The north south divine

You should know by now that I'm a complete princess when it comes to my birthday, and I drag my celebrations out for atleast 2 weeks, even going as far as 3 weeks for my 21st. But little did I know that the princess gene runs in the family! My younger brother Aidan has just hit the big 21 and we've had two jam-packed weekends to celebrate, dragging the whole family across the country in the process. It seems I'll make a diva out of him yet!

We kicked things off by travelling up to Leeds (where he's at uni) last weekend, to take his presents, his cake and to go out for a meal. Because it's typically colder up north than it is in Nottingham, I wore 60 denier black tights instead of 40 (that's called being sensible kids). I've been against black tights for the last year or two but just this year, I'm really feeling them again and am loving that they help me make the most of my wardrobe year-round. Like this playsuit for example, which I've had for many years and love endlessly because of its resemblance to an old Valentino collection. I added black heeled boots, long mauve coat and super chic rose gold sunglasses that cost me a massive £5 from eBay. I went for pink-toned makeup and finished off with Calypso satin lipstick by Colourpop.

Okay so let's start with the present-giving portion of the day. I pride myself on being an excellent present buyer and so I was very pleased (if, not surprised) that the present I bought for Aidan was his favourite. His climbing hobby provided mum and dad with a long list of present options (which was welcomed after years of him having nothing he wanted or needed), but the task I ended up with was basically the impossible one. He wanted some outdoor slip-on shoes for inbetween climbs, that were rugged enough for the mountains. Even he couldn't find what he meant. I managed it though - not an exciting present as far as I'm concerned but he thought they were great!

After presents, we headed out for some drinks and a meal. As we had driven into Leeds, I'd seen a restaurant that I pointed out as looking lovely and then noticed it was the one we'd booked, so that worked out well. Before going there, we nipped into a bar called Manahatta for cocktails; I got a Manahatta spritz. Then we walked across to Blackhouse (that I kept calling 'Blacklock'), which was super pretty, draped in fairy lights and had live piano music playing. I got a couple more cocktails and had calamari to start and then the Sunday lunch for main which was amazing. And apparently it was National Yorkshire Pudding day too so having some in Yorkshire felt very fitting.

After dinner, we went back to Aidan's flat to do his cake and sing happy birthday. Well, the cake was an entirely separate story. Having looked at my blog or instagram, you will see that I'm a very skilled baker and I have inherited this from my mum and dad; all of us have managed successful, inventive and tasty birthday cakes for many years now. So what happened when me and dad tried to bake this cake, I don't really know. It was a classic Pinterest fail where the idea of a climbing wall looks super simple but between the cake not getting enough height, the icing barely being big enough to cover the thing, the 'skin' fondant going bright orange and the entire fondant 'Aidan' falling to pieces, it was a total mess. I could barely breathe from laughing so much while we were baking it, and it didn't even really make it to Leeds in one piece. It did taste good though so that's the main thing!

Aidan celebrated his actual birthday (Wednesday) up in Leeds with his mates and then it was time for round 2 of family fun on the weekend just gone. As I mentioned, I'm an excellent present giver and so when Aidan told me on the plane to our summer holiday last year, that he was listening to the Hamilton soundtrack and loved it, I started scheming with mum and dad for us all to go and see the musical in London. Tickets are famously hard to come by because it's so crazy popular but with numerous iPads and phones at the ready the second the tickets were released, we managed to get some! So on Saturday, we drove down to London and checked into the Apex hotel near Tower Bridge. We rinsed Aidan's birthday for all it was worth and got free upgrades to Junior and Deluxe suites when we checked in (plus we got free macarons!). The hotel was really beautiful and in such a nice area.

We'd got into London at around lunch time so after checking in, we went to Hai Cenato in Victoria for lunch and I had an Aperol spritz and pizza (both of which were lovely). Outfit wise, I went with classy and sophisticated vibes rather than dressy, and wore berry trousers, crochet top, nude heels and boucle jacket.

I wasn't sure what to expect of Hamilton; all I knew was that it was based on Alexander Hamilton (obviously), one of the Founding Fathers of the US, but was done with a hip hop twist. I also knew there were no dialogue scenes, and every single bit was done in song. This was the part I wasn't sure about because I thought it might be too much or might grate on me but the whole thing was amazing. The lyrics were clever and witty, the cast had such strong, beautiful voices and the plot managed to stick to history accurately, even with the unique spin on it. Plus, so many of the scenes were really cleverly done, like when it shows the same scene from two different character's perspectives with time jumps (not so simple as it is in the movies). I also love anything that centres on diversity (like Jane the Virgin and The Good Place) so the mixed cast was a breath of fresh air. Act 2 was super emotional with really poignant messaging and I had to hold the tears in to avoid ruining my false eyelashes. Overall I would highly recommend it to anyone.

After a quick turnaround at the hotel, we were ready to continue the celebrations! I was wearing a blue embroidered dress (from SheIn) with black stiletto boots and mauve coat, plus delightful windswept hair. We had planned to go to The Shard for a drink but it ended up being too busy and we didn't have time to wait, so we went to a bar called Two Ruba for some pre-dinner cocktails (mine was called Get Rich or Die Trying, which was very me). Dinner was booked at Gaucho next to tower bridge, with the most picture-perfect view and a gorgeous interior; Latin American food is my favourite, so an Argentinian steak house was always going to be good in my books. I got a spiral cut sirloin steak with truffle butter mashed potatoes and the food was absolutely amazing! As part of our hotel room upgrade, we'd been given vouchers for a free cocktail each, so we headed back to our bar after dinner to work out which cocktails were the strongest and therefore the best value to use them on.

It was another early start on Sunday because we were heading out for breakfast, so I got up and ready in navy blue jeans, red and pink floral shirt, nude heels and the only coat that I'd taken with me. I've been to the Sky Garden before but last time, I went at night so I was really excited to experience it in the daylight. It was so good with such beautiful views (despite the miserable weather) and impressive architecture; definitely better in the day than at night.

After having a look around, we went up to the Darwin Brasserie restaurant for breakfast, where they seemingly couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery because the organisation and service was terrible, despite having plenty of staff and half the customers doing the serve-yourself-continental-breakfast option. Even though it took forever to arrive, it was well worth it when it finally did. Me and Aidan were fat pigs and ordered a savoury and sweet dish each (on the basis of not eating lunch later on). I had eggs benedict and then chocolate banana pancakes and both were amazing (despite the hollandaise sauce looking a little radioactive).

Battling with London traffic again, we made our way across to Stratford to the Olympic park, which is home to the world's longest, tallest and fastest tunnel slide. It was so much fun AND we got to wear some pretty attractive headgear, that made us all look a little like the power rangers. There was also an observation deck that you could admire the whole of London from, and some wacky mirrors that I wouldn't like to try and figure out after a few drinks.

A 2 hour drive later and we were back on home soil, but the fun didn't stop there. Instead of relaxing and putting the 'lazy' in 'lazy sunday', we got ready all over again for Grandma's birthday meal. This time, I wore orange-red trousers, leopard print top with wide sleeves and black court heels and finished with a red lip. The food at Amores was, as always, amazing and I tried beef carpaccio for the first time after wanting to for ages. Even though 75 is arguably a much bigger age to celebrate than 21 is, I highly doubt grandma will be dragging her birthday out as much as Aidan's.