Birthday Fun

It was a fairly low key event this year, of course he got his 'number T-shirt' a tradition, I accidentally started back when he was 2!

We took the train to Manchester for the requested lunch... at Jamie's Italian, I'm pretty sure he waits for this all year long!

 

It was great, as expected! If you plan on going, join the free online gold club before you go to get freebies and specials, they did us proud this time around! Mom and I got free wine, and Ebi-kun got homemade lemonade, also a couple of tasters and his dessert was free too.

Took him a while to decide but he went for the carbonara in the end...

Then he got a special warm brownie with salted caramel ice-cream, caramel pop-corn and butterscotch sauce. It was really good but he struggled to finish it! (Of course I had to help him a bit!)

We then had to go to the book store and the Lego shop, after all that we were all knackered and decided to head home... for birthday cake (a bit of a cake overdose!) Colin The Caterpillar from M&S, had to be done!

All good fun, another year done! He is already planning on what he will order from Jamie next year!

Jane Said...

After our enormous yet delicious lunch we met Lesley and her kids and headed off to the Lego shop - Ebi-kun wanted to do the pick and mix again (they don't seem to do this in Japan). So we filled up on Lego then headed back to Lesley's house. By the time we got back I had a blinding headache and had to go and lie down for a bit, not the best behaviour for a guest!

The kids got right down to playing (very loudly I might add, I think they were rather excited!). I managed to get myself vertical so that Lesley and I could go out - it was going to take more than exploding head to keep this gal down! We had tickets for Jane's Addictions 25th anniversary tour and I was VERY excited, a beer and paracetamol cured the bad head and the band were frickin' awesome!

It was also brilliant to spend some kid free time with lesley, catch up on the gossip and just hang out - I love how I have friends that I might not see for months, sometimes years but when we get together it is just like we only saw each other the day before.

A Surprise Visit To Jamie Olivers Italian

I am so behind with my blogging! Apologies, it has taken some time to settle back in and get my head in a normal place!

Now let me whizz you back in time a bit... The place: Manchester.

We met my little brother at his office and headed off for a bit of a mooch around the Northern Quarter the he walked us down to Jamie's Italian, he had some shopping to do so it was a lunch date for me and Ebi-kun...and my, was he excited!

Now, if you are thinking of going, I have a TOP TIP - pop over to his website and sign up for the Gold Club, it's free but by doing that you get priority booking, a free taster and 10 pound off your first visit if you spend 30 pound or more!

So, we had our free taster first which was a whipped ricotta herby concoction on bruschetta and was delicious. Then we had the special which was a tuna and tomato bruschetta, also very good. Ebi-kun decided to have the kids meal, the waiter was really good and helped him decide what to have, it was a toss up between the spag bol or the sliders, spag bol won.

It was an absolute treat to eat with Ebi-kun, he really did savour every mouthful, couldn't stop thanking me and declared it was the best spag bol he had ever eaten, ever! He insisted on eating with tiny mouthfuls so he could make it last (this certainly wasn't a quick meal)

I went for the ricotta gnudi dumplings in sage, lemon and parmesan butter - just melted in your mouth. I also had the crunchy green side salad and Ebi-kun had the shake me salad.

Then for dessert, yes, we went all out! Ebi-kun had honeycomb ice-cream and I had this, to-die-for amalfi lemon meringue cheesecake. Oh My Gosh! So good.

We were so full! And when the bill came I was happily surprised that we had just gone over the 30 pound mark which meant our bill was just 20 pound! Fabulous.

We finished just in time to meet my friend Lesley and her two kids...

Manchester, Museums and A Toilet Called Teri

A couple of days into the new year we arranged to meet one of my uni friends, Lesley and her kids in Manchester. There are several museums in Manchester, we opted for the MOSI or Museum Of Science and Industry.

My brother takes his kids here quite often and I am pretty impressed with it, the kids of course loved all the hands on stuff available.

The explanations were well written and simple enough for the kids (and moms!) to understand.

We explored the main building, the transport building, which also has a spot for eating your lunch if you decided to take your own and the train building. The kids have only met once before, I-chan was just a wee babe in arms and G-kun was about 2 so they don't really remember one another. When we first met up, the kids just stared at each other but it didn't take them long to warm up and start chasing each other around.

Ebi-kun asked the following day if we could meet up with them again because he loved playing with G.

By the end of the day, they were best buddies and Lesley and I had chance to catch up and have a good old natter, it was sad to say goodbye but I-chan was tired and we thought it best before meltdowns happened, best leave on a good note!

Ebi-kun had seen a sign for 'underground Manchester' which was another part of the museum, so we went and explored there before heading home. It was rather odd, all about the sewers, pretty revolting really, Teri the Talking Toilet did make us giggle though.

So, if you are in Manchester and looking for something to do, I give the MOSI a big thumbs up, it is free too and if you take your own lunch it amounts to a cheap day out. There is a cafe and a gift shop, the gift shop wasn't anything exciting, the usual museum stuff. There is plenty of space for the kids to run around and lots of hands on equipment. Of course, having great company helps to make a good day  into a great day!

Day Tripping To Manchester

It has been years and years since I last went to Manchester, to the city centre that is and probably 10 years since I got on a train in the UK, so I really did feel like a tourist. I started off tying to buy a ticket and the ticket lady told me it would be 20 quid for both of us if we caught the next train but if we waited until the one after it would be 12 quid for 2. Of course we waited and then when I went to buy the ticket and asked for a return, it was still 12 quid, so that is 12 quid for a single or 12 quid for a return! Confused? I am!

Anyway, we got there in the end. Ebi-kun was happy taking blurred pictures of half frozen sheep and the journey wasn't too long.

We had a couple of hours to kill before we were meeting my brother so we had a wander around the shops and of course had to go to the Lego shop! I somehow got talked into doing the fill-a-tub thing, you get a big plastic cup and then it is like pick-a-mix and you can put whatever pieces in the tub that you like. It is a flat rate price of 11pound and we managed to jam pack the tub full so I reckon we got our moneys worth! Next was the build a person, you pick the head and other bits and build your own people.

After denting my purse in the Lego shop we went off to meet my brother, he works in the centre of town and managed to wangle a few hours off. We decided to go and check out the German outdoor markets, it was a beautiful day but bitterly cold.

Here is Gary Barlow with the nutcracker and Ebi-kun (he will kill me for putting that up!) The market was great, lots of lovely things for sale from felted bags to chocolate to artesian cheese and woolly hats.

We wandered around for a while then met up with my cute little nephew who is 7 months old, poor little babe was poorly sick but still surprisingly smiley, I didn't get any cuddles but we will be seeing him again soon so I will have to have double next time.

After lunch Ebi-kun insisted we went back to the markets for a toffee apple, it might take him until Christmas day for him to eat it, it was massive and very messy. My brother Tom, had to head back to work, so we made our way back up to the station. We decided not to stay long since we had both been awake since 3am and both of us were pretty tired, it was just long enough to be a good day out. We are planning to head in again in the new year to meet up with friends and hopefully hit on of the museums.