Our autumn trip to Cyprus

I have been very bad in updating this blog (or any other, for that matter), with the result that I have been not very quick in posting about few events, like for example a trip we have taken during early autumn.
And not only, now I was trying to find some pictures from the trips and I found very scarce traces of them. Sadly!

Fig Tree Bay, view from our hotel

Our destination was Protaras, in Fig Tree Bay in Cyprus. The place didn't really disappoint us. Of course, turistic shaped (possibly more for a British market) but quite convenient for a family with small kids, afterall.
We chose an hotel which could grant closeness to the see, wifi, decent food based on the reviews and some other extra (some also that we were not exactly looking for).
Its name is Sunrise Beach Hotel and it has a bit "outdated" style for few things. A bit of 80s atmosphere is around in how the building is, as well as some part of the service (the buffet restaurant for example), but it had quite good comforts.

Sunrise Beach Hotel

The pools were quite nice, there were a lot of activities if one wanted to do some (from watergym, ping pong tournament, baby disco and even kids club, with a very new and fresh small cinema!) and there were a lot of restaurants one could pick up through the hotel. We went to few of them and some of them were very good (Kyklos, greek and Fishbone, with fish specialities, although a bit more expensive), others  impressed us less (Marcello's, the italian one, but of course...we are Italian!).
The breakfast was not exactly my cup of tea (but my comparison meter is based on the breakfast we were having in Nai Harn in Phuket at the Nai Harn Hotel, so possibly it is a a bit unfair.
 

The beach and the sea

 Walking along the beach was very beautiful, also during the evening.
We chose a good time to be there. The day was warm and nice, not too hot (except maybe during the warmest hours, but I was in the hotel room with Oscar who was sleeping and Mattias and Isabella were at the kids' club). We got few afternoons of rain, which shortened our afternoons at the seaside, but we still managed to enjoy the wonderful sea, with warm water, clean and turquoise, nice sandy beach.
There was also not that many people, possibly few other retired people (as us), being that low season and that suited us since it is nice to not have to share the beach with the whole world.
The sunbeds at the beach were not owned by the hotel, but by the town, but that didn't bother us too much since we were mainly using as homebase the pool area (fairly closed to the beach anyway).

View over the bay

We got some disturbance for the first nights, when our kids couldn't fall asleep because our neighbours, with whom we were sharing a door (which of course we didn't need to use) were playing dice the whole night. The sound was just horrible.

After complaining to them, we went to the reception explaining our issue, and we got a new room where we could squeeze us.

The room were ok, but a bit compact for the four of us. A double bed, with an extra bed and a coat bed. 

It was not the worse room of the planet, but it could have been a bit more spacious and "fresher" - it had a bit torn look.

Beach

The child entertainment was a surprisngly positive note, which we didn't forecast not thought about. Apart from the kids' club, a nice "daycare" facility where one could leave the kids (we were always with Isabella if there) there was the baby disco which was very funny and the highest peak of the day for Isabella and Oscar.

The restaurant choice of the small town was quite good. We ended up though twice at Pizza Hut because Isabella wanted that (!!!), but we tried few local restaurants a couple of times.

We were eating a bit too early for the standard opening time, so we were often alone in the restaurants at lunch time. However, we always had very good food.

Portions were always big and the price not too bad. 

One of the most memorable visits was the one to Vangelis Tavern, which I saw also as highly ranked in Tripadvisor.

I wonder though if the food was "modified" a bit for the turistic market (a lot of fried potatoes were served all the time).

My lamb ribs at Vangelis Tavern (with Elsa drooling over the plate)

Amazing fried calamari in Kyklos restaurant

What I am most sad is that, possibly as a combination of having small kids (and Oscar needing to sleep during the afternoon) and the low season, we couldn't really do any excursion. I know that Cyprus has a lot of interesting places to visit and a lot of culture and history and I regret not making more efforts to actually go somewhere, but since in general, our vacation was a positive experience, I think we might go back there again and explore more (and the kids will be also older then!)

A business trip in Tokyo

 a business trip, I'd call it (if one would read only this post) an "exploration of Japanese food in Tokyo". Not that I hadn't already experienced that, since we had been visiting Japan during our honeymoon, but let's say that refreshing the tastebuds on the matter was a pleasant experience (sadly, at one occasion we ended up in an italian restaurant...! no words on that!!!).

I just know the name of two of the restaurants we have been around, for the rest, we moved randomly just picking what inspired me and my colleagues.

Obviously, our aim was at eating (and I was hungry - so I ended up eating a lot!)

