I went to Assisi in Italy!

First time I went to Assisi in Italy. I heard all about it from Marcus before. He went there a few timesalready. He always makes and sounds very attractive and repeats lots when he talks about some of places he visited. And Assisi was one of those places....

We flew to Perugia on 24th of the Feb. Of course by Rynair. Good old Ryair, I don't mind flying with them at all. It's a small plain, fun to watch when air stewards are doing demos for health and safety.

 Only one thing I would complain are: snacks and drinks are expensive and not very good selections.

Anyway, really it doesn't matter to me and make any difference, I aways take some snacks with me anyway. Next time I fly I must remember to take flask and more tea bags with me!
 

Anyway, it took only a few hours to Peugia. And it was cute airport❀ When we get there it was just after lunch time. We picked up a hire car from the air port. Then we were off!

We didn't have a sat-nav or map to get to Assisi...... Good new was we could see city of Assisi from where we were. So we drove towards the Assisi. Not knowing if we were on the right track. But hey, this is our long weekend and fun adventure, getting lost is a part of it.

 After 20mins or so, we were getting very close. When I saw the city from the car, it looked very old and I got very excited. Apart from France we went, I'd never really visited medieval place.

Unfortunately, my camera(we think pixels)'s a bit buggered. So please excuse for those dots on photos!
 

When we got to city of Assisi, it was weired. They had massive indoor car park, and energy was strange. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. They also had 3 different music on each floorto make even more wired. It was very modern compare to the city. Then when we came out from the monster car park, all I could see was stoned/bricked medieval architecture!

Wow! Our accommodation was very close, we didn't have to walk very far. I felt a bit tired and grumpy. But when I saw the hotel (B&B) my tiredness went away! This is the front gate.

Coool! It's very old wall paintings. In the city of Assisi, they were everywhere. and amazing that they are still there! I liked  that very much they are there very casually. Didn't look formal, they looked like they'd been there for ages( and they have!).

 I wondered how many people draw there paintings and how many days, how they choose where to paint??? How did they make colours and picked up colours to paint? I have a lots of questions to those ancient people. Wish we had  a time machine to go back in time and ask questions. and I would like to have chat with them over nice cuppa!
 

Anyway this is where we stayed. It's basement? room with pretty view from our private garden. Perfect place to do morning qi-gong!

View from our private garden. Beautiful country side!

This is the cute little kitchenette. I was a bit disappointed, We booked a room with a little kitchen. When we got in, we couldn't see the kitchen. Took us about 15mins to work out this cupboard was, in fact, kitchenette.Daaaaaaa!!!

Reminded me the kitchen we stayed in Teneriff last year. That was cute place too. It had cute sink, electric cooker and mini espresso machine. Very Italian!

Loved the ceiling. Never stayed a room with this ceiling. fantastic! ❀❀❀ Sooo coool!

That evening, we went out to explore. Marcus showed me where shops were. And we found cute and rustic(that what we like) greengrocers. We got some veggies and smoked porcini mushrooms! Oh, that was delicious! 

It was very romantic evening. We went bed early as we were tired and again, I woke up very early on that morning with excitement. So I was tired, and became snorie norie till in the following morning....(I got up early too, I'm quite an excitable person......)

Suffolk walks---Anglesey Abbey and snow drops

Me and Marcus went to Anglesey Abbey this morning for a bit walk and snow drops! We went there last year too, funny enough, it was also Monday. Last year when we went, there was full of people and coach loads of people in and out. We had to park our car in the over-spill car park. Today, we managed to get there just after it opened. Still, there were some cars parked up already.

 Cor, weren't they anything else to do? It's Monday you know...

 Yes, I must say, most of people we saw there were either tourists or O.A.Ps. Just before we left, more and more people were arriving. Family with kids, granddad and granny with whole family...etc. We got there just right time.
 

In Anglesey Abbey, there were some funny statues, like Greek mythology characters, dragons and a man on a horse, naked man with grape vines, naked man with horse legs on big verse etc. Is lay-line across there? We thought that too.
 

It was sunny morning to start with, then it got cloudy. Typical English weather! ☹ Never mind... Still, all flower, plants and trees were pretty. There were so many kinds of snow drops, I didn't know that till my first visit there last year. Some were tiny, some were chubby, some had long necks etc. They all looked cute. I have some snowdrops growing in pots, they are cute. I speak to them and always say hello to them. They like that.

 Anyway, here are some photos of snowdrops. ♥

 There were some colourful trees and plants. They stood out in cold grey weather like today. Beautiful colour, and seemed to enjoy this chilly weather. Oh, I'd love to have trees/plants like them in my garden(when I have it). Anglesey Abbey do have unusual ones. Last year, I told Marcus to come here in summer, but we never did. It'll be nice sitting/lying on glass to do cloud watching.
 

Those are the colourful trees and plants♥♥♥

And white birch

We saw really madly curled trees. they were awesome!

Here's me with very very old door.

