Countryside Getaway: My Birthday Weekend

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Earlier this week I turned 25 and to celebrate, I planned a weekend getaway in the countryside with a group of friends. I have wanted to plan a small countryside escape for the longest time and I thought my birthday was the perfect excuse to do so! I found a beautiful modern cottage in a small village in Kent for us to spend my birthday weekend and I just really want to share what we got up to and some photos of our weekend getaway.

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After scouring the internet for a cottage to spend a weekend with my friends, I came across The Old Church Hall in a small village in Kent. This gorgeous little cottage, recently renovated, boasts a beautiful open-plan living space including a kitchen, dining table, sofa area and log burner too. With 3 bedrooms (2 doubles and 1 twin) and a mezzanine (with 1 double and 1 single bed) enough to sleep 9 as well as 3 bathrooms. Not forgetting the aspects which sold it to me including the outdoor pizza oven and private hot tub.

Upon arrival the exterior was decked out for Christmas with two stunning Christmas trees at the entrance. Inside the cottage there were no decorations but that didn't really bother me to be honest, I was happy to see the front of the house dressed up for the festive season!

We arrived at 3pm to check in to our weekend abode and instantly made ourselves at home. Once we split ourselves between the bedrooms, we spent the rest of the evening drinking, eating and playing games.

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For our first night, pizzas were on the agenda. We did it all from mixing the dough and rolling out the pizzas to customising each pizza with our choice of toppings. Sadly we couldn't light the pizza oven outdoors (we think it was partially due to the wind making it impossible to keep a flame alight and because of previous rainfall, the logs were a bit too damp to catch fire) so instead we used the main ovens in the house.

I had never made pizzas from scratch before so really enjoyed this! It's perfect to do with a group of friends as everyone can easily get involved in creating the perfect pizza. Plus, everybody loves pizza so it was very fuss-free.

The following morning, we prepared a big breakfast spread to keep us fuelled until our Sunday roast at the pub. Honestly, cooking with a bunch of people is just so much fun. Everyone had their own jobs and we were all very content when we were finally able to sit down and dig in!

Afterwards, we all got ready for the day and each did our own thing. We watched TV, went on walks and just generally had a chilled out morning.

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Ruckinge is a very small and quaint village in Kent, so we took the opportunity to go for a walk around the area. We followed a footpath which led to ponies, horses, alpacas and many more farm animals along the way. It was very cold and very muddy but it's always worth exploring a new area in my opinion.

As the day began to darken and skies filled with heavy clouds, we headed back to the cottage, following some more unconventional paths along the way.

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We ended every evening playing games including Trivial Pursuit (which I really didn't enjoy admittedly) and Obama Llama 2 which I looooved! A lot of our time was spent shouting out rhymes and acting out phrases which was just so much fun. Especially after a glass of wine or two.

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On Monday morning we said goodbye to our humble abode for the weekend and made our way to the nearby town of Tenterden. We had brunch and ate cake which simply couldn't be more perfect! I had a wonderful birthday and was so happy the weekend was filled with sunshine, friends, laughter and good food - that's all I had hoped for.

I also vlogged! Watch my video here: