Oh god, Ted. We had to strip her of her title. We found out she'd been in a film called 'Stallion Farm'

Evening evening. I am super-cool this evening. Nic is out at a gig, and I'm in bed watching The West Wing with a glass of wine. It's good though, because I am on holiday. Hurrah!

I had a ridiculously busy week at work, so I was extremely glad when Friday night rolled round, not least because I had made plans with my friend Fiona to go to a local pub that has an extensive gin menu, to sample some of their fancy gins. Yes, I know I wrote about gin in my last post! But I have a long-standing relationship with gin, and there seems to be something about gin and seamstresses that goes together. Also, when I was in on Wednesday I was only able to try one of the 14 gins on offer, so I had to rectify that.

By the time Nic and I were heading out the door, the weather had brightened up and I had got myself dolled up as well:

    Feckin' Birds dress, Irregular Choice 'Swallow' court shoes and vintage vinyl handbag

I love these shoes. I bought them when I was at home at Christmas and although they have quite a busy pattern, they still seem to go with everything. In this case, they clash with my dress, but I think in a good way. Plus, you know, birds!

Disclosure: these may not actually be swallows.

Nic and I had dinner in the pub and had some gin before Fiona and her boyfriend joined us. All of the gin drinks on the menu are gin and tonic, but with different gins and different garnishes. It's nice. A bit gimmicky, but I enjoy a good gin and tonic:

'Wrath' and 'Greed' 

Nic had 'Wrath', which was Bulldog British Dry Gin, garnished with star anise. I had 'Greed', which was Botanist Gin garnished with a lemon twist and some thyme. Fiona told me later that this gin is distilled on Islay, and that it's a great favourite of hers. I can see why.

Hello, lover

Nic had 'Gluttony' next, which was the same drink I'd had on Wednesday. I had 'Pride', which was 6 O'Clock Gin, garnished with a cinnamon stick and a slice of apple. These were all very good, but none of them really came close to the gin we all had later - Monkey 47 Gin. It just came garnished with a slice of lime, but apparently it's distilled with cranberries and it was SO delicious. It's bloody expensive, but at some point I'm going to have to track myself down a bottle of it - because I would say it's worth every penny. 

It ended up being a late night, but one of the best nights out I've had in a while. I don't especially like the pub we were in (The Clarendon, on Clarendon Avenue for any fellow Leamington dwellers) but it's hard to argue with such beautifully made drinks. The music was too loud, but it did mean that we got treated to the sight of a middle-aged bald man wearing a 'Rave On' t-shirt breakdancing. Proper breakdancing, doing that thing where they swivel on their heads? It was pretty immense. 

Anyway - it's late, and I have to be up in the morning to catch a flight to Belfast, but I will leave you with one more photo of lovely, lovely gin. And I'll catch you soon, in NORN IRON! Yeeeoooooooooo!!!

You know what? I didn't even have a whiff of a hangover this morning. Neither did Nic. MAGIC GIN FOR THE WIN.