Yuk. My mouth tastes like last night’s sangrita (that’s a sangria flavour margarita to the uninformed). Although tequila is a pretty grim flavour for 10am, it is at least testament to the fun I had yesterday evening here in Uptown.

My host and I headed out to The Rustic, a quirky chic bar/restaurant with a huge outdoor space full of long sharing tables packed with happy young revellers decked out in cowboy boots and hats.

At Rustic the beers come in chalices that are pretty hefty to lift, and the cocktails are something else.

There’s an outdoor stage for music, and last night a country rock band performed led by a Texan chick singing ‘these boots were made for walking, talking, drinking’. Amen to that sister.

I order a frozen sangria flavour margarita and it arrives in all it’s purple glory with a giant rouge alcoholic ice lolly stuck inside it. Wow. It’s a meal in itself and by the time I’m done I’m pretty merry on liquor, sugar and E numbers.

It’s pretty loud and we have to shout over the band to make conversation but it’s so much fun. A cowboy friend joins us and we drink some more.

We’re a few of the last to leave, and I need to sleep off this high for sure.

Which brings me to where I am now-lying in bed listening to the rain pound the sidewalks. There was a crazy thunderstorm last night that resulted in flood warnings pinging on my phone intermittently throughout the early hours, and I’m reluctant to leave my big warm bed to venture out.

I finally pull myself together, and the rain has passed by the time I leave. I scout out breakfast as a priority in order to make it through the day, and mission accomplished, I jump on the trolley Cart downtown. It’s a rickety old wooden thing which apparently used to be a trolley cart in Australia carrying American G.I.’s in World War II, before servicing McKinney Avenue.

I get off by Klyde Warren and head to Dallas Museum of Art. It’s set over 4 floors and hosts an eclectic mix of modern, European, American, South American and Asian art. There’s a sculpture garden, and a replica of the interior of Coco Chanel’s former chateau home, La Pausa.

Still feeling the effects of the sangrita, I head back and snack the rest of my breakfast from this morning to absorb any outstanding alcohol (yes I had chilli for breakfast…I’m in Texas okay??).

Job done and the rain is holding off so It’s our for drinks again- but I’m only ordering anything that isn’t purple.

We hit up Lower Greenville and a wickedly good place called Truck yard. It’s old fashioned signs and furnishings that used to be truck parts litter an outdoor space. There’s food caravans, a tree house and a stage where a lone cowboy does a country rock version of the St James Infirmary Blues. It’s very Texas.

Next up, HQ scores us rooftop views of the city at sunset; then Velvet Taco gives me crispy chicken skins and creamed corn.

We end the night in the Henderson Area in a bar (funnily enough playing Ella Henderson…)and I’m done for the night. I’m loving the Texas night life here in Dallas and seriously hoping the rain stays away tomorrow night too.

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