Saturday 13 June 2015

102. The Week I Became A Social Butterfly

Hello everyone, I hope you're all well! I've had an extremely busy week but it's been great to catch up with lots of my friends, some of whom I've not seen for months because of university. I don't think I've ever eaten out so much in any other week in my life but you may as well make the most of it with Ramadan around the corner. I tried to be as healthy as I possibly could which isn't too hard when in most restaurants, I'm limited to the vegetarian option due to eating a halal and mostly pescetarian diet.

Monday - My best friend, Sammia and I went to the Trafford Centre and despite living in Manchester, I think I've only been to the Trafford Centre a whopping 5-6 times in my entire life. I find that most of the shops it has that I actually shop at are also in the city centre so there's no need to travel so far. If there is a shop in the Trafford Centre that is not in the city centre then I usually just order online such as John Lewis. Despite spending more than 7 hours at the place, Sammia and I bought nothing but food hahaha, such fun! As I hit the gym hard last weekend, I used Monday as my cheat day and I personally think it's actually quite a good day to have as a cheat day because a bit of cake certainly made Monday easier to get through than usual. We went to Debenhams for breakfast and had coffee with a Millionaires' shortbread. We then walked around John Lewis, Next Home and M&S home sniffing far too many candles which left us with a headache. I've been really lucky with the weather this week as it has been gorgeous, usually when I go out with friends, we end up getting caught in the rain.





For lunch, we went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen as Sammia had not been before and I love their super skinny fries and falafel burger (I could live off falafel and I pretty much did whilst writing my literature review, it's one of my favourite foods ever). We also had the strawberry and elderflower fizz at GBK which was gorgeous and I really wish they sold it as a readily available bottled drink in shops. 




For dessert, we went to Cadwalders which I'd never even heard of before but Sammia recommended. We both devoured the super indulgent hot chocolate muffin melt, it was yummy! After dessert, we spotted a carousel outside and despite being in our early 20s, that was not going to stop us. We were the only ones on the ride and shoppers walking by were looking at us hahaha. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life!






We had a look around some more shops such as HomeSense and Selfridges where I bought some rainbow cake from the Hey Little Cupcake concession as you can't buy slices at their Spinningfields cupcakery. It's actually the first rainbow cake that I've come across which is suitable for vegetarians as usually, the red food colouring contains beetle extract. "Shopping" can be thirsty work so we finished the day with Costa Coolers, Sammia had the mango and passion fruit one whilst I had the strawberry and watermelon one.





Tuesday - I actually had two shifts at work because you know, you've got to work hard and play hard. I don't consider my job to be work as I love being a student ambassador, it's been one of the best things about university as I have met so many people and many of them have become firm friends. On Tuesday night, I met my women in science hero, Dame Sally Davies and I could not believe that I had the opportunity to ask her a question too. You can find out more about Dame Sally's work as the first female Chief Medical Officer for England here.


Wednesday - There are about three restaurants that I can tolerate on the Curry Mile - Gelato, Lahore and after this week, Falafel. Yes, despite loving the actual food, I've never been to the restaurant that shares the same name. I had a lovely afternoon out in the sun with my friend Melissa who used to be my neighbour but recently moved away and two of Melissa's friends who I had never met before properly but were very lovely and welcoming. We had a little Ramadan shop by looking around three Islamic shops and I picked up a couple of books, one which offers practical advice for Muslim women and the other one is Imam Nawawi's 40 Hadiths which are widely considered to be the fundamental sacred sayings of Islam.






Thursday -  I had my haircut for the first time since September 2014 as I haven't had the chance because of being so busy with university. My hair's not been this short since I was 14 but I prefer it like this as it is so much more manageable and feels lighter in summer. If any of you are from Manchester and are looking for a salon, I go to The Razor's Edge in the Royal Exchange. My regular stylist is on maternity leave (I didn't even know she was pregnant until I went in to make an appointment last week hahaha) but the stylist I had this time did an amazing job and was so quick too! After my haircut, I went to Costa and had their green tea, lime and mint cooler which is amazing and my favourite one now! I've had a few mojito mocktails in the past and it's very similar to them! I ended up watching One Day in the afternoon because I was lending the DVD to my friend who I was seeing that evening and wanted to make sure it was working fine but once I stuck it on, I just had to watch the whole film as it is one of my favourites of all time. As I graduate next month, I felt it was a good time to watch it. In the evening, I went out with my friends from university, Alex and Rick and we were meant to watch Spy but instead, we went to Chiquitos and I can't believe I'm saying this but afterwards, we went to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron (I've seen it 3 times now and it keeps on getting better). At Chiquitos, Rick and Alex shared fajitas which were served on a sizzling platter (it felt like we would set the smoke alarm off) and I had the sea bass salad with sweet potato fries which was gorgeous. I love Mexican food!







Friday - I've heard really good things about Moose Coffee in Manchester from several of my friends so one of my friends who hadn't been previously either and I finally went there for brunch yesterday. As I ate so late on Thursday night and it was so hot, I had the granola with yoghurt and berries. Misbah had the Vegi Mighty Moose which is essentially a cooked vegetarian breakfast. I will have to go back when it's cold again to try some of the coffee and cooked food. The portion sizes were huge (even the blueberries were larger than usual) but the food was so delicious! We were stuffed after brunch so went for a walk and sat by Manchester Cathedral which is also on my to-visit list this summer! Moose's yummy granola actually inspired me to make my own last night which I'll be having at sehri for Ramadhan on days when I want something more substantial than my usual smoothie. 












I hope you've all had a great week too and are having a lovely weekend. My first summer book club review post will be up tomorrow so look out for that.

Until next time, take care.
Love,
Mancunian Sheep x

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