A very special day off

A couple of weeks ago, Bex asked me to take the day off as she had something special planned. So on Friday, we headed into London in the morning for the first part of our exciting day, a professional photo shoot.

Bex had received two free vouchers through a friend's recommendation for us to get our make-up done, hair styled and professional photos taken. We spent about four hours at the studios being shuffled from one person to the next, changing outfits, drinking Bucks Fizz (orange juice and champagne) and overall feeling really special.

The end results were some really fantastic photos which we would have loved to come away with, but extraordinary prices prevented us from doing so. We did manage to leave with our contact sheets and two images after loads and loads of negotiating - a memory of our special morning together and in a few years time, a memory of our much younger better looking years.

The images below have been scanned from a very small original size, hence the low quality, but gives you an idea of some of the fun shots we did

Once we finished at the studios, we ran over to meet Alex, Bex's mom, who treated us to a lovely lunch at a restaurant on Piccadilly. Alex managed to get us tickets that morning to the sold out Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum, so we had to eat quickly to make our 4 o'clock entrance time.

For those of you who don't know much about the Terracotta Army, watch the video on the British Museum's website here for an introduction. In brief, the First Emperor of China had an entire army of over 8,100 figures in the shape of men, horses and other animals created out of terracotta to provide him with protection once he died. Buried in 210-209 BC in the land surrounding his tomb, the figures were only discovered in 1974 by a local farmer. The exhibit at the British Museum only shows a very small number of the figures but gives you a wonderful idea of what it consists of. It was really a unique exhibition and one we really enjoyed. Thanks again Alex for a wonderful experience!

After the exhibit we all met Rob and CW for some drinks at a wine bar nearby. Alex later went to meet Ian and we headed back to St Albans for a nice little Italian meal together before retiring to our respective dwellings.

All in all it was a really special day and a memory to last a lifetime. Thanks so much Bex for inviting me as your special guest! It was so great to have the time with you getting pampered and doing something completely different from anything I would normally do!