Birds of a feather flock together

One of the reasons I am called Bird, is because in one of my most special social circles, that is what my two friends and I call each other. "Cup of tea, bird?" "Oh you look pretty bird!" "Bird, what time is it?" and so on. It's why I don't object to being called Bird or indeed calling myself Bird, though I fully appreciate why other females would prefer not to be referred to as "bird".

So back to the Birds. We recently downed tools and men and headed off to Bristol for a girlie weekend. We were actually revisiting the scene of previous crimes after we spent a summer's weekend there back in 2002 (are we really that old?!?). Both that and this weekend was jam-packed with laughter though there were other differences; we were in the Marriott instead of the Travelodge and we treated ourselves to some delightful spa treatments instead of saving our precious student (loan) pennies for a boozey night out.

If you have good girlfriends you will know that there really is nothing complicated in creating the perfect girls' weekend. But if you need inspiration or reminding, here's what I would recommend as the main ingredients for a good girls' weekends.

1. Good girlfriends. Sadly you can't buy these, but they do exist and can be found all over the world if you look hard enough. Once found you should invest heavily in them with your time and love. 2. Pick a good location to suit your girls' weekend needs. We wanted a quick-ish and easy-ish journey from London, limited risk of bad weather, a decent night life and somewhere with a silly accent to giggle at. Thank you Brizzle. 3. Make time for some scenic stuff. The last time we were in Bristol we stuck mainly to the High Street shops and bars (we were young!) and so quite frankly we could have been in any town or city centre. But now we're a little older we took time out for a stroll around the town, around Castle Park and along the river Avon. 4. Eat, drink and be merry!! For this included a very retro cool box full of picnic treats for the journey, a riverside cider or two, a massive pizza and of course a kebab on the way home after a long, hard night drinking and dancing. Yes we may be older now but some things never change. 5. Take lots of photos. I took photographs of us walking around town, getting ready for our night out, looking our best at dinner and looking our worst in the early hours of the morning (all for personal viewing I'm afraid) because as we get older I fear that we will sadly see each other less, despite, I believe, appreciating each other more. That's why it's important to capture the moments. I also took lots of photographs of canal boats, as they have a special place in my heart too.