it's good to remember the things you love to do

like camping, being outside, climbing trees and playing 4o-40-in in the woods. which is what we did for my friend Esther's hen party this weekend. None of your devil's horns, high heels and drunken pub/club crawls. no no, not for this girl. although there was a not-particularly-sexy rabbit mask/head gear...

9 of us went to the New Forest (stopping for dares at a service station!), another beautiful place that i love but haven't been to for ages. It was good to smell the familiar blend of bracken/tree(duh!)/pony . After having to sweet talk the ladies in charge to let us stay in the "full" site, we set up camp in one of the areas that must be reserved for (rowdy) teenagers. In fact there was a group of 17 year-old boys nearby who lent us a mallet and table but then hung around for a little too long. (No offence but... we're all 21 and this is a HEN party!). the skillllllz of the ex-scouts and offspring-of-camping-fanatics among us (yes that might include me :o) ) proved to be alive and kicking as we set up 3 tents and got the BBQ going pretty quick. It had to be quick because it was vaguely raining and we were by then very hungry.

burgers, sausages, sweets and a few games later we were all pretty tired. A lot of us have known each other for years and it still seems so surreal that this summer marriages and qualifying as teachers/various therapists is on the cards. What i'm trying to say is people were tired from doing real life grown up things the rest of the week. (that DOESN'T include me... :-S)

so it wasn't a mad night but that meant we were all up around 7am ready to make the most of the day. I love waking up and getting straight out of the tent because it's too stuffy to stay in it and there you are outside in sky and grass and trees and pyjamas and sleepy faces. Camping is so familiar to me yet i know a lot of people never go. And then you realise the unwritten things that you've learnt along the way. Like trekking to the toilets, locating the washing up room, filling water bottles at the tap, always having a torch, that tent walls do NOT block out sound, that the toilets will be closed for cleaning at an inconvenient time, tripping over guy ropes, the right way to put in a tent peg... LOVE IT!

After packing up we drove down to Lepe which is by the sea. Forest and sea all in one. nice. There Abbie and Sanna - the wonderful organisers - set us more challenges and games. Competetive natures came to the surface, not for the first time. Like in the tug of war, who lets go because the thin rope was too painful to keep a hold on? (that would be me) and who doesnt let go no matter what despite the rope actually taking the skin off their hands? (uhhh... nearly everyone else, especially Esther!). It was in the final round of 40-40-in (some people have other names for this game...) when i finally felt i'd got back to 'my roots' - literally- as i scrambled stealthily through the undergrowth in an attempt to reach the tree in the middle of the clearing without Esther seeing me. Suddenly i was 6 in my great aunt's garden, 8 in the bushes in the Lime Pits park in basingstoke, 11 at boy-scouts, 12 playing a wide game at Ndubaluba, 14 on Bronze duke of edinburg expedition, 16 in the lake district... not student, not waitress, not clubber - not those labels that might define me when i'm in oxford or brighton or anywhere town/city ish - just katrina and the 'great outdoors' (cheeeeeesey!! haha!). and covered in tree sap from climbing it and scratched by thorns and happy. by the way i did make it 'back to base'. score.

a pub lunch, more games of 'empire' and chilled afternoon watching enchanted and playing 'spoons' (not SO chilled owing to those same competetive natures!) and it was time to go home. a perfect hen party i'd say.

i'm sure there'll be more to come soon on camping (going properly next week. woop!) and the lovely Esther and her wedding...