We both opted for water to drink, and deliberated over the menus for much longer than necessary.

Mine and B's problem is that because we rarely get to see each other, when we do, we could talk for Britain. It usually takes the waiter 3 times of asking if we're ready to order before we actually are.

We finally decided to both have exactly the same dishes. Feeling greedy, we opted to have a starter and went for the 'dolcelatte e noci aranchini', described as dolcelatte cheese & walnut risotto balls, red wine poached pears, frisee lettuce & grain mustard dressing. 

I'd had this starter before, a long time ago, and remembered how impressed I was by it. 

It's a really grown-up dish flavour-wise, and one that I've never noticed in any other Italian restaurant I've been to. The flavours are intense, and the risotto balls are gorgeously gooey, pairing beautifully with the poached pears. I was nearly tempted by the bruschetta, but then I thought that you can get that pretty much anywhere and so wanted to go for this more unique dish. 

For main, we went for one of the options on the lunch time specials menu - the 'Gnocci al pesto', composed of gnocci pan fried in garlic butter with cherry tomatoes, black olives, pesto, rocket & grana padano shavings. 

Gnocci can be stodgy and too filling sometimes, but this one had a beautiful crispiness to it from the pan-frying, and the portion size was spot on. I can be fussy with pesto because too much makes me feel a bit sickly, but the amount they added was perfect and complimented the tomatoes and olives wonderfully. 

We were both stuffed and groaning by the time we'd finished our main, and quickly declined the dessert menu. However, we then proceeded to chat for so long that our main had gone down a bit and we both wanted more and had to embarrassingly ask for the menus that we'd previously shot down so intently.  

I was feeling particularly naughty and opted for ice cream, whilst B chose a hazelnut latte.

You get 3 scoops, and I went for two chocolate and one cappuccino.

Unfortunately the chocolate was disappointing, but then I hit the last scoop, the cappuccino, and all was not lost. It was gorgeous - the perfect strength of coffee flavour. I wish I'd of just had all three as cappuccino now!

B's hazelnut latte, like my chocolate ice cream, was disappointing. However, that is mainly due to the fact that we went to Patisserie Valerie not long ago where she had the best hazelnut latte she's ever tasted and so now nothing compares. Maybe there will be a post on that place in the not so far future...

Overall, it was a delicious meal and we couldn't believe how reasonable the bill was when it arrived. Con Amici is our traditional meeting place now, and I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Check out Con Amici's menus here.

Yesterday whilst vegging out on the sofa to countless episodes of American Horror Story, my flat buzzer went and it was the delivery guy with a parcel for me. I was confused because I hadn't ordered anything to my memory, but hurried down to collect it anyway. It was a big box and I was now even more confused, wondering what on earth it could be. I ripped it open, half in excitement and half still in confusion, and to my absolute surprise it was a gift, from one of my best friends.

As you know, I've recently moved into a new place (more on house stuff to be posted shortly), and one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world,  let's call her B, and her boyfriend, had sent me a housewarming gift of Bottega Rose Gold sparkling wine. It came with the sweetest note attached and I was, and still am, truly overwhelmed. Not only did B and her boyfriend pick my favourite alcoholic drink (which is always important information for a friend to know), but they even picked it by the fact that the bottle is rose gold, which they know I am a massive fan of. I was, and still am, overwhelmed by the gift, but most of all I'm touched by the actual thought behind sending anything at all.

Despite being one of my closest and dearest friends, B and I rarely get to see each other in person due to both our schedules and the fact we don't live in the same place. However, this has never played any part in wavering the strength of our friendship, even through our 3 years of university where she was in London and I was in Chester. Ours is the type of friendship where we can not speak at all for weeks, and not see each other for months, but when we finally do absolutely nothing has changed. We just know we're always there for each other, and I think those type of friendships are the most important. Of all my best friends, B is the one that would do such a gesture of sending a housewarming gift, and that caring and thoughtful nature is one of the things that I love most about her. She could of sent me anything and I would have been equally overwhelmed, because it just shows she's thinking of me.

If you have friends like this, treasure them with all your heart, because they are the ones that will be by your side, through thick and thin, always, and we all need at least one friend like that.

"We're sisters. You're my family. What is you is me."