An ode to friends (and a mini restaurant review)

I've had two cracking weekends and though I have enjoyed them immensely, they were bittersweet as I am leaving in less than two months and I will miss my friends so much - why the hell am I leaving it all behind?!

I've always been a bit funny with new people - especially girls, finding it much easier to hang about with boys...I guess having two brothers, a very un-feminine mother, a toilet bowl sense of humour and going to an all-girls school and not fitting in does that to you.  I think also with boys I've accepted I'll never be best and closest friends with them so there's less pressure to try and build the foundations of something solid for years to come, if that makes sense - they're just there for light hearted fun and banter rather than a best buddy situation.

I've always been guarded when meeting new girls, I think it's because I don't really see myself as very girly and I instantly assume they won't like me or be interested in me because I am not like "them".

Anyway where am I going with this....I guess this last two weeks have made me reflect that I am so grateful for the female friends that I do have.  I used to be of the opinion that I had enough friends and didn't need anymore - I think for reasons of self preservation more than anything else, I didn't have the best time at school with my classmates in my all girl school, if you catch my drift.  

I am incredibly lucky and happy to have the girls I do have in my life - some of them fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, and I love them to pieces and hope we'll stay friends forever, and I'm glad I let my guard down and embraced their friendship. 

The soppy blurb above is inspired by the previous weekend, where I spent time with old and new friends.  Friday was spent having " lounge time" with Dan, we chilled out and watched Django Unchained.  Dan is the ultimate housemate - easy going, clean, fascinating and funny.  He never fails to make me laugh (and sometimes nearly cry with frustration, but we will overlook that here) and I will very much miss living with him. 

On Saturday I went up to Hertfordshire to catch up with Jen, Samer and Bex.  There's something so therapeutic about spending time with your oldest friends, the ones you can tell anything and they won't judge, the ones you've been through first loves and heartbreaks with, family dramas, the ones you did all your growing up with, started your period with, saw your first kiss with a boy, compared "bases" with, played weird games with (haha, PQQs), got drunk with, sang songs sober down the high street on the way home from school with.  A special kind of weird and wonderful friendship that will hopefully last the test of time and distance!!!

We hung out, ate beef stew (everyone seems to be eating beef stew at the moment. Is it fashionable?), went to the shops, hung out some more.  It was bloody lovely and made me miss their company even though I've not left yet.

I then headed down to Clapham where Sepha and Brad had cooked haggis, neeps and tatties for dinner.  Haggis, despite being 30% lamb lung, 10% blood and 8% pig heart, is delicious.  We played a fun board game after dinner (Revelations, if you're interested) which, if you've ever played, has the potential to cause many arguments, but I think the nicest part was the fact we nearly all agreed on everything in the game, I guess that's why we're all friends!!   Later we lounged on the sofa sending silly photos to Amy in New Zealand - you're always in our thoughts Amy!!

sherry! posh!

On Sunday we went for a 9 mile walk in Surrey - Gomshall to Guildford which was fairly pretty in the drizzle.  Sepha grew up in the area and keenly played tour guide.  We found a pub half way round that did make your own sausage butty for £1.30, and ended up later on in Guildford's Wetherspoons before getting the train back to Gomshall and driving home. 

looks like the sign was designed by Picasso

Last night me and some colleaugues went for dinner at Rabot 1745.  We were expecting their christmas menu, as I booked off the back of their marketing team sending me the menu, however apparently that isn't available until next week so a bit of a fail on their part.  We decided to go anyway as the a la carte menu looked interesting enough.

We dined on the outside terrace, which overlooks Borough Market. 

And each table has a dish with cacao beans on it for you to try.  They taste a bit like slightly chocolatey dirt.

I started with the trio of dips with sourdough - I highly recommend this.  It was the cheapest starter at £6 and came with chocolate balsamic - deliciously sweet and tart at the same time, cacao nibbed butter - basically normal butter with a crunchy texture, and cacao nibbed pesto - again a crunchier pesto, my tastebuds weren't refined enough to taste the cacao nibs in the butter or the pesto.  This was really filling - the others had the yorkshire pudding with the pulled pork and white chocolate mash, which was beautifully presented but nothing special. The white choc mash had us all excited, but it just tasted like mash but slightly sweeter. 

For my main, I went with the rare seared tuna, cacao-creole sweet potatoes, spicy cucumber, peanut and coconut salad (£18).  The presentation wasn't the greatest - the entire thing was covered in green salad leaves, but the tuna was lovely.  I wish I had asked for it to be medium to well done though - I am not much of a rare fan, but didn't want to be difficult.  The cucumber salad was horrible and I didn't eat it - it was too stringy and felt like eating slime - the textures just didn't work for me.  I lucked out with this dish though - it was huge, the others also had the other fish dishes but these were tiny in compairson and they were all left hungry. 

For pudding I opted for the white chocolate cinnamon spiced biscuit cheesecake with cacao rum spiced plums and bitter chocolate mousse (£7.50).  This was mediocre - presented nicely, but the cheesecake had a weird layer of jelly on top of which I hated the texture, the cheesecake itself was too cloying and sweet, and the biscuit base too thin.  HOwever the chocolate mousse and plums were lovely.  

Overall I don't think I would return - the service was good, but the food was nothing special considering the prices.  A three course meal for 5 people with a bottle of Prosecco came to £220 including service charge,   You can find Rabot 1745 in Borough Market, Bedale St.,