City Break - Skipton

Skipton, England. Friday/Sunday 29/31-August-2025.

Well I call it a city break but Skipton isn't actually a city however it is a very nice market town. I even lived there for a couple of months when working on a project for Bradford & Bingley Building Society (RIP). I was surprised I didn't get more of a sense of déjà vu.

We met our friends, Tuks and Paul as a result of helping a group of lost tourists trying to find their way back to the centre of Cisternino. They said "our friends have a place in Cisternino and can we share your contact details?" Sure no, problem. We met up for a drink and got on famously. It turned out that not only do they live in Cisternino, but in our very street!

We cemented the friendship by introducing them to parkrun!

Tuks and Paul decided to get married earlier this year and, as it was a second marriage for both of them, rather than have a big do they "eloped" to Gretna Green for a very quiet wedding. Not want wanting to miss out on a party they had this celebration sometime later. We were touched to be invited as we have not known them as long as family and their other friends.

It was an obvious opportunity to make a weekend of it so we went down on the Friday, planned for a parkrun on the Saturday morning, party in the afternoon / evening and return home on Sunday after breakfast.

Friday 29-August.

We were booked into The Coach House, a lovely B&B, which was nice and central, convenient for the party and parkrun.

The weekend started with a meet up in the Narrow Boat, where a number of the weekend guests had an opportunity for a pre-mingle. The pub served a best bitter and a stout and it was was nice to have some traditional ales rather than the ubiquitous IPA. I had a long chat with some bloke who it turned out was one of Paul's sons!

The walk to and from our accommodation was along the Springs Branch canal, a branch of Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which made for a lovely evening stroll. 

Saturday 30-August.

Saturday morning started with another pleasant walk along the same canal to Skipton parkrun adding another unique location to the list.

Skipton 13/08/2025 30:24 [162 / 235]

The course is four and a bit laps, undulating, on tarmac around a lovely park and the rain held of for a lovely parkrun. Mary is still slow at the moment due to injury so volunteered as Tail walker.

Back to the hotel for the essential shower and a bit of a rest before putting on my "Jackson Pollock" party shirt and heading down to at Alexander's Grand Cafe.

Entertainment was provided by an amazing magician, doing some serious sleight of hand, close-up magic. It is always impressive when you are watching tricks that close up and still can't see how it's done.

There were some entertaining speeches, wonderful food and free flowing wine. This is me chatting to friends also from Italy.

One of Tuk's sons singing and playing guitar. He is three-quarters Scottish so has the right to wear a kilt!

The couple themselves entertained us with a hilarious "first dance" followed by a DJ and dancing.

A joyous (and boozy) celebration with family and friends from far and wide. We felt honoured to have been invited to share in this celebration.

Sunday 31-August.

A leisurely breakfast and the drive home.

Wine Tasting - Southern Italy

WASP (Wine Appreciation Society, Penrith), Roundthorn Country House Hotel, Penrith. Thursday 28-August-2025.

The tasting was presented by Adam Ventress of Chapel Street Wines, Lancaster (https://www.chapelstreetwines.co.uk/) who specialise in southern Italian wines. Only a slight case of "coals to Newcastle" however, although we spend half the year in southern Italy and have tasted a number of these wines, there is always something new to learn and new wines to meet.

The Whites.

Wine, Region, Grape variety, ABV, Price.

• Presenter's description
• Colour and/or aroma
• Mary's notes and Star rating

.

Centopassi Giato Grillo/Catarratto 'Ondapazza' 2024, Western Sicily, 60% Grillo 40% Cataratto, 13%, £16.50: 

• Grillo is the grape variety often used for masala. Many of the vineyards are on land seized from the mafia and sold off by the government. Small cooperative with 75 members south of Palermo up in the hills producing 500,000 bottles per year.
• Pale lemon, green/grassy, fresh, lemony
• Dry, good acidity, slight lemon, slight pepper. ✱✱

Ippolito Ciro Bianco 'Mare Chiaro 2023, Calabria, Greco Bianco ,13%, £16.50: 