Our first lunch was on the road to the office building. The place was very local, no english menu. I ordered a tonkatsu but my nose was bleeding (amazing timing - I was almost dying!) and I ended up filling my nose with tons of paper and not feeling any taste of the food I was longing to eat so much!

Tonkatsu

After not sleeping on the plane and half a day of work, I was tired. But that didn't help the jetlag. Lying sleepless at night became the norm.

The view from the hotel room (with a nice reflection)

The first evening we ended up eating sushi of course, topping it with some dessert at "Dean & De Luca" (no comment. Finding a place where to get some dessert was the hardest thing in the world).

The sushi, alright but nothing comparable to what we ate the last night!

My cake with hazelnut and green tea and an exhausted Robert (don't remember what he ate)

 During breakfast there was the possibility to choose some Japanese stuff, but how to eat everything was very mysterious. I ended up trying a little bit of everything in a very random and unorthodox way

Breakfast

 One evening, still around Shinagawa (where our hotel was), we ended up eating yakiniku (grilled meat) which was amazing. I could have been eating though a couple of portions more...

Grilling some ribs

Yakiniku

In this yakiniku place they were eventually selling some dessert and we decided to try.

No idea what this is

Ice cream with green tea and azuki

Everytime we were walking in Shinagawa I remember feeling the amazing smell of roasted meat. That is why we ended up impulsively there.

Shinagawa station

Shinagawa

I "imposed" a couple of things to my colleagues.

First, okonomiyaki, which they had never tried before (now we have big plans to open an okonomiyaki restaurant in Malmö).

Okonimiyaki Kiji, in Shinagawa

Okonomiyaki

Keeping our okonomiyaki warm

The place was quite popular and we had to wait half an hour before getting a seat. The day before it was about the same situation and we ended up resigning the plan. 

We topped the okonomiyaki with some tasty cake nearby the hotel. Nothing very japanese!

My cherry pie

Green tea and azuki pie

Double chocolate pie

We even took some time off for lunch for going and buying some knives in Kappabashi. That took much more time than we thought it would and we (I!) made a mess with the trains on the way back. 

Kappabashi 

We of course had lunch on the way back, stopping at Asakusa. We probably messed up the order somehow because we got just singular dishes instead of the meal with rice and pickles. So, some of us went out very hungry having had just some sashimi...

My fish (was it grilled mackarel?)

Aubergines and Gyoza

The other thing that I forced down my colleagues (and has been my obsession since forever) is taiyaki. They didn't dare to get the ones with azuki jam, but of course, I went classic and wasn't very much disappointed.

The taiyaki place in Shinagawa

Very happy!

For lunch, we managed to eat in the strangest places. One was a very tiny place, where the daughter of the lady cooking food was speaking a fantastic english. We didn't know what we were ordering, but at the end we got served something that was possibly fried chicken?

The mysterious chicken dish

The last day, I was busy thinking of what to buy for the dear ones home and I stumbled upon some things that I was very very very tempted to buy... 

Lady Oscar make up!!!!!

Sailor Moon make up

Finally, the last evening we decided to go to Shibuya. One of our Japanese colleagues joined us after our exploration of the Tokyu Hands store in Shibuya.

Shibuya. Hachiko is on the left

Thankfully we had our colleague. Otherwise it would have been taking us forever to find where the sushi place that we were aiming at was. It was almost impossible to find it!

The sushi we ate there was from another world and I got so full I was rolling out of there...

My sushi

Sushi

Almost pure tuna sushi

Sushi

Sushi

Sushi

Sushi with mackarel

The only problem with this trip is that I gained a couple of kilos. Strange, since we were walking for half an hour to the office every day.... :-)

Kids beauty products

No, I am not paid to promote certain products over others, but this one I like a lot and hence, I will highlight it here.
I have tried to find some good products for kids, that are mercyfull to their skin, easy to apply (depending if it is a lotion or what) and good for the environment.
When I find something that doesn't contain too many bad chemicals and it is promising for all the other characteristics I am looking for, I usually do not mind the price.

For the kids (and lately also for us, the "adults"), I usually buy Weleda , but I am also very pleased with this below.

Body & Hair wash and Body Lotion

Sophie La Giraffe which is better known for the popular toy (which was also symbol for the babies-mothers group I was belonging with Isabella) is proposing a line of organic certified skin products for kids.
They have a nice smell and they are in general good products (for example, the hair & body wash is very very mild and my kids' skin can tolerate it easily) and they are also gentle to the environment.
We did try also the bubble bath and compared to others that we bought (still organic certified and so on), it was much fluffier and long lasting (and milder) than others.

