So I’ve been getting round, trying to review all of the David Lloyd’s in Essex, and you possibly may find it strange that I haven’t done my local one yet. Well that’s because there has been a massive refurbishment going on (which is why we started trying others in the first place – Jacuzzi being shut? No cheers).

With a £1.5million make over, you would expect to see some changes, and they have focussed on the area’s that needed doing quite badly and haven’t been done for quite some time. The pool and spa area has remained the same, which is great because I’m a firm believer in ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ (I am also a firm believer in ‘if it’s broke either poke around it with a pencil, sellotape it or furrow your brow at it until it fixes itself’).

The ‘DLicious’ café has had a massive makeover. I must admit, before I did find the café/bar area a touch dingy and oppressing, but I soldiered on because my favourite thing about my gym literally is that they sell wine. They have completely opened up the space available to them, and it looks more like a standalone café or bar now rather than something you find in a gym. My favourite part? The adult’s only area. They have completely sectioned it off and it’s like being in an airport lounge, which is my favourite place EVER.

The food in David Lloyd is always really good, no matter what club you go to, but in Basildon I’d definitely recommend the steak. Maybe we should move onto the actual gym now as all I’ve done is talk about the food and wine.

The actual Gym has copped most of the refurbishment. They have completely re-kitted it out, and got newer machines. I particularly like the treadmills, which now have ‘courses’ so you can pretend you are running through the woods. The spin studio has had an amazing transformation, and they have moved around quite a lot of the equipment so you feel like you have more space. Which is great, because the last thing you want is someone’s sweaty armpit in your face while you are running through the woods.

Another area they have made big changes are the changing rooms. They have all had a complete refurb, and are now much more modern and spacious. They have T.V’s as well, which when I first saw I thought ‘who actually watches T.V in the changing room?’ 3 weeks later I’m watching Bobby Beale try and murder Jane while drying my hair, so there you go.