• On the Ionian coast with sandy soil. Oldest producer in the region family owned since 1845. Harvested in two stages - an early harvest plus a later one.
• Pale lemon, deeper nose, apple, perfume/aromatic
• Apple, spice, smooth, tasty. A lovely wine. ✱✱✱

San Marzano Timo Vermentino 2024, Puglia, Vermentino, 12.5%, £14.50: 

• Cooperative originally founded by 19 producers now with 1,200 members with 1,500 hectares, 13 million bottles per year. An unusual grape for this area
• Slightly darker lemon, light nose, thyme
• Light, some acidity, fresh, nothing distinctive on the palate. ✱

Vitesse. Colomba Bianco 2023, Western Sicily, Zibibbo, 12.5%, £13.50: 

• The name Zibibbo comes from the Arabic for raisin and is the grape used in Moscato di Pantelleria (a sweet wine). Huge cooperative with over 2 1/2 thousand producers producing a wide range of styles and types. They have 12 ranges with over 100 different wines!
• Darker; oily, apricot kernels, some green, paint
• Less distinctive flavour, good, smooth, slight acidity, less dry than the others. ✱½

The Reds.

Occhipinti SP68 Rosso Frappato/Nero d'Avola 2023, Vittoria Sicily, 70% Frappato, 30% Nero d'Avola, 12.5%, £28: 

• Members of the AAA Organic Association, produced using indigenous yeasts.
• Dark mahogany, very deep nose, pruney, digital.
• Soft tannins, dark fruit, good acidity, very balanced/smooth, pure, good length. A new producer to us, this was our favourite red. ✱✱✱

Colomba Bianca Vitese Nero d'Avola 2024, Western Sicily, 100% Nero d'Avola, 12.5%, £13.95: 

• The most planted great variety in Sicily.
• Dark purple; fresh, dark fruit
• Smooth, elegant, plum, slight vegetable/herby, medium body. ✱✱½

Poderi Parpinello Cannonau di Sardegna San Costantino 2023, Sardinia, 100% Cannonau, 14%,  £19.50:

• Cannonau also known as Grenache  
• Purple; lovely nose, dark fruit/plum/blackberry.
• Soft tannins, light acidity, good balance, dark fruit. Good length, medium body, light style for this grape. ✱✱

San Marzano Talo Primitivo 2022, Puglia, 100% Primitivo, 14%, £17.95: 

• Cooperative. Classified as a Primitivo di Manduria. They harvest bunches with mixed grape ripeness.
• Dark, dark purple; ripe dark fruit
• Lovely flavour, smooth, not too sweet, dark ripe fruit, good length. We know this producer and both liked this Primitivo - even Mary as it was not too sweet. ✱✱✱

As usual there was a buffet at the end however we usually eat beforehand to line our stomachs. At the end there was the usual beeline for the remainders. Luckily tastes differ so we were able to get a glass of our favourites. Mary won a bottle in the raffle and we bought a couple bottles of our favourites to take home. 

So we tasted some new wines and learnt lots more about the Southern Italian wine industry.

Digital Crowns

Penrith, Cumbria. Friday 22-August-2025.

The dental industry has significantly changed since I last had a crown a decade ago. The transition from analogue to digital is amazing. Using CAD/CAM techniques the process of designing and manufacturing crowns has been transformed.

Back then an impression was taken using something resembling a stainless steel horseshoe filled with plasticine stuffed into your mouth. Suppressing the gag reflex was areal challenge. This was done twice: once for the prepared crown and the other for the opposing bite. Those were sent away and positives cast for the dental technician to craft a crown that fit the stump and met precisely with the opposing teeth. See Two titanium implants conclusion for an example.  That could take weeks or a couple of months. The second visit was for the fitting and fine adjustments to the bite.

Now the dentist creates a 3D image using a camera wand that takes what must be hundreds of images judging by the amount of clicking. The wand has an orientation detector and some amazing software uses this information to stitch together a 3D image.

Repeating this with the opposing teeth and a clenched jaw scan creates an image with the bite contours shown in colour. Now I am seriously impressed.

