The road to normality

They say the course of true love never did run smooth but what about the course of finding yourself again after a coronavirus pandemic takes a knock on your mental health? Well, in my experience so far, that hasn't been smooth either. But that doesn't make it impossible and if you read my last lifestyle blog post then you'll know I was working on getting back into the great outdoors and doing fun things again. I've been taking the baby step approach so the next thing up from an outdoor activity without many people was a busier one. Cue a trip to the zoo! I don't normally agree with zoos from a moral standpoint (animals in captivity etc). But they're one of many businesses on the list that need support following the pandemic so that made me feel a bit less bad. And it was nice to see all the cute animals! I wore a very safari-inspired outfit for the animal-themed day; khaki playsuit with blush pink accents (trainers and bag).

The next stop was to take the plunge back into the hospitality industry! I thought I'd start with drinks rather than food and I did some thinking about where to go. I know every place is trying to do their bit but some places will definitely be doing it better than others. I picked pitcher & piano because it's so spacious and it's got mega high ceilings (so good air flow) and I was happy when we got there to find they'd done everything really well (track and trace on arrival, hand sanitiser stations, one way system, menus and ordering from your phone etc). For anyone else taking baby steps, it's somewhere I'd recommend starting. And start I did! Fancy, over-the-top cocktails are certainly something I've been missing during lockdown and while I had some pretty tasty ones delivered by Turtle Bay, you just can't beat a bit of dry ice, edible flowers and decorative confectionery. I was glad that I felt super safe and me and Ollie had the best time.

The last stop on the road to normality (apart from holidays which are still a long way off for me) was a restaurant! I basically used to be Miss Restaurant so 5 months off has been a pretty big deal and I felt really nervous/excited (like that first day of school kind of feeling). Because of the rain, I was kind of torn over what outfit to wear but I eventually went with my slinky green skirt, white cape top and white mule heels. I added this super cute circular bag which is very Tory Burch (without, you know, actually being Tory Burch).

The choice on where to go for our first date night out was a fairly obvious one. Tapas has always held a special place in mine and Ollie's hearts, from one of our first dates in Bar Iberico to our first holiday in Barcelona. We hadn't been out for tapas in a while at the start of the year so for Valentine's day, we booked a tapas restaurant (which then, funny story, ended up doing a set Valentine's menu instead of their normal tapas offering). And then lockdown happened, so it's been forever and a day since we went out for one of our favourite cuisines. Bar Iberico is walk-in only (not what I wanted to be doing), World Iberico wasn't open yet and so that left Baresca as the chosen one. We definitely made a good choice! They're doing a set menu at the moment (I'm guessing to limit the number of different things they have to cook) so we got Catalan bread, meat and cheese board, Asian chicken skewers, meatballs, halloumi fritters, tandoori salmon and 2 lots of patatas bravas. We also got some drinks; a bottle of wine, beer for Ollie and sangria for me. They had a few different sangrias so I thought it'd be rude not to try a few! Again, the restaurant felt really safe; sanitising stations, staff wearing face shields, all tables at a distance (I requested a window table so I knew we wouldn't have people on either side or passing by us). The window table at Baresca also has the extra advantage of a big window ledge which doubles as extra table space (ideal when you're greedy and order a lot of dishes like us). We had such an amazing night and it felt so good to be in a restaurant again. It was weird how quickly it felt like the last 5 months haven't happened and like I haven't had a break from eating out at all. Who knew that normality could be so exciting?