Manchester Lately

It's been a while since I've written, those are long days, and weeks!
So many things going on, I have to wrap my head around it.
I also wanted to tell things chronologically here but I haven't had the time or better the inclination to work on the pictures from our latest trip .
I'm having many difficulties with the Apple method of storing pictures and even the easiest task takes me a long time and many nervous breakdowns.

It's been cold! It never gets many degrees below zero, but some mornings i find ice on the windows of the car. It's winter and sunny and cool and brisk. Finally!

Sunday I finally went to Mass . Once a month there is a Mass in Italian in this little Church downtown called the Hidden Gem , for good reason!
After Mass I stopped for coffee with a young couple I already know and a family of four. It was good. It just felt good, and connecting and normal and peaceful after a rough and emotional couple of days.

There is one music shop very close to where we live ; they sell vinyls and used CD and coffee and tea and guitars, very peculiar, especially in our block.

I saw a CD from the Ocean Colour Scene and I had to buy it.
It's been so nice to listen to the group lately: it brought back memories from the old days but warmth with words and pronunciation that are now familiar.
My favourite: The Day We Caught The Train.

Talking about music and old days, I really felt like I missed something not going to see one of my favourite bands when I was a baby that came here in Manchester, so when Hanson published their tour I really couldn't resist and bought 2 tickets for the Sunday night concert. MMMMpop!

Brexit talks are going on and on and things are still very unknown.Manchester is still, however, very on the labour side. So it's easy to spot graffiti like this.

Whenever I randomly find something from home I have to buy it! It was nice seeing it there and they definatly tasted better :)

 

Yesterday it was my last Chinese lesson, for this year. 

The teacher was one of my best teacher I've ever had. She always  knew the how to respond to our ( my) questions and never reply with a non conclusive answer.

She is Chinese, engaged to a Polish boy, going back to China for a bit now and than moving to Norway. How crazy I got to meet her? 

How crazy is it that for 4 months you spend 3 hours a week one to one with a person almost one to one, and then all of a sudden you know you most probably  never going to meet again? 

Or maybe some day I'll move to Norway and take her class again :)

Day 7

Today I took this picture and I tweeted it out to the mayor of my town.

No response yet. Yeah , right, like I was expecting one.

This is basically the state of the country: everything is there, there's place for everything, it could work well, but people just trash it and nobody reacts.

I did my 30 minutes routine, the only thing is it's becoming more like a 20 minutes thing, I should probably add some cardio pretty soon.

In honor of the trash post, here's some good chinese words:

31. 垃圾 le4se4 trash
32. 垃圾桶 le4 se4 tong3 trash can
33.扔 reng2  throw away
34. 垃圾填埋场 le4 se4 tian2 mai3 chang2 landfill
35. 回收 hui2 shou1 recycle
36. 干净 gang1 jing4 clean
37. 脏 zang4 dirty
38. 温室效应 wenshi xiao4 yin4 greenhouse effect
39. 尊敬 zun1 jing4 respect
40. 不敬 bu jing4 disrespect

Day 4&5 The Weekend

I loove weekends!
ok , who doesn't. really.
Mine was super good , emotional and fulfilling.
On Saturday I woke up early ( why? why ? all my life. I'll never know), and decided it was time to try a new recipe of vegan pancakes. It turned out amazing! I want it to become a Saturday tradition!
I'm actually sorry I didn't take any pictures, (dang!) but I'm going to make up for it with a tutorial recipe here next time I make them.
After a cleaned off the mess from the pancakes , I went to the farmers market, like every other Saturday on earth.
I love farmers markets, I love the walking there, the crowd , the smells and the noises.
This week in particular, my friend with her very cute baby came along. Too bad he cried the whole time, poor thing.
I cooked for the rest of the afternoon, which is kinda awesome: fresh food, plenty of time.
I went to bed early because Sunday it was going to be a huge day.
Here's the reason:

Special Olympics.
You can not find anything more Special than that.
It was wonderful to see all of this people together for one reason: having fun.
I was there all day to coordinate and host the 10 teams that were visiting, but I actually most of time got to yell as a super fan for my team! My voice it's still suffering, but it was very worth it.
the ten words for the day ( for the weekend) are for this reason related to basket!

21.篮球  lan2 qiu2 basket
22. 篮球  lan2 qiu2  basket ball
23. 篮球场 lan2 qiu2 chang3 field
24. 团队 tan2 dui4 team
25. 教练 jiao4 lian4 coach
26. 制服 zhi4 fu3  uniform
27.奥运 ao4 yun4 olympics
28.志願者 zhi4 yuan4 zhe3 volunteer
29.殘疾 can2 ji2 special need
30.友誼 you2 yi4 friendship

Day 2

Well, hello!
I've already skip a day of real physical activity!
I guess I need to also get organised! (yeah, right)
Because on the way to work I wonder , When the heck am I going to do it today?
I had a dinner organised with ex colleagues at 6.30 , and I knew I was not going to leave the office before 5.30.
So I walked.
Insead of going right to the car when I got off, I walked, not fast, I definitely didn't run , for about 25 minutes.
And then, I went to dinner. To one of my favorite place on earth.

Eataly

Forgot to take a picture, so I took it here

Americans, if you read here (hi!!) , visit it. It's marvelous!

Here in Torino, on week nights, they have a vegan plate, just perfect.
Yesterday I enjoyed wheat beans with vegetables ragù and artichoke farinata. May I say, slurp.

Speaking of eating, here's some of my favorites chinese words ...food!
They are not all new to me, but definitely worth mention:

11. 北京烤鸭 bei1jing1 kao3ya1 peking duck
12. 饺子jiao3zi  dumplings
13.蛋炒饭 dan4 chao3 fan4  egg fried rice
14. 西红柿炒蛋 xi1 hong2shi4 chao3 dan4 eggs and tomatoes
15. 咕嚕肉 gu1 lu3 rou4  sweet and sour pork
16. 宫保鸡丁gong1 bao3 ji1 ding1 kong pao chicken
17. 春饼 chun1 bing3 chun bing
18. 烧肉 shao1 rou4 fried pork belly
19. 红烧肉 hong2 shao1 rou4 red braised pork
20. 麻婆豆腐 ma2 pou2 dou4 fu  hot tofu

So here we go. I'm hungry now. :)

Day 1

Today is the beginning of lent, that means , for me, fasting.
I worked an awful lot.
Got in early, got off really late, which kinda helps with the not-having-dinner-nor-lunch-nor-breakfast day.
Because of the fast I can not even think about doing physical activity that I'm supposed to (and going to!) do during lent.
But, what I can do, is study chinese, my 10 new words! having had chinese lesson yesterday really helps !
here they are!

1.高峰 gao1feng1 peak
2.豪华 hao2hua2 luxurious
3.积极 ji1ji2 active/positive
4.事故 shi4gu4 accident
5.奇妙 qi2miao4 wonderful
6.噪音 zao4yin1 noise
7.拥挤 yong1ji3 crowded
8. 休闲 xiu1xian2 laze around
9.迅速 xun4su4 rapid/rapidly
10. 污染 wu1ran4 pollution

With a phone call with a friend on the way home and an invite to dinner for next week, I guess I can really say that I had a very good day.