The software the suggests a crown design based on all the above. The dentist then tweaks the design on the screen to get the best mechanical and aesthetic result.

When they are happy with the design, they send it to the room next door where an automated lathe is loaded with a blank cube of zirconium dioxide.

The CNC (Computer Numerical Control) lathe then does it stuff and turns the little cube into a crown ready to be fitted.

The final fitting is done with a bit more tweaking. The crown is then cemented in place and the final adjustments done with articulating paper and some delicate grinding. You then walk out with a new crown prepped, manufactured and fitted all done in a couple of hours.

https://www.dentsplysirona.com/en

Second Cousins in the Lake District

Cumbria, UK. Saturday/Wednesday 16/20-August-2025.

We had a great weekend with my Scottish second cousin Effie, up from her home in Bournemouth. We had a fabulous time showing her our favourite places and discovering some new ones. Our packed itinerary: 

Saturday 16: Morning for us was parkrun as usual. Effie arrived after lunch and I walked up to the station to collect her as we are only 7 minutes walk away. We spent the afternoon relaxing at home and catching up. We then went for supper dinner at Villa Bianca, our local Italian, with friends Sarah and Andrew.

Sunday 17: We took Effie on a drive around to show her the lakes as it was her first visit to this area. We drove around Ullswater then onward past Brothers Water to the scary Kirkstone Pass and down The Struggle on to Ambleside, a steep, single track road with passing places. Then on to the far side of Windermere passing Esthwaite Water. There we visited Hill Top - Beatrix Potter's home for many years.  

The interior was fascinating with lots of rooms set out as when Beatrix lived there with informative displays. Out in the garden were signs featuring illustration from the books next to their exact locations.

Heading back we had an abortive trip down another single track road. Lots of cars coming the other way meant I had to keep reversing back into a passing place. After several of these I thought "sod this for a game of soldiers" and did an approx 25 point turn and chose a better route. This included another first - the Windermere Ferry. A lovely sunny crossing with no queue.

Once home I lit a barbecue ready for the arrival of mutual friends who drove down from Glasgow to surprise Effie. An afternoon of food and chat. When the friends left we took Effie to our "local" and rounded off the day with a beer in Fell Bar.

Monday 18: A leisurely start with brunch booked at Bassenthwaite Lake Station with time to relax afterwards in their bird hide. Mostly ducks but the butterflies were out in force: Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell (in photo) and Peacock (too fast to photo).

This was followed by another scary road up to the stupendous Surprise View overlooking Derwent Water. This was a place Mary had read about and wanted to visit for some time. It lived up to its accolades.

Then back to Keswick for a spot of wandering and shopping, a beer at Craft Beer Keswick and a light supper of tapas at Bar eS. 

Our second highlight that day was the excellent comedic production of Pride and Prejudice at Theatre By The Lake.

Tuesday 19: We took Effie for a gentle wander around Penrith town. After lunch it was a visit to Brougham Castle, Brougham Hall and Tebay Services. Effie was keen to visit Tebay having seen the TV programme "A Lake District Farm Shop". 

Supper was at the excellent Four and Twenty taking advantage of their mid-week set menu deal. As usual we went with their recommended wine pairings.

Tuesday 20: Effie caught the train back to Bournemouth. Now time for a rest!

Pride and Prejudice at Theatre by the Lake

Keswick, Cumbria, UK. Tuesday, 18-August 2025.

As part of my second cousin Effie's visit to Penrith we organised a trip to our nearby Theatre by the Lake in Keswick for what was billed as an entertaining production of Pride and Prejudice performed in the round. It was part of an action packed day starting off with brunch at Bassenthwaite Lake Station followed by Surprise View for views of Borrowdale and Derwent Water and then a wander round Keswick which is a delightful market town. We then had a pre-theatre lunch at BarES.

The stage was minimalist with four pieces of furniture, however the acting was anything but minimalist. In fact it was at times hilarious. The production stuck pretty faithfully to the plot with all its coming and goings featuring a hysterical Mrs Bennet, a sanguine and sardonic Mr Bennet and well matched Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. We enjoyed it immensely and the professional reviewers agreed.

