Twenty-five years ago and my perfect night out in Manchester would have been a trip to Idols Bar followed by Piccadilly 21s or Discotheque Royale.
A lot has changed since then and if I'm honest nights out are now few and far between.
So it was somewhat of a rare occasion that I found myself heading out to the big city - not only for an afternoon and night out, but a hotel stay too.
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The reason behind such a rare event in my non-existent social calendar was meeting up with four of my university friends to celebrate a whole quarter of a century since we first met.
Now we may have been used to slumming it in shared digs in our uni days, but we wanted something a bit more special to mark our friendship milestone.
Our home for the night was the rather luxurious CitySuites II, a sister site to the CitySuites I aparthotel, which faces Chapel Street, on the border of Salford and Manchester, a new breed of apartment hotels in the city centre.
Both are made up of luxury serviced apartments where you can rent rooms like a hotel, or stay for months at a time and make yourself at home - and in fact some famous faces have done exactly that.
CitySuites I opened in February 2017 and quickly grabbed the headlines after Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola chose to set up home there - opting for city centre living rather than heading out into the leafy footballer-belt of Cheshire’s golden triangle.
It was reported at the time that the footie boss and a host of his team took out specific floors of the building that are purely used for long stay residents rather than hotel guests.
Round the corner at CitySuites II and with a mad Manchester United fan in our gang we were quite relieved to be staying in the second hotel, which first opened its doors in January and added five penthouse SuperSuites in July.
After a quick bag drop at the site, we headed into town for the fun to begin. And as it's just a stone's throw from the city centre, sitting just across from Manchester Cathedral, we didn't have far to go.
Having heard of a new place that had opened close by, and with people already raving about the food on offer at 'Manchester's newest social destination', we decided to give The Kitchens at New Century a whirl.
The listed building that was built as the Co-op’s own ballroom has been transformed into a concert venue upstairs and a huge food hall on the ground floor, with a central bar.
There are six independent food kitchens and you can order from any, with each person on your table ordering from a different one if you wish. It turned out most of us wanted something - burgers or steaks - from the same one, with just one of us going rogue for a pizza.
It was all delicious and while us, like many in there, were clearly enjoying the adult company, there were families with kids in there too. It's already hosted a family fun day to mark its opening and there's another one this Sunday, October 30, to celebrate Halloween.
After a couple more drinks in Exchange Square it was soon time to check-in so we made the short stroll back to our hotel where we planned on maybe using the pool and then getting ready for a night on the town.
That's where the plan went a little bit pear-shaped.
Having sampled the delights of the 18-metre pool and unwinding in the jacuzzi - we gave the fancy gym a miss - the last thing any of us wanted to do was leave this place.
Throw in the fact that we had comfy sofas, a fully fitted kitchen and a Sainsbury's over the road with prosecco and pizza calling our name, it took just one of us to suggest that maybe it would be nice 'to stay in and have a proper catch-up' and we couldn't get our pyjamas on quick enough.
Two of us even had a choice of pjs. I told you things have changed. It's all about comfort for women over 40 and you never quite know how warm a hotel is room is going to be.
It turned out the temperature, as with everything else in this place, was near on perfect.
When your only gripe about a hotel is that the pool changing room could do with being a little bit bigger, you know you're grasping at straws.
As busy mums, with children and work commitments keeping us busy all week, the one thing we all wanted - apart from that 'proper catch-up' of course - was some R&R.
The fact that this place had everything we needed, from an oven to cook our pizzas in, to a dishwasher to save us the job, meant we got exactly that. And with a bathroom and ensuite in our stylish apartment, there was no fighting over a time slot for the relaxing rain showers.
After a truly therapeutic evening putting the world to rights while supping prosecco in our pjs, it was time for some all-important shut-eye - something we all took for granted in our uni days and now treasure more than ever after the sleep deprivation that babies bring.
Thankfully, with super comfy beds, extra pillows and windows and walls that seemed to drown out any noise from the surrounding city centre, we all got a good rest.
For breakfast, we headed to the Embankment Cafe, sited just behind CitySuites II, to grab some coffees and breakfast rolls, before heading our separate ways.
It may not have been the night out we planned, and 20 odd years ago we'd have laughed at the very thought of it, but our night at CitySuites turned out to be the night in we didn't know we needed. And it was a perfect one at that.
Studio apartments can be booked from £120 per night, breakfast an additional £14. Call 0161 302 0202, or visit the website.
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