So, go and buy it, especially if you belong to the "Apriline" group (I can dispatch it from Sweden ;-))

Oscar's two years old birthday

I am getting too slow in writing on the blog, unfortunately, so I miss to write "at the right" time a lot of posts. In reality, I would have still Isabella's four years old birthday to mention, but I feel like that has really lost its timing.
I will try then to pick up with Oscar's two years old birthday. There should be also few things from Christmas to mention, but it feels already too old to be lifted up here.

This Oscar could appreciate already before the party. 

I should focus a bit on TipToi that is absoluted loved by both kids but especially Oscar. He sits for many minutes just exploring the books (this one, with "Woods" as theme is a birthday present) or the game we have. It is a very great toy for our kids so that can have an opportunity to learn italian and we really like because it is so rich that I am sure they will have hard time to get tired of it

For Oscar's birthday, we had few friends over for a little party. As I am getting bad in writing blog posts, I am also quite bad in taking proper pictures. I know I baked the cake (the same that I did for Isabella's four years old birthday) and thought I should take pics for the blog, but then I did end up with a picture with the cake ready to be put in the oven. And that's it.

Some new cars, a car carpet and some other cards related items. Did I say cars?

We had balloons everywhere and Oscar was happily playing around and eating a lot of apples and melon (maybe too much).
Isabella was having her friends over too, so she was quite busy as well. Their friends were kind enough to bring some presents for the little prince.

A classic from the 80s which I have been dreaming of having (and playing). Both kids love it, although they have some technical inabilities

Although we tried to contain the amount of presents, Oscar got spoiled with many things. Few books (he loves reading, so this is very well appreciated), some car and a tractor and few other games that I am showing with a picture.

Cthulhu is making an entrance in our equipment. We haven't yet introduced the world of Arkham to the kids. Maybe it is time? :) Picture is borrowed from the internet. Cthulhus is looking over Oscar's sleep right now.

Puzzle and board games are appreciated especially by Isabella (although they might be for her brother). In this case, the game on the left was a Christmas present for her, with aimed at learning letters, while the puzzle on the right was for Oscar (who spends most of his days counting in both languages up to 10 or 11...), so that he can learn a bit what the numbers he is saying stands for.

Finally, the cake. We had different cakes and a small buffet with cookies, some extra pastries and some small sandwhiches, As usual, the cake for the kids is the "official" cake and in this case it is a red currants pie, which I ate at a friend's place with the kids when we both were on parental leave and meeting regularly (sigh, I miss those days). Isabella fell in love and asked for the cake for her birthday and of course, I repeated the request for Oscar's one. As always, I tend to burn it, but maybe this is the key to success? No matter. It doesn't looks amazing, but it tastes as such (and I am bad in baking).

Red currants pie

Ingredients
150g butter
3dl flour
1,5dl sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch bakingpowder
5 dl red currants
Extra sugar to sweeten the berries

Turn on the oven to 225.
Mix the dry ingredients while you are melting the butter.
Pour over the mix all the butter and then press on a pie form. Put on top the berries and sugar.
Bake it for 20 minutes (and hope you don't get it burnt as I do ;-))

Christmas gaming

It is nice that finally, with at least one of the kids, we can start to play again some board games and it is nice that she likes to play too (although when she is in a bad mood she has very hard time to accept to lose or the game rules).

This Christmas we have played two games: Letters to Santa and Sagaland.

Letters to Santa was a present we got last year, when we had our epic Christmas party.

Letters to Santa

The game is quite simple, but there can be some nice strategy played based on thinking how many cards are around in the game and also, observing a bit the other players' behaviour. The goal of the game is winning 4 game rounds. For doing that one can kick out of the turn the other players or by having the highest card at the end of the game.

There are 8 different types of cards and each of them has a specific action associated. Some of the actions can result in getting the other players out of the game, but mostly there are cards exchanges and views and if one plays smart, there is a good chance to be the winner. 

A minimum amount of luck is required, but that is ok, considering that the game doesn't become frustrating and still skills are valuable. 

A perfect quick family game that has conquered us all!

Sagaland is instead one present that Santa has delivered to Isabella. The setting is cute, based on the classical fairytales (Rapunzel, The princess and the frog, ...) and the mechanics are quite simple, although the complexity of the game can be high. Many different strategies can result in becoming the winner. 

On the board there are 7 symbols hidden under a tree. One card at the time shows which symbol one must search and "report" to the king in the castle. The winner is the one that has managed to collect most cards. 

To do that one should have quite good memory. But there are different strategies that can be applied, mixing bluffing with intuition and, thanks to the "magic" element, a good dose of randomness.

Sagaland board

It is not always easy to play with kids, because it is already complex to explain how one can roll and count the dice (there is quite some flexibility), but even though one doesn't explore the whole game depth with them, the game can still be intruiguing.