Swing chairs, surprises and staci's birthday

Last week was essentially a week of drinking, drinking and a bit more drinking. On wednesday, me and Paige went for a much needed catch up over Caribbean food and cocktails at turtle bay. I got a pulled chicken wrap with jerk halloumi (amazing) and she got a few tapas and we had a mix of rude girls and rude boys each (the cocktails, that is) - we couldn't decide which we liked best. Then we headed off in search of a few more and made the most of the weekday deal on pornstar martinis at Alto. I'd only been to Alto once before so it was nice to go again, although I still need to go as part of a night out on a Saturday. The swinging chairs are super cute but actually not as comfy as they look (plus they're pretty low down so was kind of hard to get up). Despite the fact it was a Wednesday and we both had work the next day, we weren't done on the drinks front when Alto shut. So against our better judgement, we went to Baa Bar to see how it was in there. Like we should have predicted, it was full of freshers with army face paint and not much else in the way of fancy dress. We still ended up having a proper laugh though (mostly at the fact we were the oldest in there). Because it was a food and cocktails sort of night, I wore navy blue jeans, chain print wrap top and black heeled boots. I finished with black blazer and cream bag.

And if being surrounded by so many 18 year olds wasn't enough to make us feel old, then the fact we both actually felt hungover the next day was! What happened to those nights I could go out, get home at half 4, have 2 hours sleep and then be ready to go? Well, even with the slight hangover, I still had to get up super early to go to work because I was leaving early to hot foot it to town to visit my old team. My boss announced she was pregnant when I left and time has flown by and now it's time for her to leave for maternity. So despite the fact she couldn't drink, she arranged drinks for the rest of the team to say goodbye and I was the surprise guest (of honour). I surprised her by sneaking back into my old office and it was so strange to be back again, despite the fact it's only been a few months. Everyone else certainly looked confused to see me walking up the steps as they left but I didn't have time to stop and explain haha! She seemed happy with the surprise though and it was great to catch up with everyone (and get to know the new members) over a few gins that were bigger than my head. I swear each glass just got bigger and bigger.

  

Then after finally having a night to recover on Friday, I was back to it on Saturday for Staci's birthday (another one turning 23!). I wore leopard print shorts (missguided), black square neck long sleeve top (new look) and black strappy heels which are my new go-to for nights out (and they were only £20 from ebay). Staci had decorated the room with loads of super cute balloons, although we did have to laugh at her for going to all that effort for herself. We did get plenty of cute photos though (thanks to James for being the designated photographer). Katie had bought her prosecco pong for Staci for her birthday (which we quickly realised was just more of the plastic wine glasses that we were already drinking out of, plus a few ping pong balls) so we decided to play. What we hadn't thought about, was that she didn't have a long table that we could easily play on. So we ended up laying some flat pack furniture over a futon in the living room. And then the balls wouldn't bounce (of course, it was cardboard) so we added a bread board in the centre to bounce from. It was pretty innovative, if a little ridiculous. Our team was in the lead the whole time, but Staci's team ending up taking the crown at the last glass (we obviously, totally let her win for being the birthday girl). Then we headed in to town for 2 for 1 cocktails at Slug & Lettuce, definitely-not-2-for-1 cocktails at Be At One, dancing at Coco Tang and then nowhere-else-is-open-so-let's-go at Brass Monkey. Needless to say, I spent the whole of Sunday in bed.