2023 memories

I’m late to the party but here’s the year.

january
I was in Manchester

february
Trip to Hagi – Izumo – Matsue – Sakaiminato – Kurashiki – Takamatsu.

march
Cherry blossoms and a nighttime cruise.

april
Nezu and azaleas and uni friends.

may
Yokohama to see Scott Murphy.

june
Some family were in Tokyo and a trip to Chichibu

july
Hiroshima to see…Rivers Cuomo and Scott Murphy – I think the highlight of my year.

august
=W=eezer in Odaiba and fireworks

september
Back to Manchester.

october
Friend’s wedding and chomping my way around Manchester.

november
More food, this time ...

Happy New Year: 2024 take 3

We spent the remaining days of Italy back in Vicenza.

My very clever mother-in-law made afternoon tea and crème brûlée for us – amazing! Cakes on the top layer were from a local patisserie.

We went to see the fabulous lights in Vicenza town centre – beautiful as always. It feels so magical and they are everywhere.

We had hot chocolate which in Italy means thick and can be eaten with a spoon. I much prefer this to the hot chocolate that is common in the UK which is usually also very sweet.

We headed to a park where there ...

Happy new Year: 2024 take 1

Well, I went back to Manchester for Christmas, got a chest infection and it all kind of ended up as a blur in my head. We managed to get to the theatre at Home MCR to see Little Women and it was great. It’s one of my favourites anyway, so I was pretty much guaranteed to like it.

After Manchester, it was off to Italy and we spent New Year in Turin.

We drove over from Vicenza and stopped off at an outlet on the way – I didn’t buy anything but we went to Venchi to have a ‘ ...

learning to deliver the goods

table

We went to a cooking class whilst we were in Italy and I must say whilst I was a bit apprehensive, it was really good!  I was imagining that it would be really strict and that I wouldn’t be able to do it.  It was actually really good fun!  I had such a good time and I managed to learn how to make some really excellent food.  The teacher, Lucas, was so patient and created such a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

We made focaccia with olives, sea salt and rosemary.

focaccia

It was beautiful!

focacciapiece

Ravioli with a pumpkin and amaretto biscuit ...

italian life

river

Hello, long time no blog, especially over Christmas.  So, we went to Italy to visit family and then on to England, but I don’t have any photos of England – sorry.

We didn’t get up to too much, just seeing family, friends, eating, drinking, giving and receiving presents.  It was just all the usual Christmas stuff and I loved every minute.

In Italy we had a cooking lesson (a separate blog to follow); had ice cream; ate delicious food and relaxed.  We flew to Zurich with Swiss Air and then to Venice. Swiss Air were very good, we were impressed ...