February Books

Hello lovely people, the month of February is done and dusted! Dam that was fast! I got through 7 books, holy smoke!

About Face by Donna Leon is another story with Guido Brunetti of the Venice police force. I have not read so many of her books, and this one was at the book swap so I thought I would try it. It is ok and I would read another but I would not buy one of her books.

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt this is a short book, so it did not take long to get through it, again it was okay story but nothing special. Here is a review from the Guardian to explain the book.

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey is about Maud who has dementia and tries to find out what has happened to her friend Elizabeth. Here is another review about this book, I was interested to read that the book rights have been sold for TV.

A German Requiem by Philip Kerr is about Bernie Gunther private eye who is sent to Vienna in 1947 to help with an ex Kripo colleague which faces a murder charge. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to read more in this series.

The next two books Percy Jackson and the Titian`s Curse by Rick Riordan and Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth also by Rick Riordan. I really liked these two books, in fact I bought then for Alessio but so far he has not read them. I was disappointed to hear that they will not be making anymore movies.

Finally The Dandelion Years by Erica James, this one I also really liked set in the present and during WWII. Saskia finds an old diary and begins to read it, about two people working at Bletchley Park and a romance that begins between. I find that time during the war very interesting and would love to visit Bletchley Park one day.

My reading challenge about reading a crime novel set in different countries continues with Germany, Austria and Italy.


Links to check out!

Mother`s Day is in the Uk this coming Sunday
Chris Rock and the Oscars
Another blog I like
More about Donald Trump!

A Day in Brighton

We had a day trip to Brighton back in October when we were in London for nearly one week. We took the train and arrived around 11am, we headed straight to the pier area. It was actually really nice to see the sea and the sun shining down on it too. I

We walked around the promenade and stopped for lunch, then we visited the Pavilion, a former royal residence. We did not visit it and it did look a bit shabby, but it had lovely gardens.

Afterwards we stopped for coffee and cake, looked at the shops and bought some clothes for Alessio which he always likes!

Finally we headed back towards the train station and off back to London. I would say that I was not so impressed with Brighton to be honest (sorry). I think the highlight of the trip was seeing a squirrel running around the streets!


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                                                    David Bowie in Mexico

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                                         Fancy staying in a hotel featured in a movie!

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                                             This new movie sounds good!

Photo of the Week - Bergen Statue!

It is midweek, which means photo of the week and it is from Bergen again! We saw this statue quite by accident while walking around Bergen. To be honest no idea what this statue is supposed to be, there was a sign but only in Norwegian.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week!

Bergen Doors!

Hello, I am back from my trip to Bergen, Norway. Alessio and I had a great time, saw lots of great museums, a fab boat trip to see  Osterfjord and Mostraumen, lovely buildings and architecture.

After visiting the aquarium we decided to visit the Maritime Museum and to reach here we walked through this lovely area with these fab houses and doors. Alessio was quite sick and tired of me taking photos and I could have taken loads more! There will be more posts about to come about Bergen next month!


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                                                             Beautiful Bled

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                                           A new blog I found that I really enjoy, by Erin Boyle

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                                     Here is a quiz for you! How good is your knowledge of islands

This Weekend in Zurich

Kunsthaus

It is already the middle of February, it is amazing how fast the year has gone so far! This weekend I went to the cinema to see Deadpool. now this movie is not for the faint hearted! It is quite violent and lots of swearing, but very funny though. I was holding up my coat when the yucky bits happened! The link shows a watered down version!

On Sunday I went to the Kunsthaus, the top art museum in Zurich to see a exhibition about the Dada movement. It is celebrating 100 years anniversary, so there are lots of events going on in Zurich about this, For those of you who have no idea what Dada is look here! It will hopefully explain it much better than I could. I would have taken some photos of the exhibition but nobody was taking any so I felt a bit awkward taking some!

Finally after the exhibition I met up with a friend and we went to the Hyatt for tea and cake. I have been here numerous times for cake and tea, the last time being for my birthday in 2014. It was a delicious crumble like cake with pistachio ice cream, really yummy!

Alessio is on holiday now for two weeks and on his first week we are going to Bergen in Norway for 5 days!

Wishing you all a great week ahead!

Fishing Boats

While we were in Scotland we took a trip to Arbroath, one of the reasons was to celebrate my mother`s birthday. Afterwards we walked around the harbour, it was an extremely windy day, but quite a sight to behold though.

As you can imagine were was quite a lot of fishing boats in the harbour, of all shapes and sizes. I found them quite interesting to look at.

Enjoy the weekend!

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Some links to peruse!

There are lots of great films coming in the next few months, I am going to see Deadpool this weekend. But Batman v Superman looks good too

Continuing on the movie theme, Donald Trump played by Johnny Depp!

Ellen with the President!

Photo(s) of the Week - Bird Food

Ok, I am cheating a bit here with three photos, more from the garden, this little fellow in the top photo was really trying to get as much food as possible. The black bird just waited and got any bits that fell to the ground. A good idea really!


Some of the stuff happening in the world:

Some folk are pissed off with Beyonce now!
War time romance after 70 years!
Another high tower is going to be built in Tokyo

A Day In Lausanne

Back in September last year Alessio and I went to Lausanne for the day, the main reason for the  trip was to visit the Olympic Museum. We did that in the afternoon and I still have to put up a post about it. Once we arrived we made our way to the centre and that means walking a bit uphill, once up we headed to the cathedral and the streets around this area. We saw lots of lovely buildings, fountains, some small shops and nice views, although I not sure Alessio really enjoyed this part of the trip.

We then walked back down a different way and found a place to eat, which Alessio always likes to do! Then we headed towards the lake and the museum. Once we arrived at the lake, there was a huge playground and that made Alessio extremely happy!

In fact it was pretty dam hard to get him to leave so we could visit the museum. Once we finished with our visit we walked back to the playground before we headed up to the train station.


Here are a few links to ponder!

People in London got a fright!
Zurich guide
Harry Potter library in Porto, I will be checking that out this summer!

Albuferia Postcards Part 2

Well it has taken me ages to put up the second part of this post, better late than never! Albuferia is a city in the Algarve, Portugal, where we went last summer for our holiday.

The recollections of this place/holiday are as follows:

It was extremely hot (for me and my mother)
The old part was a 20 min walk from our hotel and in that heat it was torture!
Some of town was interesting, away from the tourist bits
There were some fabulous views of the sea
We went on a wonderful dolphin spotting boat trip
It was unfortunate that we were not able to visit Faro for the day.
The marina was very colourful indeed.

This year Alessio and I, along with my father are going again to Portgual, but this time to The Azores! Alessio and I will also have 4 days in Porto too and my dad will be seeing what Lisbon has to offer.

Wishing you all a great weekend!