I know this great little place ...

Living in London, you would think I'd have my pick of superb restaurants, swish bars and cosy drinking dens. You would think I'd be spoilt for choice. Well, quite frankly, there's TOO MUCH CHOICE.

When you live in a city so vibrant, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and go to the same old chains for the sake of simplicity. However, after a pretty wonderful night in cosy Ruby's bar in Dalston, I've made myself the promise to forego bland chains for the sake of these secret London gems more often.

I won't lie: Dalston is not easy for me to get to but, boy, is it worth the trouble. Heading Eastwards, my date and I would have walked passed its inauspicious façade were it not for a dilapidated sign above the door: a cinema listing board adorned with wonky 'MWAH.' Going by this picture from London On The Inside, they are always a little enigmatic :)

Downstairs the low lighting revealed pealing walls (gotta love that shabby chic!), a bar replete with amazing cocktails in old school milk bottles, chilled music and a great crowd.

It's made for a lovely evening and I couldn't stop smiling all the way home.

So, this is my recommendation to you! I would love any recommendations you might have to help me in my quest for originality: any city, any country, anywhere - I want to know!

Can I buy you a drink?

Yesterday, after a pretty solid day of revision, I thought I'd earned break and so popped out for some birthday cocktails with a friend who's back from her year abroad. Only virgin cocktails, though ... I'm still on a bit of a detox from NYE! So, I slick on some mascara and bop off to the bar. So far, so good. The group was a little awkward at first but, as the night went on, we all loosened up and it was pretty chilled - just what I wanted from the evening.

But, cherchez le drame, as my tutor always reminds me! As we were chatting and laughing, these two guys outside started dancing at the window. At first, I though they were so drunk they were just dancing at their reflections but it turned out they were dancing at me! One of them motioned at me to come with. Well, as you can imagined, I laughed it off, smiled and carried on with my pint sized class of vodka - I joke, water! Ten minutes later, this guy pops in and says that he sorry to interrupt but would I like to pop down for a drink with him at a local pub. Slightly shocked, I declined as politely as I could, explaining that it was my friend's birthday whilst complimenting him for his unusual twist and swivel dance move. Again, we carry on chatting and joking and then these two guys casually saunter into the bar, trying on the whole 'oh, you're here too?' act. He comes over (apparently, third time's a charm!) and offers to buy me and the birthday girl a drink... so much for the detox! I very reluctantly accepted an appletini (sickeningly sweet, in case you cared to know) and then felt obliged to go over, thank him and then chat to him for a good hour as he blatantly hit on me and I tried to maintain a bizarre balance between polite and friendly yet frigid.

But here's my dilemma: what is the suitable etiquette for such a situation? Essentially, I just wanted to hang out with my friends but there's only so many times I can politely refuse. The whole situation seemed epitomised by the appletini: yes, it was a sweet gesture, and there didn't seem to be a creepy subtext, but it was sickening, if only because I was trying to detox at the time and hang out with my friends and didn't want to be pressurised into flirting with a guy who I wasn't particularly blown away by. This was not helped by being referred to as 'little lady' all night.

I was only too happy to be distracted by the arrival of some of the boys, even if it meant being mercilessly mocked for my debauched NYE antics!