A little bit of Vietnamese, Indian and Northern

It may sound like a very strange thing to say, but one of the things I'm happiest about in terms of growing up and changing is how many different types of food I now like, or are willing to try. When I was younger, I was super picky, wouldn't eat a single vegetable, didn't like rice, didn't like spice, wouldn't eat seafood (other than cod) and was terrified of trying new things. My parents (my dad in particular) are still picky now so I always credit Laura with branching out my food choices; her parents have always raised her to be really unpicky and always cook adventurous meals so when we met and started going out for lunch, she introduced me to loads of different foods. Now I'm always up for trying new things and love to go to restaurants I haven't been to before. Nearly 6 years later and we still go out for weekly meals and this week. we finally tried Cafe Coco Tang (where we've been wanting to go for a while). It was another new cuisine for me because they specialise in Vietnamese food and it didn't disappoint. I got the turmeric fish and Laura got the spicy tomato sea bass (both of which came with sticky rice and steamed Asian greens) and it was so good - I even managed with the chopsticks! It was even better as well because we'd already decided we were going there when I saw they were offering 50% off if you shared their Facebook post so our meals only cost us a fiver each! We also managed to go in happy hour so we got discounts on our cocktails. Coco tang always do the best cocktails and I got a Hummingbird (complete with origami decoration) and a Rhubarb Spritz and Laura got a Regina George (a classic) and a Pear Drop.

My world food tour continued twice on Friday. The first time was much closer to home because it was payday so I treated my work team to some donuts from Doughnotts (local to Nottingham). They always do the most amazing ones and I got a cherry drop one, a cookie one, a cookie monster one and a red velvet one. We made sure to eat them not long after lunch though so we had time to get hungry again for curry night straight after work. So bang on 5pm, me Joe and Rachael hot-footed it down to the Roundhouse for drinks in the sunshine, where we were shortly joined by everyone else, and then we all walked down to Laguna for dinner. Having only been out for my first curry a couple of months ago, I'm not exactly a connoisseur of Indian food (basically I have no idea what anything is) but I went for the fish pakoras followed by the chicken bhuna and it was all lovely! Although I tried keema naan for the first time and I was really not a fan; I'll stick to the garlic one next time! Of course, no work event ends at a civilised time after a meal so we headed to cucumaras where we made the most of the 2 for 1 cocktails and taught everyone what "flossing" is.

I felt a little worse for wear (see also: hungover af) on Saturday but I got myself ready in floaty elephant print skirt, white bell sleeve top and converse and headed to Nottingham station where me, Sophia, Justin and Dom caught the train to Sheffield. Sophia has just finished uni there and so we wanted to go up for a night out to make the most of the last weekend before she moves completely out of the flat. First things first, we headed off in search of some late lunch/early dinner and ended up at a place called The Graze Inn. I went for a meatball sub (a bit too much bread but otherwise very nice) and nacho fries (which were amazing) with a lemon san pellegrino, which totally sorted out my residual hangover.

Then it was time to get ready! I actually haven't worn this dress in so long but I love a good bandage dress and I thought it deserved an outing (and to not be remembered as my halloween dress when I was a devil 2 years ago). Obviously it was from missguided (as all my night out clothes are) and I wore it with black boots, embroidered gucci bag, red toned eyeshadow look and Persistence lipstick. I feel like the older you get, the lazier the predrinks are. When you first start going to town, predrinks start hours and hours before the night out, it involves lots of different drinks and shots and all the games you can think of. Then after a couple of years of going out, predrinks is now drinking a bottle of wine while finishing getting ready and gossiping with the girls. Still fun, but not at all as good. So we decided to have a proper pre-drinking session and ended up playing ring of fire. Me and Sophia made great question masters because we're sneaky (Dom not so much) and unlucky old me ended up with the last king so I had to have the middle drink. It was made up of vodka orange, vodka lilt, pink gin & lemonade and prosecco though so it wasn't nearly as bad as in some games I've played! Then we headed out to viper rooms and had such a good night out! Despite some drama (namely Justin losing his wallet and then throwing up on the table), it was really fun and viper rooms was as good as I remembered it. We obviously ended the night with drunken chats sat in the corridor until 4am.

It's safe to say we were all dying on Sunday but the sun was shining so we got ourselves ready while watching the England game and then headed out to the pub in half time. I was feeling braver than everyone else because I actually risked an alcoholic drink but it would've felt unpatriotic not to drink while England won 6-1 (who would've guessed!). Surprisingly it sorted me right out. As did all the carbs; lamb shank with mash and gravy and a side of halloumi (not exactly cohesive but definitely yummy). And obviously it helped that it was sunny and such a nice day; drinking in the sun is a yes no matter how much you've drank the night before. Then we got ourselves on the train home (Justin and Dom pretty much slept all the way back) and I finished my weekend with some more drinks in the garden while enjoying the last of the sun. Well, seemingly not the last, as it's meant to be nice all week - finger crossed!