Challenge within a challenge: Take me back to Nashville

On Friday night I took my sister Lisa to Nashville Nights, which was a night of country music at Under the Bridge, a music venue at Chelsea’s football ground. It was her Christmas present and the company kept popping up on my Facebook, so I looked at what they did and realised it would be perfect for Lisa…..and I was right.

Lisa loves country music. I reckon it must be coming on for nearly ten years she’s liked country music (sorry if I've got that wrong Lisa!) She’s not one of those that just likes Taylor Swift, who has long left country music. She likes Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, Kelli Pickler and Sugarland to name but a few.

In 2012 we went on holiday to Nashville and we had the best time. I could probably write a whole blog on the trip, but I’ll summarise it by saying that the people of Nashville are really friendly and we managed to get on TV while we were there!

Friday night crept up on us quite quickly and as soon as we walked into Under the Bridge Lisa recognised the song playing straight away. In fact for most of the night she knew the songs, and I would ask who the song was by and she would reply; 'I love this song!'

I recognised a few of them, so I wasn't too in the dark with all the country songs. And it was a great night; Lisa finally found ‘her people’ and she was smiling non stop. I asked if this was a weekly thing would she go every week, and she would. There was spontaneous line dancing and we even made the big screen as I Instagrammed a picture of us drinking.

Once we left we did have a very long journey. We left a little later then originally planned as Burning House by Cam came on, a song that Lisa absolutely loved, so I thought it would be okay time wise to stay a little longer. Wrong! I got my cities confused as I thought London is the city that never sleeps, when in fact it’s New York. I remembered what time the last train back from Kings Cross to Hitchin was, but didn't realise that the tubes stop running way earlier. In short we had to get 3 buses and by that point we missed the last train home. But fear not, my brain although overloaded with country songs, did some thinking and realised that at St Pancras, trains to Luton ran for much longer.

It then turned out that a couple of guys we were hanging out with also made the same mistake and we ended up catching up on the train as well.

Now I did wear a dress, a black and white one from Dave's stall. Pairing it up with a pair of heels Lisa said that I had legs for daayysss! And with every dress I wear I make a donation to charity. So which charity did I donate to? Well I wanted to donate to a Nashville music related charity, because of loving Nashville and Lisa’s passion for country music. But it’s pretty hard to find a charity where you can make a donation. I looked on a few country music based charities, and there was nowhere on the sites to make a donation.

I did find one to donate to in the end. One of my favourite country songs, because it’s so fun and stupid is Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith. When me and Lisa were in Nashville she would sing it often, and it was the holiday theme song. She even bought a red solo cup while we were there. I even requested the song twice at Nashville nights, but alas it didn't get played.

Toby Keith has a foundation which supports and runs OK Kids Korral, a home for children battling cancer, and it’s been running for ten years. So the Toby Keith Foundation received a small donation this time.

All of Friday night was brilliant (even with the long journey home). I think I got Lisa a pretty good Christmas present and I’d highly recommend Nashville Nights to anyone as it was a great night out…..just make sure you check your train times before you go!