Looking back - looking forward - a year in pictures

Happy New Year to all my students.

2012 was an amazing year for Study English One to One in England.

Looking back through the guest book, in 2012, eight private students stayed with me to receive English lessons and a taste of British culture and tradition, as well as four other students referred through agencies. 

Although twelve students seems a small number, when two stay for eight weeks each and three stay for a month each and all the others stay for two weeks or more, we were pretty busy !!

When people ask me, 'what is your typical student like?' I tell them there is no such thing as a 'typical' student. They are male or female, young or not so young, from beginner level to proficient and from any country, but mainly Europe. They all have different backgrounds and careers, from university students to doctors to bank managers to English teachers to retired Anglophiles.

Some students choose General English, some Business English, some English for Exams and some like to have a mix of English cultural activities and lessons.

They all do have certain things in common, they want to improve their English quickly and see results and they all work hard. Certainly all of them have 'arrived as a guest and left as a friend'.

Each student's course is individually tailored to take into account their hobbies and interests.



Chantal was interested in exploring Southern England, so we invited her to stay for the weekend in our holiday cottage in Padstow.

And of course, no trip to Padstow should go without dinner at Rick Stein's Sea Food restaurant.

Many students want to visit London. Ornella and I spent a weekend there.

Here is Ornella, can you believe she ate 2 Big Macs, 20 Chicken Nuggets, and 2 portions of chips before going on the London Eye?!!!

Here's the proof !!

Ornella wanted to go on the London Eye, visit Tower Bridge and the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Ancient Egyptian Exhibition.

Ornella also visited Padsow for a weekend and went to Bath for the day.

Here is Ornella outside the Royal Crescent in Bath.

David also wanted to visit London. He wanted to visit Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

We went for a beautiful walk through St James's Park.

Can you see Buckingham Palace in the background?

David outside the Tower of London.

Some students enjoy all that the local area has to offer.

Julia joining in the celebrations of the opening of

 The Bishop's Palace,Wells

And enjoying the beautiful Somerset countryside.












Piera enjoyed the street art of Bristol

Of course don't forget the lessons !!

And what is so wonderful is becoming firm friends by the end of the intensive English homestay and being invited to visit family and friends.

  Having an enjoyable meal with Piera's family in Milan.

2013

I am looking forward to welcoming back the returning friends who have already booked their course 

with 

Study English One to One in England

and 

welcoming the opportunity to meet and teach new guests.

The Last Supper - Ristorante Trussardi alla Scala

The Last Supper

The Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie

The Last Supper (Italian: Il Cenacolo or L'Ultima Cena) is a late 15th century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie, Milan. The work is presumed to have been commenced around 1495 and was commissioned as part of a scheme of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

The painting represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.


Oh, I'm obviously being boring !

O.K. Chef we've done the art.

So

Ristorante Trussardi alla Scala

First of all check out the chef

Well -  Ciao!!!  -  Ding Dong !!!!!!!!!!!

Bread

A little amuse bouche

Some more bread

A view from the restaurant.

What was pretty unusual was that we got all four mains at the same time.

Red Mullet

The Spaghetti alla Carbonara was amazing;
hidden underneath the bacon was a softly poached egg, an amazing surprise, that trickled over the parmesany cheesy pasta.

I would love to make this dish but don't know to make spaghetti nests.

Beef cheek with artichoke

Sorry, nice though he was, Chef Tagliente did keep interrupting our eating. 

Two Lombardy Geniuses - da Vinci and da Vittorio

Four days in Milan

A quick trip anywhere with the Chef means a decent meal for him and some great art for me, so when he suprised me with a short holiday in Milan, Leonardo's Last Supper was top of my ' things I really have to see ' list, but where would we eat?

Flying into Bergamo, the horn honked, we had a fanfare and ' Another Ryan Air flight arrives on time!'

The Chef looked pleased, 'We'll make lunch,' he said hailing a cab. He told me once that one of his greatest pleasures is taking a taxi ride through an unfamiliar city, enroute to a decent restaurant. I like it too, although for some strange reason, I always like to hum The Girl from Ipamena as it makes it even more exciting.

So the restaurant we were whizzing to in the mellow September sunshine  was

Da Vittorio 

in

  Bergamo

The Chef mistakenly believed that our slot to see 'The Last Supper', was this afternoon, so, as time was short we had the 'Business Lunch' as opposed to the tasting menu. We ate, whizzed to Milan in another taxi, checked into the hotel, and whizzed in yet another taxi across the city to the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie to admire  Il Cenacolo.....only to be told our booking was for tomorrow!!!!

