nonnaB

Yes Ian L'Angolo was Roses garage. We later sold it to Ashmores ( 2 brothers and wives) we had decided to return to Italy and James my son was due for national service so a bit of a predicament. Things with moving werent quick and in the mean time an Italian friend of ours who lived in Radcliffe told us they were trying to find caterers at the golf club as those they had had left . We thought it would help to pass a little time in case things were still going slow with moving. We got the job and enjoyed it but it was hard work. A lot of our customers were golfers and they were pleased that we

I dont know what happenrd to him Ian as far as I know he went came back to Italy.

Yes Phil thats right. La Buca Jonab was opened in 1978 ( or 1976) we were there for many years and in the meantime opened Da Vinci in WB, also Ponte Vecchio on Trent Bridge. Memories a bit blurred so cant give you exact years La Buca used to be The Old Dutch and we got it at a good price as the owners were bankrupt. The place was in a terrible state and in doing a lot of work inside my husband found a big hole behind the bar. Hence the name La Buca. While there he eventually had a waiter who became a partner in Ponte Vecchio. ( ex Bridge Cafe) One of our ex waiters managed it whilst Carlo ( p

Yes Phil , County Sales which did become the Clinton Rooms was a few doors from La Buca. There was a passage way leadingto the back of the restaurant then there was the carpet shop. Saturday nights was always a problem with people using the passage as a loo. But Alex being ever one step ahead solved the problem by fixing some sort of shock (Effective but harmless)once wet. It worked but he was quick to hide the evidence. .

Lizzie yes the flower is very similar not so brightly coloured though

Our neighbours have a banana tree. It produces a weird looking flower and a small bunch of bananas. Non edible. Strange how it grows, its lovely when its fully grown but as autumn and winter approach it dies down to ground level then in spring all these new shoots grow each one a potentional tree. Sorry wrong place but just following the flow.

You never know just a few people might help the bananas ripen.

Cruises have never appealed to me before but after watching a tv programme this afternoon its confirmed my choice. It was a documentary investigation into pollution. I didnt sit down deliberately to watch tv but because I felt tired , a rest was a good idea. What caught my attention was a comment that although pollution was high in the centre of Milan the pollution was so many times higher in the middle of the ocean. Impossible I thought, but think about it. A reporter and someone who deals with pollution ( sorry but some english words escape me ) went on this cruise and continually tested the

My dad was into photography and his darkroom was the kitchen. Remember as a brownie coming home all sweaty and thirsty when I spotted a lemonade bottle sitting in the hearth. I took a swig as dad said don't touch it its developing liquid Watching the image appearing in this fluid and then they were hung to dry a bit then put on a curved heated thing which finally dried the photos, I was fascinated and came to appreciate his interest. But when I was even younger I wanted to take a photo and dad told me what to do etc. Then I spoilt it by asking is this the button I press. Needless to say m

Better late than never. Just come online. Hope youve had a good birthday.

Lizzie I have been able to find the bridge on Google Earth as I couldnt find anything on film and news clips that I recognised. Its further on after the airport from our end. We would have passed over it many times going to the coast on that side. Can't remember if its before or after the Aquariam. I did notice that Google have already marked the part that collapsed. Again many ideas of why and how .

Lizzie, I think you missed it by a whisker. When we go to the airport at the end of the motorway we turn left but to go towards Ventimiglia we turn right , so it would be opposite for you and we'd have missed it .

Everybody who's who will be enquiring into what and why it happened there are so many "experts" who think they are right but even the real experts have their own theories. And certainly some heads will roll, as with the earthquake in Amatrice when the students house was destroyed.

We are in shock as to the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa. Weve been watching news 24 since midday. We have travelled over that bridge so many times on our way to the airport. Its so sad especially now as the holidays are in full force. People going for a well earned rest and to end like that, so sad. The traffic in that area. ( l'autostrada dei Fiori) is tremendous always but at holiday times it gets very very busy. Strangely enough although the autostrada is beautiful I have always hated it and been a bit afraid. I was always glad when we were back on the autostrada to home. The

Just heard hes from Nottingham

Its like visitors to a foreign country complain when the locals don't speak English. There's more foreigners speak English than foreigners speak a second language.

Phil don't know if you were in the restaurant one night when there was a lot of hammering coming from the kitchen. it was the chef trying to tenderise a steak. Alex came to the rescue as a client was complaining saying that the chef was having a problem catching the frogs

Jonab the cheese is Piemontese but probably the same sort of thing.It took me ages to appreciate the taste of Cheddar when I was younger, then I began to accept the different tastes of our local cheeses. A cousin makes his own Ricotta Salata (salty ricotta) and its delicious on a plate of pasta with a tomato sauce. Goodness what did we start.

Horse meat is very lean and very tasty. we have eaten donkey meat too especially salami. Don't think they'd get away with stuffing mushroom stalks into snail shells in Italy. Even with a strong garlic taste you'd still taste the mushrooms.I don't like them , I love the taste but not the texture.

Yes I suppose you're right but you have to wait for the mating season when they grow very long feathers and nest in small groups on very rough ground. if you believe this you'll believe anything A Dr customer we had in Radcliffe was Scottish and he used to send us haggis, I love them.

Was he sure they were cat skins Phil as rabbit skins are similar? Yes rabbit is very popular here and we did do a gourmet evening with rabbit as main course. Its not a great deal different to chicken and many years ago rabbit stew was always available, but done in a stew is tasteless. Give me rabbit with peas and rosmary or as my daughter makes it, with chocolate. Weird as it may seem you don't taste the chocolate but its delicious. Wild boar is popular here but for me its too strong. Talking about weird tastes we have a cheese here that if you're not attentive the maggots can run away w

Phil where have you heard that . Never heard of roof rabbits. Hope you're not taking the mickey . I know the italians especially in piemonte eat some strange things but cats?

Back still in a bad way. Went to a osteopath today. The verdict that my spine is completely blocked and in a very bad state ( which I already knew) but will persevere with my exercises etc and still go to see her. She has changed one of my exercises though saying it will help to unblock my spine. I dont think I'll ever be cured as its gone on for so long , my fault because I hadn't realised how serious it was . I'd never been ill until 7-8 yrs ago . Then everything went wrong. This last week I've been in tears more than once. No one would ever know that I was the top vaulter in the school . Di

We have tractors that make a noise at all sorts of times that dont suit us. Making hay bales at midnight because its cooler and doing the vendemmia too. Before dawn.Our neighbours are fine very friendly and we dont have any sort of problems with them, but one side they have too many cats ( strays) which in itself isnt bad but the cats get everywhere and use our plantpots for their loos. The other side have always had alsation dogs ever since weve been here. They have lost two and this latest one is a beautiful huge pup , but has an awful bark and it barks at the slightest thing. When I take my

Years ago we had a plum tree which never did produce much fruit. The next door gneighbour was a keen gardener and he told my dad that trees fall asleep sometimes just like animals that go into hibernation. He told dad to beat its trunk with a solid stick and shout at it Dad did this feeling silly and wondered if anyone could hear. The following year we had an enormous yeild of plums. After hearing that my sister in law tried it with her fig tree ...same result. It does work.