The Reviews Hub.com writes:

“Played as caricature and farce, this romp is deliciously funny. The more ridiculous characters become even more ridiculous; the more sober-sided characters simply add contrast. Joanna Holden as Mrs. Bennet takes histrionics to a new level, while Dyfrig Morris, as her saturnine husband, quietly ignores the hysterics. Jessica Ellis doubles up as ladette daughter Lydia, emptying the punch ball at parties, and the overbearing snob Lady Catherine, playing both extremes with due relish. Similarly, Ben Fensome makes Wickham a roguish charmer, but turns Mr Collins into the creepiest cleric to ever don a cassock”.

The Northern Arts Review writes:

“Austen is light and fun, but this production gave us some real belly laughs, well beyond the humour of the book. This was entirely due to the superb actors, not one of whom was anything other than faultless. Rosa Hesmondhalgh, as our heroine Elizabeth Bennet, captured the independent, carefree spirit of the character perfectly. Likewise, James Sheldon, as her antagonist, Mr Darcy, was wholly believable as the rugged but honourable gentleman. Together, their portrayals brought laughs and pounding hearts in equal measure. […] For me, this is an easy five stars. In fact, this is six out of five stars, as far as I’m concerned. The play was absolute perfection. If you love Jane Austen, you simply have to see this version. If, like me, you’re lukewarm at best, go see it and have your mind – and heart – changed.”

A hugely entertaining and enjoyable visit to the theatre.

City Break - Glasgow, August 2025

Glasgow, Scotland. 08/11-August-2025.

We had tickets for a concert in Glasgow on Sunday night and so used it as the excuse to treat ourselves to a weekend in Glasgow. It was an opportunity to catch up with old friends, enjoy a sunny parkrun and visit both of Mary’s nephews in their new apartments.

Friday 08-August.

We went up by train and heading out of the station our first port of call was to see the Iron Duke and make sure that he still had a traffic cone on his head. This is a fine Glasgow tradition and even gets its own Wikipedia page: Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington,

We then had the opportunity to catch up with one of Mary‘s oldest friends, who she met at uni over 50 years ago, and her husband. Our usual meeting place is Babbity Bowster in the Merchant City, a bar that does decent food. 

Saturday 09-August.

Saturday morning is, as always, parkrun. We did Springburn as a repeat because we did not want to mess up Mary’s long range planning to coincide her 250th parkrun and 100th unique location. The weather was better than expected, and we had a gorgeous sunny run/walk.

After the essential post parkrun shower, we went off to see Ross and Paula's beautiful apartment for the first time. Very stylish and elegant with beautiful high ceilings.

We brought the traditional Pugliese gift for a new home - a pumi - to add to their collection (ours is the little white one).

We had supper at Ichiban Japanese restaurant then stopped off at The Amsterdam Bar for a tasty beer. We were amused by the sign on the door. It says all you need to know about Scottish weather.

Wandering the Glasgow city centre streets we came across this impressive mural.

Sunday 10-August.

Our visit on Sunday was to Will's apartment. Amazingly the same footprint and layout as Ross and Paula's, just configured slightly differently in places. He has only just moved in so it is still to be decorated. We look forward to seeing it when it is done.

We walked over to the concert venue passing the famous Barrowlands dancehall and music venue.

We ate at the gig venue and then went in and grabbed ourselves seats upstairs in the choir. JJ Grey and Mofro were on top form. Full gig report: JJ Grey & Mofro at St Luke’s .

Another great weekend.

JJ Grey and Mofro at St Luke’s

St Luke’s, Glasgow, Scotland. Sunday 10-August-2025.

We were introduced to JJ Grey & Mofro by fellow blogger, Rosemary Ivey, in 2011 when they were coming to London. This is the first time we have been able to catch them since. Tickets booked in September ’24 and nearby accommodation reserved. 

The original date was back in March at Òran Mór but was postponed to now. Only belatedly did Mary spot that the venue had also changed. Fortunately our hotel booking was cancellable and a more convenient location booked. As often we decided to make a weekend of it with parkrun, meeting up with friends and visiting the Scottish nephews.

