The month of December has come and gone almost as fast as 2011. This was a particularly lovely December full of family, food, and celebration. My sister and parents arrived in mid-December and we were able to visit London, taking in a show (Legally Blonde) and hitting up Oxford and Regent streets before we all travelled north to Worcester.

We celebrated an early Christmas with our traditional family breakfast, followed by a Christmas dinner prepared by Lee and me. I think we managed to get most of the food out hot and at the same time.





We were spoiled by my family and I think they were happy with their gifts. Some of my favorites were a Paul Smith ornament and Emma Bridgwater joy plate.









Besides celebrating an early Christmas, my family also flew over to attend my PhD ceremony. It was a wonderful ceremony (I daresay it was even better than my MSc in Edinburgh). I felt a bit choked up when the trumpeters opened the ceremony and the procession of professors and staff began. I was touched that several former colleagues, current colleagues, and my former and current boss were also able to attend. All of the different caps and gowns from the different universities made for some great pictures.









We have had a blessed 2011 and are very much looking forward to 2012!

Istanbul

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Istanbul for a conference. It was a shame that the conference got in the way as the half day spent exploring the city was simply not enough!















My colleages and I only managed to visit Hagia Sophia as each time that we tried to visit the Blue Mosque it was time for prayers. But I've told Lee that it is somewhere that we need to visit together. The food, the colours, the shopping, the pottery...it was sometimes too much to take in!







Yay for dorky conferences in cool places!

With Lee working shiftwork, our weekends together are pretty precious. We only managed to go camping once this year, but when we did go last month, we certainly lucked out weather-wise.

We usually head out early on a Friday, but as I was teaching the Friday afternoon, we decided that Lee would head out early solo and then our friends and I would travel out early Saturday morning.

We camped at the same fantastic little campsite at the foot of Snowdon that we did last year. It is a basic campsite, but we love that 1) it doesn't allow campervans and 2) it allows fires, which is rather rare. It is first come first served so Lee managed to nab us a lovely spot on the Friday afternoon.





Our friends had never tackled Snowdon, but our fearless leader thought that we could all handle the Watkin path (which starts just below the campsite). The weather was warm but manageable and we plodded up to the top.





The top of the path is fairly hairy with loads of scree - and something that one wouldn't really want to do in bad weather - but we managed to get up (and down) safely.















The top of Snowdon was an absolute zoo, so we only stayed up there long enough to eat our packed lunch. Someone had driven their car up to the top, and it quickly became a bit of a tourist attraction.



Of course one of the best parts about camping with Lee is his tasty fry-ups in the morning. It's worth sleeping on a one-inch matress for one of these bad boys!

I think the most memorable part of our trip was our meal at the Ristoro di Lamole, which was a scenic and ever-so winding 8km drive south of Greve.

Lee had booked our table ahead of time and we were rewarded with a glorious sunset.









We're not foodies, but we love to eat and we both agreed that the food and drink were superb. Luckily for me (unluckily for Lee) we were following my 'husbands must drive in foreign countries' rule, so I was able to enjoy considerably more wine than Lee (although he did sample a bit - it would have been rude not to).





We also took a few day trips to some of the Tuscan hill towns of Volterra and San Gimignano.







We even opted to make a quick morning trip to Pisa, so we too could look like every other tourist.







I know that we would both love to go back to Italy. We were constrained by Lee's work schedule so the next visit would ideally not take place in the middle of summer. I am SO not good in the heat :)

We were only in Italy for six days and barely managed to get even a taste of the country, but it was one that we savoured.









Somehow '2 scoops' was lost in translation...





We loved the serve yourself option!



Of the two large cities in Tuscany, I think I preferred our visit to Siena as it had a more relaxed vibe and fewer people than Florence. Siena was also gearing up for Il Palio, which meant that the streets were covered with the different flags and banners of the different contrade.













That said, I think Florence itself deserves an entire holiday. Preferably one that doesn't take place in August with hordes of tourists and queues a mile long...