This is Marcus sitting on a bench with the white birch.

Apparently, they have bluebells there when they're in season. I bet there'll be full of people. I don't think we're going to see them there. We're going  to our secret magic woods for bluebells! ☺

Suffolk walks----Snowed in Polstead!

Cor blimey, it was cold and chilly beginning of this month. People were saying we were having really snowy day/weekend. It didn't happen.

Then, weekend after, it got really chilly. I was waiting a bus on one Saturday early evening. I was frozen! Although I was wearing lots of layers and warm gloves, hat and my snow boots, I was cold. When I got to Sudbury, temperature dropped even more. It was -6℃...

 That night, it started snowing. I didn't see when it was snowing, but when we got up following morning, it was covered with snow and white everywhere! Oh, it was very pretty...

 We went out for a walk. There were some people who had the same idea as us, we saw quite a few people walking with sledge and they were smiling. They looked happy and cheeky. Then we thought.."somehow snow makes people smile like nice sunny day!" That morning was crisp, pretty and sunny. I'd never seen that much snow for ages!

 

I love walking on fresh snow. So soft and love the texture when I put my foot on it.

Everywhere looked so different. It didn't look like the world I knew. Maybe it was parallel world in the universe? Who knows. Energy changed and it was quiet.

 At the same time I felt like little snow hobbits jumping round in the woods. I didn't know where we were walking. Felt very mysterious. Loved it.

 Then, Marcus said "shall we do snow angels?" I didn't wanna get wet back, but I thought.." Sod it!" Then we did. I'd never done that before. To be honest, I always wanted to do it. I had a funny childhood, I missed this kind of fun when I was growing up.

 Also I reckon, it's still fun doing it as being grow-ups. Why not??? I do believe lots of laugh and being childlike and playful (not being childish) defo keeps us young. I remember a year before, we went out for a walk somewhere, we found rope hanging from a tree by the river. I told Marcus to jump and swung to the other side with the rope. You know what he said?  "Norie, I'm nearly 50 you know!" Well, he did it anyway. Oh, he got wet feet though. I wanted to do it, but I couldn't quite reach the rope and  I could see myself dropping right into the water. We haven't been back there since....

This is our snow angels!

Since that snowy day on 5th of Feb, we haven't had snow....It's been mild also. Never know what's going to be like weather wise these days.

 In early evenings, I see hundreds of bird flying in the sky. I wonder where they are going? They do that every day. Where do they go and sleep? What about ducks? Where do they go when it snows? I didn't see any in the pond in Polstead. Do they have a special place to hang out? It's now getting chilly here...I think I'm guanna put central heating on....

By the way, my snowdrops are coming out. Tomorrow, we are going to see some snowdrops. I can't wait.....

Suffolk walks---half day out in Sudbury

On 14th Jan(last month again!), When I went to see Marcus, there was a surprise waiting for me! When I got off the bus, I saw Marcus and mother Christmas, Marilyn! Hadn't seen her for a while, it was lovely to see her.

 We went for some cuppa near Javlin2 ( one of my favo shop, designer clothes on reduced price for my ebay!). It was lovely rustic cafe. Very homely. I was a bit naughty, 'cuz I was really hungry, my blood sugar level was really low I needed to have gluten free chocolate brownies✿ it was yummy, enjoyed the cake with lapsang soushong.

After our cuppa, we walked on the street a bit, and we found a cow outside a shop. So, took a photo. 

I wondered why it had to be a cow and why it was there??? Very random I thought.

Since I'm in Suffolk, I've started seen plastic horses, cows, dogs, you name it, animals outside shops. Maybe, just maybe, people in Suffolk are fond of animals more than people in London?????
 

Oh, have I shown you my grumpy bus driver friend Sunny? I haven't seen him for a while. I wonder how he is.... Arr, bless him.

ELY cathedral and WWT

On Jan 15th, (last month!) me and Marcus went to Ely cathedral and WWT-the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Norfolk near Wisbech. (Wisbech is in cambridgeshire, but somehow WWT is in Norfolk.) I really enjoyed the both visit.

 I've been to Ely cathedral before and shopping with Karen.  All of my visits were in different season, I seem to remember somehow it was cold(chilly) every time. Ely is colder than Suffolk???? Ely has some historic buildings and houses. Some good charity shops too. The view from the top of the cathedral is awesome, due to flat landscape there(very flat), you can see miles out.

 It is beautiful and impressive building(they got money!). Quite expensive to get tour ticket to go up to both towers.(the building has two towers).

 After the visit, we headed to the wetland. It was cloudy and cold. by the time we got there, even colder! Need to pay to get in, but well worth it. We saw loads of geese, swans, ducks, and even they got different kinds too. Geese travel 2000miles! Cor, blimey, I didn't know that.

 And they rest there. They get fed too. They usually land on 5pm about sunset time for good night rest. This wetland center looked nice and newly built with a cafe, a shop, and nice toilets. I liked the cafe too, we didn't have anything but all walls were glass and could look the view of the land and birds flying. They flew so low and close too, wow, some geese/swans were massive.

