Sometimes when you are in your twenties and living in London it is important to go out. And I am not talking about drinks 🍷🍻 in the pub after work, I am talking getting dressed up 💃, and having drinks somewhere fun 🍹 and then going dancing somewhere even more fun 👯.So Mary rallied the troops and we decided to take a trip to Soho 🏮 on a Friday evening, because you know, we live in LONDON 🎡- and yes I do enjoy an evening out on the Northcote Road, and perhaps I have finally outgrown the Kings Road 👑 (although it is always a pleasure) and really it is important to do these things properly once in a while.So we went out (out) 💃.I got dressed up 💁 - sometimes this is my favourite part of an evening out, deciding what to wear 👗, trying on outfits 👚and discovering a great new combination 👘. Occasionally I get carried away, and take a little too long doing this (it's so fun though) and accidents have occurred before - I once decided last minute that I needed to paint my nails green 💅💚 (you know, like Sally Bowles in Cabaret 🎩), and whilst sitting on the stairs diligently painting my nails 💅(I am expert at painting my nails most places - buses, trains 🚌🚂) - the bottle tipped, and it tumbled down the stairs and hit the landing, spattering my long suffering flatmate's cream carpet with a bright bright green 💚. And this was not good. So I now try to give my myself ample time to get ready and reach my destination of an evening....I got ready and headed over to the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery 🎨 where we had to decided to have drinks 🍸, as they are open late on Fridays. This was rather pleasant, as there really weren't many people, and we avoided that Friday night drinks after work crush. We didn't actually make it into the Delacroix 🎨exhibition (that is for another day), but we did rather enjoy our drinks, and it's really nice wandering about the National Gallery at night.Next up we headed into Soho to Damson & Co as they have very good gin 🍹. They infuse it themselves (I think this is the right word, I should remember from my Sipsmith talk!) and they have some rather delicious flavours. The Kaffir Lime gin 🌿🍹 is particularly good with some tonic. We did get hungry, so Katie and I may have had a sneaky Chilango 🍢- it was across the road and just willing us to come and sample it's delights. It was great, exactly what I needed - it's a tortilla filled with all sorts of beans and rice and guacamole.It was then time for the really fun part, somewhere we could dance 👯, that didn't close too early. And we settled on Little Italy 🇮🇹. And if you haven't been here, you must go (with an open mind 👀, mind you.)Little Italy is a restaurant 🍝, bar 🍷 and there is a dance floor 💃of sorts (ideal) and it has a very old school feeling to it. The bar is packed with every bottle of alcohol available, and the men behind the bar wear bow ties and red braces (the kind that hold your trousers up, not the ones that make your teeth straight). We arrived post eating time, so the party was in full swing 🎶👯👯. I think (apart from the fact they play excellent songs, all of which you want to dance to) Little Italy is all about the people 👩👦👧watching. The Russians were downstairs and the Italians upstairs, with everyone else somewhere inbetween - and this is NOT your young hipster venue, the clientele were mostly a bit older than us 👵. But they were all having a wonderful time, dancing the evening away. We were herded from a table when a group of very nicely dressed up, on the older side of middle-aged, women turned up - who were attended to impeccably - waiters galore on hand, and no end of champagne 🍸🍸. We did think they might just sit at their table all night being waited on hand and foot - but before too long they were also up having a wild time on the dance floor.It was a lot of fun. The drinks are expensive (a bit too expensive 💵💵) and I did meet a man dressed as a woman in the loo 👸 - I am still not sure how to handle this, men just shouldn't be in the ladies.... but he was wearing heels, fishnets and a skirt...And we ubered it home 🚕 - and became excellent friends with the uber driver - he decided we were 'intelligent young ladies'.It was a very pleasing evening - and we certainly need to go out more, because London is great, and we aren't 30 ..... quite yet.Alice xxx
