'Minimoon' at Puglia, Italy - Part 2

Alberobello
This is without a doubt the cutest place we visited in Puglia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. A town of trullis - trully a sight (hahah - it rhymes) and surreal to walk around these well preserved bit of history....that is until you get someone holler 'konichiwa!!!' at you. (The Pugliese kept mistaken me for a Japanese and I was even given a town map in Japanese!) Unfortunately the place is filled with tat - that kind of goes with gaining a UNESCO approval. This was the only place we blended in as tourists. Otherwise, we were often 'the odd one out' - we hardly heard anyone else spoke English throughout our time in Puglia.







Beaches in Puglia
We were about an hour away from the closest beach and we took advantage of the good weather and gorgeous stretch of white sand beaches - many of which are blue flag beaches. Again, we stood out like a sore thumb - me the odd chinese girl, the only one on the whole stretch of the beach and Scott the guy NOT wearing a tight speedos. People stare then they smile then they get to business:topping up their tan. Life goes on...










The water is suprisingly warm, something I wasn't expecting as I remember the water in Greece was freezing in the middle of scorching August and I assume the same in Italy. But it wasn't...it was like being on a beach in Thailand. And check out how clear the water is! surreal....

'Minimoon' at Puglia, Italy - Part 1

Minimoon villa
We were so pleased when we were upgraded to a proper trullo for our stay in Puglia!!! It is the cutest and most quaint place we ever stayed in on holiday. Much more spacious that you would expect inside. It is a 2 bed place with its own kitchen and bathroom. Conical exposed roof and teeny tiny windows adds to the charm. The villa comes with a lovely pool and amazing fresh figs for brekkie...amazing

front view






Shared pool - but hardly anyone is around because the owner has 3 villas to rent but often we were the only one renting at that time



Martina Franca
The closest town to our lil' villa - very elegant with cobbled and marbelled flooring throughout the square. Weekend nights are when the town comes alive - everyone comes into town for the passegiata (i.e. everyone congregates at the square in their best outfit to celebrate the end of the workweek and stroll to and fro throughout the night - surreal to watch and don't even try to walk against the flow of people as the town square gets so rammed in as everyone is out to be seen!)









Towns around Martina France





My husband is a happy man when he found this

We did it!! - 8th September 2011

camera man in the garden

Tony joined us for a weekend BBQ as the weather was scorching last week - probably his last before he goes off for a new adventure in China. Always nice to have a photographer in da house. Scott is not the most willing photographer ...




I wanted to show him my yellow carrots - they make me smile!








happiness in a bowl








I have learnt to show some restraint and not finish everything on my plate if I want to fit into something decent in Septemer - half of these are for my pack lunch tomorrow. Fast learner...

Keeping it interesting in the garden

After last year's garden success and failures - we know we want to get a bit more experimental and plant veggies that are difficult to find / unique. We have great success with these so far...
We were so precious about pulling out these yellow carrots...they grew really well in our garden and we were originally hoping for super long and thick carrots but were tickled pink by what we pulled out instead. I did have my suspicion that the carrots may not come out 'Tesco-perfect' because carrots are fussy plant that need fairly fine soil (i.e. sieved of rocks and old roots etc) which we didnt do! But I love it !! Our first yellow carrots - we have quite a few more in the garden to keep us entertained.

We will definitely plant kohl rabi again next year - so easy and so unique in the garden. This is definately one of those vegs that you just will not get in any supermarket. We just pull them out from the garden - slice away the purple skin, grate it, drizzle a little oliver oil and - voila...yum!


Check this out! Achocha is an unusual vegetable from South America that is pretty easy to grow and does go a bit mental and a vigorious climber. Very productive and most of the fruits are still teeny tiny but we got a couple of bigger fruits. This variety is called 'fat baby' - so cute!! We don't know what to expect with this one - apparently eaten raw it tastes like cucumber, but cooked it tastes like sweet peppers!! Surreal...

eggs on toast

This is as 'live' as it has ever been for this teeny blog! Breakfast in bed served by Scott 5 minutes ago - poached egg on toast. I have obviously devoured it before I wrote this - good food should not be kept waiting

p/s: if you can see the screen, its a hint of our minimoon destination after the 'wedding' in September!

pp/s: I can never do poached eggs while Scott can do it in his sleep (don't take it so literally)...another reason to stick with him

We know it's bad...

We are well aware of the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular conditions and the side effects you may get from taking some of these treatment (hint hint lots of interesting new drugs in development for diabetes!) but do we care....? No my colleagues and I look forward to 'choc Friday' - we get our sugar fix to keep us going for the last 2 hours of work before the weekend arrives. Don't tell my dentist...

Gathering

Good company






homemde chicken satay as starter




belated birthday cheesecake - by Ross and Nat

Probably our last BBQ together in our flat before Sox and Gregor are off to Singapore, Ross and Nat away for their 8 months travel and possibly us selling the flat? who knows? Nostalgia already