So, yes, I haven't checked in for ages ... the last blog I posted was a long time ago, in fact after we returned from Dublin and that indeed is ages ago ...

 

The last quarter of 2008 was a hassle. Two weeks after we returned from Ireland, Flavia and I set out to discover what's happening in the capital of the north - Manchester and when in the area, we couldn't have missed out on Liverpool of course. We started with the latter, and after we spent a pleasant night in a Marriott Golf Club resort near Manchester, Liverpool was on the plan to entertain us for a day. The weather was rubbish, but that we expected anyway. The city is alright. We checked on the Albert Dock, The Beatles Museum, Titanic Museum and the Liverpool branch of the Tate gallery early in the day and we also managed to miss the Magical Mystery Tour dedicated to the Beatles legacy by a minute, as we stayed a bit extra in the souvernir shop to make my signorina Flavia happy ;o)) ... I had fun all the way though, apart maybe from the Titanic Museum and the Tate gallery, but my lack of interest at least in the gallery was compensated by the overflowing interest on my girlfriend's part, so it was all time well spent, hehe ...

 

After we have paid sufficient amount of attention to the area of Albert Docks, we moved on to the area of The Cavern. The bar where The Beatles used to play is in fact a fake, as the original property burnt down. We spent some time in, then walked around to check on some other Beatles legacy and then ended up in some kind of a Korean all you can eat where we were offered heaven for just 10 quid.

 

The night that day was the last one we spent in the Marriot chain with my remaining points, after which we headed for Manchester. That turned into an unexpected challenge, as we somehow started circling around on the ring road. When we got tired of the highway, we took one of the junctions and somehow navigated ourselves towards the tall and slim looking Hilton hotel that gives the city a landmark. We liked Manchester as there was music in the streets and crowds strolling around the shopping center. Also Oasis is from there, so Flavia loved the city without having to even set her eyes on it in the first place. Half way through our visit, we discovered John Ryland's library, which was a building half modern - half-neo-gothic style-ish. We were thrilled. On the other hand we weren't impressed by the Roman Walls, that basically don't exist. At the end of the visit, we also got to see the modern Lowry.

 

At the beginning of November, Flavietta and I moved together. We found ourselves a beautiful flat at Canary Wharf in London. The whole moving and arrangements around it made me lose some weight that I more than regained during Christmas, but that's a different story ;o))

 

At the end of November we were off to Naples. I flew in straight from Amsterdam while Flavia took a flight from London. Apart from seeing Flavia's family, we also managed to do a day trip to Pompei. Ahhh, how I loved Pompei :oP ... awwweeeesoommmeee ... I also got to taste a panuotzo (well, something of that name anyway), which is a grand panino with pizza like stuff inside. Worth trying ... We then did a leisure Sunday in the center of Napoli. We went to see the Christmas market that started early in Naples as usual. Especially the Presepe that is the Nativity Scene made out of wood with every details captured imaginable was impressive. Then I set a new personal record after I ate a quattro formaggi and and a margheritta on top of it ... Yeah, I was soo full, I couldn't breathe ... We flew back to London from where I returned to Holland on Monday morning.

 

The weekend after Flavia and I were on our way to Torino where Flavia's father lives. Torino was freezing, Flavia and I were getting a bit tired, but we still had fun. Flavia's father helped us discover the city. We saw the Royal Palace, the cathedral in the center that is half gothic, half new age architecture. We tasted lots of foods, local espresso and spotted the mountain that Paramount uses in its logo (the triangle shaped one). We did miss one biggie, which was the Mole Antonelliana, which is the city landmark with a huge alluminium spire at the top. We did freeze in front of it for half an hour and we did move some two meters closer to the entrance, but then we can always choose a better plays to freeze to death, so we gave this one up for once. The next day Flavia's father took us to his golf club, where we saw some great nature of Torino, but also ate some amazing pasta :oP ...

 

The week after we really needed to get some rest and so we did. Apart from the late Xmas shopping, we somehow did regain strength by spending some extra hours in bed. But still, it wasn't enough. The last week before Christmas I celebrated the St. Daniel day (yeah, my saint day :oP and I got presents too ...), but more importantly my nephew Petr (Czech version of Peter, so not a spelling mistake there guys!!) was born ... yo yo yo ... I was really happy.

 

Flavia and I wrapped it up in London end of the week. I left on Dec 19 and Flavia one day after me. I then spent my Christmas holiday at home. I was mostly sick in bed, but still had a great time. On Dec 30 Flavia and I returned back to London and on Dec 31 we went down to the center to watch the London's fireworks, which were awesome. I'll post the pics here in a bit ...

 

So that's what was happening the last three months of 2008 in my life. Time flew by soooo quick ... Anyway, here we are one year older, so the next post I put here will be a 2 0 0 9 one ;o))