A Good-Bye Dinner with Friends

Before I left, Rosi was a cutie and invited a couple of mutual friends for a meal before I left. I thought it was just a general gathering but apparently it was a birthday AND going away party, and my friends bought gifts for me. It was a little over whelming but luckily they didn't make a big deal out of it! We went to Thai Aroy Dee which is a real hidden treasure in Leeds. It has off the chart ratings on trip adviser and if you don't get there early, you're queuing around the block. The menu has tonnes to offer, and the little greedy pigs we are ordered the set menu for four people. I was cocky and thought 'I won't take the dish names as they'll be on the menu and I'll just sneakily use them', what a fool.. the set menu we had is not on that list :( boo.

ANYWAYS. We all started by trying different drinks - Helen (from this post) got coconut juice kinda thing - it had little coconut chunks in too (at the back)! I had Pandan juice to remind me of my travels in Indonesia (green bread and peanut butter, the cup in front), Rosi had an Indonesian coffee which was incredible (right), and Zeynep had coke (left)!

For starters we got the mixed Hors d'oeurves 

we then got a soup

 

got egg fried/basmati rice

 

A delicious beef curry, realllllllll tasty. If I knew what it was I'd recommend it!

This chicken was SPICY. Super spicy, I couldn't handle much of it.

 I'm gutted this dish is blurry - it was my favourite, lots of veg with a tasty sauce, again quite spicy but I ate most it so it couldn't be that bad ;)

sweet and sour (ish, Thai style not Chinese) King Prawns. 

Having all suitably had our fill, we paid and went our separate ways. Rosi and I had more plans that evening so we took a walk and found this lovely little grassy area, right in the middle of the city! Having been here for 4 years I have no idea how I didn't know about it before, but then again, thinking about it, I've had no need for it before. Now I'm considering it to be my room of requirement. 

  

My friends bought me some nail varnishes and Rosi's nails were bare so we sat for 45 minutes painting them, we chatted and ate cinnamon buns (that Rosi hand made for me, very spoiled!) 

A lovely meal with friends at a delicious place - great value for money, you should definitely go if you're ever up that way! 

Day Trip 20/4/13

As I mentioned on Sunday, I went on a day trip with lots of friends on Saturday. We went to Ilkley/Skipton/Bolton Abbey, similar to the time Michael and I went exploring. It was a very long day, I met my Canadian friend Rosi at the bus stop and we caught the bus to Ilkley. Then we met up with lots of Rosi's Spanish friends (there were 12 of us in total), we explored Ilkley town a little bit, had a fish and chip lunch and then caught the bus to Bolton Abbey. The bus driver complimented my hair, which is always nice :)

The old Abbey has a functioning church attached to it, which was a nice touch. This Abbey also had better up-keep than the one in Kirkstall (you can see a recurring theme of my love for Abbey's...)

There was a nice touch in this one, because the river that was close by had stepping-stones to get across, as well as a bridge, luckily for me. 5 of our friends went across and only one fell in! (unfortunately it wasn't Rosi though :( )

I'm a huge fan of lovely doors, I think you see so many doors that are just plain and boring, so when you see an actual good one it kinda takes you back.

It was also great fun to explore the cemetery and see all the messages left for people. 

A photo of me in the grass (those Spaniards love to take HUNDREDS of photos)

After a game of Spanish dodge-ball (different rules) we walked back to get the bus. But someone read the timetable wrong, and we actually had to wait another hour and a half to get the right bus back to Ilkley. Then in Ilkley we had to wait another 40 minutes for a bus back to Leeds (ruining all my evening plans..) but it was all made right with a lovely cold pint.

It was a good day out, and nice to actually spend time in the sunshine with good company :)