 Every time I see wild life like that, I get overwhelmed. I suppose I never really experienced anything like that before till 3 years ago. When I was in London or in Japan, I never took anything notice apart from drink, drugs, shops, and clubs...

 Anyway, the mail observatory was packed. I don't like when it's packed. Because I'm a titch, I can't really see  if there are some taller people standing in front of me. ☹☹☹ "Oh, I wish I was taller..." this is my wish in those situation. Never gonna happen...But one of my bosses in Tokyo said " Wouldn't it be scary if Norie was taller with same voice and mannerism, in this massive function room filled with hundreds of you!" Ar, nice thoughts, thanks.... But I'm still small!!! 

I took this photo from observatory after some people went back to the warm cafe for cuppa, there was finally (hooray!) room for me! me! me!!! ☺☺☺We  saw those birds got fed.

Ducks were cute♥ They dived into water for food, their bums sticking out of the water. cute♥ Swan looked very chilled compare to ducks. Somehow ducks always look bizzzy... They were really loud. I wondered what they were talking. I wanted to know but perhaps, I never will know... They are such clever thing, how do they know where to fly and where they go? laylines? Following nature Qi... they don't need sat nav, but we do. I wonder when as  human, lost the sense??? I'm pretty sure we were built with it....
 

I can't wait to go there again when it's little warmer so that maybe just maybe , I can get to see baby ducks, geese and swans.✾
 

By the way, go back to the Ely Cathedral, we found a really authentic little room with stone coffin. It was cool. ✿ and took some photos!

It's me in the stone coffin. I could just fit in. I wondered if the coffin was made for a small person or in old days, people were smaller in cambridgeshire????

our New Years day walk in Walton-on-the-Naze

It was a bit nippy on the new years day, we went for a walk. I'd never been to Essex coast I guess, and it was grey. It was about 30-40mins drive from Marcus's house(maybe bit longer........) by car, we took our nibbles and flask of tea with us. I love that.

 We parked up the car on the car park, it wasn't free car parking either( on the new years' day!). So we thought we'd better getting a ticket from a machine, and it' ate our £1 coin and didn't regurgitate. Which means, the machine was broken. Thanks to Essex. Apparently, seemed like some people had the same experience. Never mind.

 We started walking towards the beach, and as soon as landed, I saw something, and it was fossilized wood twig! I always wanted to find fossilised wood and that day was my dream came true! Hooray! Later, when we got back, we looked up on the net, they weren't fossilized, they were pylised! Even better! Magic. ☺

 Those pylised tree twigs were heavy and made nice noise. Apparently, geography there was really old, went back to Jurassic period.  Just looking at the beach, looked like rocks but actually they were crays! They were really sticky to walk on too!

This is Naze tower. 

This is the beach. Very grey and looks cold doesn't it? 

These looked soooo wild, didn't feel like we were on the Essex coast. Amazing colour!

Naze tower looking up from the beach.

These are my findings "pylised wood", and my treasure!☺ When I got to the beach, I was sooo excited to see so many of them, but by the time on our way back to the car, lost its novelty. there were loads of them on the beach!

 Apparently, not only pylised wood, also, shells, fish, shark teeth, and crocodile teeth can be found there. How exciting! There's another Jurassic coast in the area. Hunstanton in Norfolk. I can't wait to go there for fossil hunting in summer! and camping be nice too☺

boxing day 2011

I wasn't happy, I suppose I was really ignorant about fox hunting. I thought it was more or less banned. It's still English country side tradition to do "fox chasing" instead.

 I know Emma from our charity shop, once had massive argument with a guy who supported fox hunting in a country fair in Ipswich last summer. That made me proud of her! Right on!

On the boxing day, on our way to Marilyn's, we saw some posh country people were gathering round near by farm with a pub. I didn't know what's going on, till Marcus told me they were there for fox hunting! Later we saw on BBC news, interview with an anti-fox hunting person and a fox hunting supporter. And it was interesting. What I don't understand is; why those people found fun (they call it sport) chasing poor foxes with dogs? I really don't get that. Although they now stop killing foxes, but they chase them instead.

 Chances are: those foxes who are chased probably die from stress anyway. What did they do to them? To me, foxhunting/chasing is really backward(it's 2012, time's moving on) and it's not really sport to feel superior to other creatures on the earth. What if someone had broken into their house, started chasing them with samurai sword when they were chilling out with kids. How would they feel? (Actually I know someone who did this, and they were so scared) Scary!!!!
 

I was actually shocked seeing posh country people gathering and on the news. I couldn't say a word. Those English people go mad about Japanese killing wheals, but o.k for them to kill foxes. Doesn't make sense. I don't support wheal hunting either, I think Greenpeace is always doing well with their protest to Japanese. Again, some Japanese don't like that either, tough.

 But anyway, I hope one day soon, cruelty to animals will stop....