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I’m wearing: Top – Matalan / Jeans – River Island / Rings – ASOS / Trainers – Superga |
Readers, I’m struggling. My skin has broken out, I can’t seem to grab enough sleep and my insides feel like they haven’t seen a piece of fruit in a month (potentially because they probably haven’t). You see, I’m a very sociable person, despite me being a miserable cow on the surface. This blog is all about how I love to go out and discover and explore, but it is rare that I go ‘out’ out. Yet the last two weekends have seen exactly that.
You know the sort: those nights where you intentionally go outside and order drinks and have conventional fun. It’s hideous and I avoid it at all costs. I don’t start a night out at 11pm anymore; in fact it’s more likely that I’ll be on the tube home by then. I don’t like crowds and noise and not having anywhere to sit down, but sometimes a big night out can’t be avoided.
But these aren’t the ‘cheap bottle of vodka, going out without a coat’ nights I used to have as a student.
The last two weekends, my nights can be categorised in the following way:
1) The cheap and cheerful gathering
When the girls and I need a night to put the world to rights, we often just chip in for prosecco, impose ourselves onto Emma’s house and watch videos of drag queens. Last week though, we let BOYS into the ranks. We made them get sorted by Pottermore and ordered a tonne of pizza and wonderfully it felt natural and all male attendees got a team seal of approval.
2) The grown-up dinner that goes awry
This sort of night out is my biggest downfall. Recently I joined my wonderful friend Ashley to celebrate her’s and her husband’s birthdays with an intimate dinner in a little Italian place in Putney. It was chilled out and sophisticated and exactly the sort of night you anticipate having as an adult when you’re a teenager. But then we went to a pub and danced to 90s Brit Pop and then thought it was a great idea to drink whiskey back at her house until 3.30am. Because that’s what grown-ups actually do, kids.
3) The reliving our youth
You know the one. The nights where you and your mates reminisce about previous super-fun-awesome nights out that you still talk about to this day and so you decide to replicate it. Let me tell you, it is never like how it used to be. Last week I found myself ‘out’ out in my hometown of Milton Keynes sat outside the Slug and Lettuce and wondering what the hell I was doing. Once we went somewhere out of town that was much more chilled out, it ended up being a really fun night, but I’m not in any rush to do it again soon!
4) The organised birthday drinks
This comes in two forms: a pub crawl or a bottomless brunch, and frankly, I’m on board with both. I hit up some pubs in west London and it started off harmlessly with pints of beer, polite chat and packets of Twiglets. It ended up with pints of much needed water, dirty jokes and big fat burgers.
This weekend I cannot wait to have some time to recuperate and just be. I love a night out, but please, no more for a while!