Divide and conquer

As the title suggests, this weekend has been about splitting up and about winning. The first divide came from Aidan, who on Saturday headed off to Leeds to start his second attempt at university (fingers crossed for him). Before he left though, we obviously had to have one last little celebration as a family so we went to the pub (in the pouring rain) for drinks and then came home for a chinese fakeaway. I've always turned my nose up at our local a bit because it's a proper old man pub (not my style) but since they launched a gin corner with loads of different flavoured ones, which are only £5 for a double with tonic, suddenly I'm liking it a lot more. They had some new ones in as well so I tried a blood orange one and a raspberry one, both of which were amazing. I ended up having 4 doubles and dad had had more than a few pints so we were both a bit tipsy when we got home and ended up dancing round the kitchen while we waited for the food to cook. Like father, like daughter. And when it came to my outfit for the evening, it took me a while to decide. Because, as you know, I don't really do casual. But when the weather's crap and wearing my usual dressy attire would have me stick out like a sore thumb in the pub, I ended up going for black culottes and white oversized t-shirt tied at the back (it says 'bring me sunshine' on it and the request was literal). To keep it from being plain, I added my new dalmation print sock boots (which I'm obsessed with) and blush pink suede jacket. My latest favourite colour combination is light pink and bright red so I finished off with red chanel boybag and red curtain tassel earrings.

But aside from Aidan leaving, Saturday was less about dividing and more about reuniting. I haven't seen most of my old McDonalds gang in ages and so it was so nice to finally see them all again! Me, Sophia, Emma, Abi and Justin had pre-drinks at Emma's house, complete with american red plastic cups of course and a lengthy photo shoot of course. And then we headed into town for 2 for 1 cocktails at slug and lettuce and then braved baa bar for the first time in over a year and majorly regretted it (it was so weird in there). We had the most hilarious night though and didn't stop laughing! Last weekend, when I went out with Sophia I'd been torn between two outfits. The brown dress obviously got chosen in the end so this weekend I wore the one that didn't quite make the cut last time. I wore berry bandage skirt with printed flared sleeve top and black strappy heels. I love this top so much although it's not the most practical because it's very corset-like and doesn't allow me to lift my arms to even straight out, never mind up. I added velvet berry dune bag and then did a berry shimmer eye look and deep berry lip.

There was no time for hangovers though because I had a sunday funday planned with Staci and both the Katie's for the start of little Katie's birthday celebrations. And it turns out that Sunday was about dividing and conquering. Katie had wanted to do an escape room for ages so we decided to treat her as an early present and booked into Escaplogic in town. I've done 3 of the rooms there before and Staci had done one but the other two were new to it so I was excited to see how we worked together (with me having only previously done it with my family). We did the EPI centre room, which is based on an earthquake destroying a research lab and before another earthquake hits, you have to get in and save a vile of antidote. But one person wanted to be the hero and so they went in first and got stuck in an isolation chamber, the others following in and being stuck on the other side and you have to work together to get the antidote and get out in time. Obviously I was nominated to be the one who went in alone; it probably would be me that would in real life to be fair. So I was stuck in the chamber and we had to yell through to each other to reunite us and then get through to the next room, crack all the puzzles, find the antidote and get out. And we did it! In only 43 minutes too, faster than I've ever managed it before. So we got our photo on the winners wall (rather than in the losers cage) and headed off feeling super happy. The place we were heading off too was for dinner at Bella Italia which was so nice and made up of 100% beige foods. I got the mozzarella and then the calzone and then went in a serious food coma; I only managed half my main. And it worked out super cheap too because I've got meerkat meals so all the courses were 2 for 1! Not satisfied we'd had enough 2 for 1 though, we went a couple of doors down for 2 for 1 cocktails at slug & lettuce (again). When trying to pick my outfit for the day, I was torn because the booking email said to wear shoes you can move around in so no heels, but then also that's just not who I am. Plus I'd worn heels all the other times so I figured it'd be fine. So I wore black jeans with red heeled boots, red and white leopard print blouse with flared sleeves and gucci-dupe queen bee bag with a strap that matched the rest of the outfit perfectly.