As you might guess from the venue name, it is a deconsecrated church hence the stained glass windows.

Tall Pines were a duo which I enjoyed, not quite to Mary’s taste but I liked their brand of swamp rock.

We have five of JJ Grey & Mofro’s studio albums so know their music well.  

Live it’s a different vibe. Their sound is much joyful, energetic and upbeat. JJ chatted a bit between songs giving some background to the songs and responding to the crowd.

They had a full band with two guitars, two brass, two percussionists, a keyboard player and two backing singers. I don’t remember the 2011 gig being such a large ensemble.

The audience loved it. The band’s first ever Scottish gig and they appreciated the enthusiastic reception and the fact that the audience knew all the words to the songs.

They played a couple of encores but had such a rapturous response that they played one more: "Brighter Days" [YouTube, opens in new window] took the set right up to the 10:30 curfew which meant we got over two hours of rocking music.

Elles Bailey + Blue Nation at The Old Fire Station

The Old Fire Station, Carlisle, Cumbria. Saturday 02-August-2025.

Our ninth time seeing the fabulous Elles Bailey, our third time seeing Blue Nation and our first visit to this venue. Only 20 minutes from home and with a handy car park literally across the street. I don’t think I’ve ever parked so close to a music venue. Mary booked as soon as this gig was announced but it was only when she looked at the tickets on the night she saw that they were numbers 001 and 002. Guess that makes us fans. 

We first saw Blue Nation at the festival in Skegness in 2023 and then again Blackpool in 2025. Heard the band, bought the CDs and the t-shirt. They certainly did not disappoint last night. Apart from their great music, we loved the banter between the band and the audience. In particular, the question from Luke "Is Carlisle not in Scotland?" got an immediate and vociferous response. 

Mary was wearing her Blue Nation t-shirt and then in the interval changed into her Elles Bailey t-shirt!

We have been following the rise and rise of Elles since seeing her on the Introducing stage at Skegness in 2017. We have all her albums including the most recent vinyl and a “bootleg” CD that that have a tale to tell. 

Mary ordered these whilst in Italy and the online form unhelpfully defaulted the country to Italy even though the rest of the address was Penrith. Mary didn’t spot that on either order and no one in the dispatch department thought to query the curious hybrid address so the orders went off to Italy and dropped off the tracking radar. 

When Mary posted about it on the Elles Facebook fan page as a "sad but cautionary tale" Elles herself kindly offered to replace them but we declined. The CD turned up a month later but no word on the vinyl. Then a miracle - the vinyl turned six months later! Somebody joked it was the only copy with a suntan.

We thoroughly enjoyed the night, Elles and the band just keep getting better and better. Elles did say she was suffering from the lurgy but still sounded great to us.

It was great to hear some of the older songs as she explained they were supposed to play Carlisle in 2020 (cancelled like everything else at that time) and so were reviving some of the original playlist.

Actual set list from setlist.fm (differs from planned setlist above):

• Enjoy The Ride
• Leave The Light On
• 1972
• Over the Hill (John Martyn cover)
• Silhouette In A Sunset
• Hell or High Water
• Truth Ain't Gonna Save Us
• Love Yourself
• Let It Burn
• The Game
• If This Is Love
• Ballad of a Broken Dream
• Better Days (Catfish cover)
• Turn Off the News
• ++ Encore ++
• Riding Out the Storm
• Sunshine City

Then home before midnight!

Postscript: Elles has just been nominated for an Independent Music Award for Best Live Performer along side the likes of Alison Moyet, Craig David, Father John Misty, Wunderhorse, Mogwai, The Darkness, Shed seven and Laura Marling! Vote here: https://tinyurl.com/imawards2025.

Gin Master Class at Bassenthwaite Lake Station

Bassenthwaite Lake Station, Cumbria. Friday 02-August-2025.

It might be a bit of hyperbole to call it a Master Class but it was an opportunity to try three local gins with different tonic waters (all from Fever-Tree) and a variety of garnishes. 

