Just a quick post on the weekend. As I do often, I was working on Saturday, and I got home to meet the kids who had been away since Wednesday. My mother-in-law kindly took them to her house to look after them for a few days, which meant that my wife and I had some quality time together.
We went out to GreyFriars restaurant in Colchester, a lovely place to eat and I have to say, while expensive, in my opinion, it was worth the money. Great food (which may take time to come on occasion), terrific service and an amazing setting. We both loved it and returned on Friday after work with two friends, though not for dinner, but a few drinks.
On getting home on Saturday, it was great to see the kids, and they appeared to have missed me (my wife had picked them up, and they certainly had missed her). While my wife and I had to go out for a dance afterwards (and what a great night that was) today we spent some time in the garden playing catch and a few other games as well. The only down sides of this weekend was not being able to watch the football and missing out on Strictly.
Chess appears to be more interesting for the two of them. They are hoping to get my two brothers into it, one of whom has said he will start to play on-line with them. As for me, two more on-line competitions lost, 3rd Green Wing and Speed King 054 but the games were fun.
I would love to post more, but I am tired and now in need of sleep! Goodnight and I hope you like the videos of two songs my daughter likes (and one version she does not).
I am probably going to make several posts on this topic, but I thought I would make the first one, for now. There is to be an EU referendum, which I think is good as it will put an end to the discussion about should we be in it or should we leave it. I also think that we should be in the EU. Here are some of the reasons. 1; Bankers - Of the nations of Western Europe, there are two who are out of the EU and do well. Norway and Switzerland. Norway has oil, and lots of it. Switzerland has its financial sector. Yes, they make chocolates, drugs and watches but it is a major banking sector. 2: Manufacturing - In the UK, we have falling supplies of oil and gas, our manufacturing sector is getting smaller and while Britain is great, our ability to export may not be enough to compete against China and other BRICS nations. We are still making things, but we export a lot to Europe. Cars for example are produced in the UK, but I can not see Honda, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover and the many companies that make cars in the UK staying if we have to pay import duties into the EU. 3: America - Not only did the US vote in Bush the second, they did it twice. And at the time of making this post, Trump is ahead in the polls to be the GOP candidate. I would rather be closer to Europe than the USA (though I would prefer to be close to both) because of this. When I get other ideas, I will post again. Good night!
I just thought that I would make a quick post about chess. While I would like just to post about me, I only think that it is fair to comment on the kids. My son has signed up for football lessons. He did play before, but dropped out as he did not like it. However, he has realised just how important it is to boys, especially those at school (he goes to a state school in case you are wondering). He did play rugby, but did not like mud, or rain, or snow, which really means that he should play cricket. Anyway, by the time he got to Chess club today, most the games had been played and they were packing up the games. His sister though had managed to play and was annoyed with herself by accidentally drawing with someone that she was going to beat. She did win later through the resignation of her opponent. I have tried to teach them, but the teacher at the Chess Club inspires more confidence in them than I do. Probably because he is not related to them, and because he is a better player than me!
It is always nice being able to spend extra time with the family and Bank Holiday weekends are a time for doing so.
Yesterday after being picked up from work, we went for a bit of a drive and I got us lost as I tried to find a short cut. We had been to a vineyard before and though we did not end up buying any wine we did leave with some beer.
Afterwards it was the magical mystery tour. One advantage of this was that we found The Booking Hall Cafe in Rayne. And I have to say that it was great. We loved the cakes, Sausage rolls and tea. And as you can see from the pictures they have a sense of humour.
Anyway, last of all, chess. The pictures are of a game against my son. As you may be able to tell, it was played using his Star Wars Episode 2 chess set and he managed to get a draw, something that he is very proud of. Me, I am continuing to play on line and have just lost one of the tournaments that I have been running on the Chess.com website. I have managed to win a few but still have lost some of those that I have run.
Just a quick update. First our return to the UK. It was an early drive on Sunday when we came back. The children were exceptional and dealt well with being woken up so early. Loading our Lanica (did I mention that this was the worst car we have ever driven) with our extra baggage was fun. I had forgotten to mention that on the 6th, when we went shopping, we visited a glass shop that we had visited in the past. Well, I needed to ensure that I had the rest needed to drive in a safe manner, so I rested outside while my wife went shopping. She came out with some large boxes. Very large boxes, boxes too large to put in our suitcases, well one of them was. Needless to say, this resulted in an 'interesting' discussion, but she had found some bargains (as we found out on our return to the UK when we compared the prices on the website to the store). When we had last visited this shop, she had bought some Grappa glasses, and while amazing, they looked very fragile. I was able to ensure that we got them back, and we still use them. Well, I was not sure that I would be able to work my magic with packing with them. So, when we went to the Chocolate factory, we bought some additional cases. On our trip to Italy, we did not use our full hand baggage allowance, which meant that we had the option of buying some hand luggage to get these glasses back. It worked, though I was not able to pack they way I wanted on account of my foot which after being bitten the previous day was very swollen.
