and fun but nervous as I don't really know many of the others apart from my daughter, daughter in law and son's girlfiend.
I have met my future son in law's mum a handful of times and her friend I have met once.
Apart from that I don't really know anyone else.
But as a former journalist I am used to being on the outside looking in.
We board the plane around 6am and the others are enjoying a drink or three while I sleep - you can see me sleeping through in the bottom right!.
By the time we arrive in our fabulous villa in the Elviria Hills near Marbella I am fully recharged and enjoy some R & R with my daughter along with a few drinks.
After we get ready, my daughter experieinces her first stride outside the comfort zone when the stripper arrives.
You can see my toes curling in the foreground of this photo.
The evening ends at The Supper Club in Puerto Banus.
12 of us leave but only 11 come back.
Find out why in my next post.
But until next time I will leave you with a tour of the villa.
Today in our joint Second Hand Stories series, my blogging partner Sarah London and I will share out latest preloved finds.
And for me it has been all about the holiday wardobe.
I am about to go on holiday abroad for the first time in nearly three years.
And for me the holiday begins by planning what I will wear.
I have a little notebook where I plan what I will take and also journal the trip too.
This is an entry from March 2010.
I will be taking this book with me to Marbella tomorrow as we celebrate my daughter's Hen.
As it is a Hen Do the days and events are planned out in detail, even down to colour themes: Black Day, White Party, Supper Club etc.
It has made planning a lot easier and I was determined to take as much second-hand stuff as I could.
I also bought new items from the proceeds of my Vinted sale.
I have been scouring the preloved sites since January and I have found some great buys.
About half of my holiday wardrobe is preloved and here are some of my favourites.
The pink Seafolly costume is from Vinted and the black costume from Top Shop via Vinted.
The Top Shop white shorts and black New Look shorts are both from Vinted.
These beaded Top Shop bag was £3 from Vinted and the BNWT Zara bag also Vinted was £10.
This gorgeous white Reiss Dress still had the £238 tag on it and I paid £40. Again from Vinted.
And my absolute favourites are these leather and wood Mulberry Sandals which came with dustbag and box and had never been worn.
I paid £40.
In the first picture I am wearing a sarong I bought yesterday for £3 from a local charity shop with the Top Shop costume and preloved Dolce & Gabana sunglasses.
I am off to see what Sarah has added to her preloved collection this month.
I have always loved a capsule wardrobe challenge but this one was the most challenging yet.
Last month my blogging buddy Sarah London and I decided to launch a Capsule Wardrobe Challenge using only preloved items.
The 10 items I chose would not have been the clothes I would neceassrily have chosen from my wardobe but what I learned was how much restriction leads not only to creativity, but pushing oneself out of the comfort zone.
My first five outfits were pretty obvious but by the end of the challenge I was running out of options and I had lost the pink top I had included so my capsule ended up with 9 items instead of 10.
But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention and I was forced into the uncomofortable zone.
I hate my legs. I feel they are short and stocky and would only have dared to wear a mini skirt with thick back tights. But I was bored with thick black tights.
And now, I had nothing to lose.
Unless my legs are tanned I hate to expose bare legs so these large fishnet tights offered a little coverage.
And once I tried them with the skirt, I quite liked it.
I then tried some bright red tights I had bought but never worn and experimented with wearing the shirt back to front and underneath a top.
I even had a go at showing off my midriff which I had never even considered but by the end of the challenge I had gained a little more confidence.
So what have I learned from this challenge?
Just one lesson - don't knock it until you've tried it!
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