Regular readers may remember that the first in my series of alternative CV was My life in ... Gin. When this tasting came up, we just had to book!

We went along with our friends Andrew and Sarah. Mary is not a great fan of gin and nobly volunteered to be designated driver. 

The set up was that for each gin in turn we were given a measure of gin, a bottle of tonic and a variety of orange, lemon, lime, etc to choose from. Mary took the tiniest sip of each of the gins. Once we had tasted each in combination with the tonic Mary and I would try a couple of different garnishes so we could compare-and-contrast, Mary then handed her G&T to one of the three of us.

This prompted me to outline what I consider proper gin and tonic etiquette sadly not always followed by waiters in bars.

• The ice should be modest in quantity. Two or three cubes. Not an entire tumbler full of ice cubes that freeze the gin making it harder to taste. We are not in America where they go overboard on the ice! Italy is also guilty of this. Also, as you get further down the drink, it gets weaker and weaker as the ice melts and you end up drinking cold water.
• The tonic should be delivered on the side. I hate it when they pour the whole bottle in and deliver it ready mixed. The customer should be able to taste the gin on its own before adding the tonic and the amount of tonic to be added is a matter of personal taste.
• I don’t need a straw. Seemingly in Italy every mixed drink comes with a plastic straw. Firstly, I am not a child, I can drink straight from the glass and secondly what a waste of plastic, entirely unnecessary.
• I have no problem with gin being used in all manner of cocktails but whenever I have tried flavoured gin, I have found it to be a dire concoction. I have tried berry flavoured gin and marmalade flavoured gin. Not for me. I ended up using the latter to pour on ice cream to make a kind of Dom Pedro.

The gins we tasted were: 

Hawk Hill - 40%, served  with Fever-Tree Original tonic.

A lock-down creation by the folk at Tractor Shed brewery who perfected the botanicals with inspiration and foraging from the field known as Hawk Hill, behind the farm. Look for rosehip and nettles. They advise us to try it with a slice of apple! 

• A very pleasant mild gin, even Mary liked it! I got pepper and liquorice on the palate. According to Rachel, the distiller sitting opposite me, it was in fact liquorice root that is one of their botanicals. I wasn’t able to detect rose hip or nettles, but they did admit that they were minor components. 
• We tried it with apple but I think it was too firm a fruit to contribute any flavour. We tried it with cucumber as well, but conversely that was a little too overpowering. Probably best to stick with one of the citrus fruits. 

Lakes Distillery - 46%, served with Fever-Tree Light tonic.

A classic English gin with vibrant notes of black pepper, juniper and orange resulting in an exceptionally smooth London Dry-style gin. Try it with a slice of pink grapefruit. 

• Very clean flavour with no single botanical dominating. It was the strongest of the set at 46%, but the extra proof wasn’t apparent on the palate. Normally it would come through as extra heat.
• It reminded me of Graveney gin which we met first met in Tooting Market, South London and was the first time I been recommended grapefruit with gin. It worked really well.
• We also tried Lakes gin with orange and both agreed that we actually preferred orange as the garnish. 

Pennington's Lakeland Moon, Ramblers gin - Batch 6 - 40%, served with Fever-Tree Mediterranean tonic.

Created in the Lake District, Pennington's forage for wild junipers and elderflowers from the lake district fells combined with bergamot and Sicilian mandarin peels to create this vibrant London Dry gin. The maker recommends Fever-Tree Mediterranean tonic, orange peel and rosemary to garnish.

• This one actually came across as a little more fiery despite it being a lesser ABV than the Lakes gin. 
• We tried it with lime plus rosemary and orange peel plus rosemary. We preferred the latter combination although I am not sure the rosemary contributed much.
• This was the favourite of all four of us.

I am a great fan of Fever-Tree tonic. When I discovered it, it became my tonic of choice. The choice of tonic does matter. A couple of years ago I bought a bottle of Shed 1 gin from a stall at Winter Droving and the distiller himself manning the stall said he had no particular recommendation apart from avoid Fentimans because the botanicals in Fentimans tonic clash with those in his gin. Interesting I thought.

An interesting and thought provoking tasting.