A little ravioli amuse bouche
to enjoy


History

1966 Da Vittorio opens in the centre of Bergamo

1970 Da Vittorio gets it's first Michelin star

1996 Da Vittorio gets it's second Michelin star

2010 Da Vittorio gets it's third Michelin star



Starters was a selection of the day's fish

Stuffed squid

Yes that is pop corn you can see!!

A beetroot and tuna Carpaccio

The chef came out and tossed the pasta near the table, slopping it over the dishes. My chef thought the mess he was making would have lost him all three stars if an inspector had witnessed it !

Paccheri alla Vittorio creamed with Grana Padano cheese.

We found the pasta rather thick and too hard for a British palate.

Al Dente...no dente



Da Vittorio is run by Signora Bruna Cerea and her five children. Enrico and Roberto are both chefs. Francesco manages the wine cellar and catering services. Rosella is head of hospitality at the restaurant and Dimora , while Barbara runs Cavout 1880, the cafe-patisserie in Bergamo Alta.

Salt water fish


Bite size deserts



The sweetie trolly

(The kid in a sweet shop).

Five Bites of The Big Apple

Five Nights in New York  - A Michelin Olympic Feat

Five Chefs 

Daniel Humm

Daniel Boulud

Wylie Dufresne

Masa Takayama

Thomas Keller

Five Restaurants

Eleven Maddison Park

Daniel

WD - 50

Bar Masa

Per Se

The only thing that bent and stretched was the credit card and the only thing that got thinner was the wallet.

Chantal's last few days...where did the time go?

Well, Chantal is coming to the end of her four week English homestay with me. She flies back to Geneva tomorrow afternoon, but not after a nice spot of lunch at   The Pony and Trap .

Where has the time gone? It's certainly gone quickly!!

Each morning, after breakfast, we had four hours of English lessons.

This would take us up to lunch time.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we would have an afternoon activity, with longer trips at the week ends.

Chantal was interested in learning about British culture, so rather than use text books, we used newspaper articles, which I find more lively  and interesting. Chantal would read a chosen article, writing down the new vocabulary. Then she would read the article to me, enabling me to check pronunciation, stress and intonation. As the most important part of any lesson is student talk, we would then discuss the article and develop conversation from it to activate the new vocabulary.

In four weeks, we covered a lot of  work on grammar, ( not Chantal's favourite part of the course!!) and all four skills, reading,writing, listening and speaking. Chantal improved her English level from Lower Intermediate to Higher Intermediate. Two levels in four weeks!!

Chantal main reason for taking a homestay course was because she wanted to improve her conversational skills for her travels.  So she needed to be given lots of opportunity to meet new people and talk to them.

This is Chantal, with Ed a good friend of ours and chef at The Rising Sun at Knapp

We visited The The Rising Sun at Knapp
for Sunday lunch as Chantal wanted to try Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding!!

After Sunday lunch we visited Leeann ( one of Chef Brian's daughters ) and Geoff her partner.
Its all very exciting as they are getting married next week......in Malaga!!!!!!

Over the bank holiday week end we went to our holiday cottage in Padstow.

Padstow

We had an amazing walk along the Camel Estuary. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day.

The village of Rock, is a short ferry ride away.

And no trip there is worth anything without dinner at Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant.

And of course lunch at  Margots where Chef Brian and Chef Lewis work with Chef Adrian to create amazing food.

Chef Brian relaxing after a busy shift at Margots

When we came back Chantal cooked an amazing curry. We invited Simon and Lucy over and Chantal's daughter Clivia, from Fribourg for the weekend.

Simon and Lucy
Chef Brian, Simon's father thought the meal was excellent.

One Monday afternoon Chantal and I went to visit my mother. It was her 83rd birthday and my brother was there. We all went out to have an English cream tea. We visited a garden centre and I asked my mother to choose something. She picked an ugly frog to put near her pond and told me she was going to call it Carol. I chose a beautiful Rose and bought it for her as well and told her it was also called Carol.

On Wednesday we went to Cheddar We walked through the Gorge and looked at the caves. Chantal bought some famous cheese, yes Cheddar Cheese, which was made there. We bought some pickles and oat biscuits and a flagon of Cider. It was delicious.

Well, today is Friday, all lessons have finished and Chantal has received her certificate.

An amazing Bolognese that Chantal made yesterday is waiting in the fridge. The table is laid. We are waiting for Chef Brian to arrive with his famous White Chocolate Cheesecake. 

I need to go for a run so I can have second helpings!!!!

It will be very sad to say goodbye to Chantal tomorrow. She has become a good friend and one of the family. We will all miss her.