Tasty bubbles aka why I am too old to party like a rock star

I am a sucker for bubbles. I mean a HUGE sucker for them - champagne, cava, sparkling wine, prosecco, sekt - as long as it's dry, tasty and has bubbles in it, I will probably end up drinking it like other people drink juice.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a massive drinker in general. In fact, not a big drinker at all. I can count how many times I've been very drunk (in my entire life) on my fingers. I mean proper drunk, slurring words, not able to focus on surroundings, going to bed and needing to poke a leg out from under the duvet to stop the room from spinning. The reason for that is hangovers and control. I fucking hate the feeling of waking up with a headache, a funny fuzzy mouth, that tightness in the skull that suggests too little water in the brain, the waves of puke-iness and the fact that it renders me useless for the better portion of the day. Hate it. I also have a big problem letting go of control - one of my major issues in general.

Anway, every once in a while, after long enough time has passed for me to forget my woes about how shitty it made me feel last time, I succumb to the calls of the bubbles. That's exactly what happened last weekend.

My dear friends Rui & Jo came over to enjoy dinner with us. Jo is as much a bubble-head as I am, maybe even more so. They are also incredibly generous and for my birthday, I got gifted a lovely bottle of champagne. I wanted to reciprocate and decided to have them over for dinner as thank you and suggested we drink that bottle of champers. Well, Jo thought it would be a fantastic idea to have a blind tasting of all things bubbly and so we did.

Did I mention that Jo is a vegan? I prepared three proper main course salads for dinner that had some heft to line our stomachs. It was a rare balmy evening in London and we feasted on:

Quinoa, asparagus, strawberries and pea salad from Oh She Glows.

Courgette, spinach and lentil salad with a non-pictured avocado pesto also from Oh She Glows.

French bean, potato and pecan salad adapted from Martha Stewart

The fuck up on this last salad were the several spoonful of goats yoghurt I poured into the dressing. Don't get me wrong, I know yoghurt is not vegan, but I remembered that Jo had been eating diary a while back. Sadly, that was no longer the case, which meant I had leftovers of this salad for 3 days. It remained yummy.

The bubbly flowed freely, the discussions were great, open, and got very passionate and I ate more than I needed. Woke up with the fuzzy head and food guilt, and made myself a French toast with berries for breakfast.

Eggy bread, strawberries, blueberries and nuts.

The Sunday was a sunny affair which called for a spinach smoothie with blueberries and a big salad of leftovers. By that day, I had also recovered from my hangover with a solid intention not to go overboard next time. Erm, yes. We'll see.

Spinach smoothie sprinkled with buckwheat groats, oats, blueberries and cinnamon.

Spinach, lentil, peppers topped with turkey breast, sweet potato hummus and avocado pesto. Yummy.