A weekend worth writing home about.

Or at least it would be, except that I went home, but my parents were both elsewhere having adventures, hopefully ones worth writing home about!

Last Friday lunchtime found me frantically trying to finish a DNA extraction by 2pm, in order to get home, pack a weekend bag for myself, one husband and six rats, and brave the M25 and M4 on a Friday afternoon, all to get to Bristol by 6pm.

You see, what started as a Sunday trip to Cheltenham to go to a rat show snowballed into a long weekend of fun and frolics as soon as my sister in law Kate got wind of our westward travels.

After sitting in traffic for 3 hours, we finally emerged triumphant in Bristol city centre, just in time for the Emotional Brilliance launch party at LUSH cosmetics. It was lovely to spend some quality time with Kate, and see all the lovely LUSH girls who hosted my hen party back in April (yes yes, blog posts on hen party AND wedding sorely lacking!). Needless to say, much fun was had and much money was spent, and we left the party at 8pm smelling lovely.

Bit early to leave a party? Well yes, but it was only the first party of the evening, followed by a trip to the Fleece, a lovely little live music venue in Bristol, to see the marvellous Jim Moray and friends, both his and ours, including his lovely sister Jackie Oates, who has been an inspiration to me since my pre-teens.

This isn't going to turn into a music review, because I admire all these people way too much to write anything objective about them and don't know all the fancy terms you're supposed to use, Suffice to say Jim's eclectic blend of folk and many other genres I don't know the names of was at times haunting, uplifting and occasionally comical, but always a winner.

The real treat for me though was the support act. This came in the form of a very talented young lady named Chloe Foy. I'd met Chloe nearly 2 years ago when she was at school with my stepbrother, and had kept half an eye on the progression of her music since then, but had never seen her live. She, and the two musicians accompanying her, effortlessly blended contemporary lyrics with a sound that was at once fresh and somehow timeless, and were absolutely beautiful to listen to. I felt both awe and envy at the fact that a 20 year old could be so talented and have such a gorgeous collection of songs under her belt. Definitely one to watch.

Anyway, enough not-quite-reviewing of very talented people. On Saturday I discovered WINE. Generally speaking, drinking alcohol doesn't do much for me. It makes me sleepy at best, and obnoxious at worst. I've never liked wine, and have never felt the need to change my mind. So on Saturday night when the in-laws cracked open several bottles from their recent trip to France, I was fairly unbothered. Two sips in I was giggling like a toddler tearing up paper, and after a glass and a half I found myself relieved of my washing up duties as my mother-in-law feared for her crockery. In my defence, I still managed to win Pictionary.

Needless to say, I was feeling a bit fragile when my alarm went off at 7.30 on Sunday morning. Bleary eyed, I bundled the ratlings and myself into the car and set off for the National Fancy Rat Society summer cup, leaving a sleepy husband to catch up with me later.

This was my first experience of spending a whole day at a rat show. There are two classes of judging - varieties and pet. I had a rat entered in each, and nervously set about clipping claws and smoothing fur at a small table amid the hustle and bustle of a dozen odd breeders preparing their prize winners. Eventually I conceded that I was hopeless at clipping claws, and picked up the courage to seek some help.

It was a long day, but a lovely one, with various family members, including both siblings and my niece, showing up to cuddle some rats and drink tea with me, and my sister declaring after meeting Jackie from Rat out of Hell rescue that she had "a moral obligation to go home and tell her husband about the 60 odd rats needing homes." My girls both came 3rd in their categories, despite Figs who was entered in varieties having "pale points, white feet, creased ears and a dirty tail" at which point I decided varieties class was shallow and I would enter pet class from now on, because I can't take criticism.

I really wanted to enter the agility contest (a mini assault course) but had spent all my change on tea and cake so couldn't run to the 50p entry fee, and Jack was reluctant to let me enter any of our rats in case they embarrassed themselves. A solution presented itself when Jackie handed me one of her rescue girls that she'd entered, allowing me to do the course with a rat that wasn't mine, saving my rats the embarrassment and myself 50p. Needless to say she did the course in record time, attracted the attention of a new owner, and was christened Nelly. Win win win.