It was a lovely drive back to Pisa. We got to see dawn and driving through Tuscany and Umbria at that time of day was beautiful, even though it was quite cloudy. We all knew that we were going to miss Santa Chiara but in a way, we were looking forwards to returning. The flight was fun, I sat next to a lady with her daughter and the nanny though as the daughter who was not yet two was very interactive, my daughter decided to swap seats to sit next to her and ended up tiring her out! My son was glad at the swap as I then had to put my book down and entertain him instead. But it was great to be home. Cold compared to Italy and I ended up putting a fleece on as compared to the heat in Italy, it was cold! Work was great, though I realised that I had forgotten to bring in food for everyone (something I still have to compensate for).
And we have had fun since our return to the UK. As you can see from the picture, I broke a window. I was mowing the lawn this weekend when I think the mower hit a stone which hit the window. This is the second time this year it has happened, the window being broken that is. Earlier this year, it was broken by a cricket ball, this time though, I was at fault. Still it should be fixed soon(ish).
The kids are having fun in the last few days of the holiday. Both are now going to chess club and have found a love of the game that they did not really have before. And they are now listening to me when it comes to teaching them. Yesterday, I played my son and won one game, but he managed to draw the other! I have to watch out for them as they are improving lots. There is so much more I can say, but I am tired and I have work tomorrow, so good night.
Today is our last full day of the holiday in Umbria. Today has been spent packing and for me, resting as I have had a reaction to a bite. I will miss the views from Santa Chiara but will be glad to be rid of the insects. Though to be fair the bites of note have not been sustained here.
Yesterday was spent in the pool at first followed by an amazing lunch cooked by my wife and then we went out to La Casa Colonica Agriturismo Wine Oil Mezzetti after doing some shopping for a few odds and ends that can only be found in Italy. I liked the wine, not all that was served, but enough to want to buy some. We left with some olive oil that they make there but no alcohol! It was fascinating to learn more about the local wines as well as details about the labelled they use. I will not post it here as if you are reading this you may want to visit. The only downside to this was that I got my bite there which has limited me today. Also if you do visit here, follow the SatNav coordinates that they give you as we did not and had an interesting drive until we pulled over and programmed them in.
As you can see, we got some great photos of the peacock that lives in the area. The last time we saw one, there were actually two, this one was solitary though. I have seen peacocks before but seeing one in the wild is different and in addition, the sunlight makes its colours come to life much more.
Dinner was a takeaway from Tabacchi Jazz and as before it was great and as the children had one pizza each (which they could not finish) I got to have leftovers for breakfast! Today we did go out to lunch at Ranco Nuovo Ristorante. The food was great as before but as my daughter would not finish her food in a timely manner, the service fell apart, though that may have been down to them and not my daughter. I am going to miss Umbria and Santa Chiara, the children who have made friends here probably are going to miss it as well and while my wife and I would come back (and certainly recommend it to others) both kids are keen on a return here next year! Last of all, the cats. Two gorgeous cats who are great with kids. I will miss them as well.
Morning all. Yesterday was a kind of easy day though being sunny a very relaxing one as can be seen with Blue one of the two amazing cats at Santa Chiara relaxing on our sun lounger.
We went to Città di Castello leaving Blue to his cat nap, a short drive away finding a parking spot as it was market day was interesting! The market was a bit familiar as some of the stalls were the same as in Umbertide. The town centre is enchanting. We did not get to go into the museum or the tower but spent some time in the Cathedral admiring the frescoes and the beauty of the building.
After that it was a meal back at Ristorante I Grasoli di Sant' Andrea which I loved (and I think my daughter did as well) but was not as good as before for my son and wife. A trip back to Santa Chiara resulted in more time in the pool and then another amazing meal from my wife followed by a game of Risk. My son wanted to play a board game and chose this one, a game I have played before when younger. After initial defeats I stormed ahead for the rest of the family to join forces and put me down several pegs.
But it kept the children occupied so that we could try to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower and other than my son, we all got to see a shooting star. He was just too tired to take it in and appreciate it fully, but maybe next year...
