Bramall Hall, Stockport

Coniston

20 October 2007

We rented a car and went to Coniston with Chiara to see autumn leaves and to try out one of the best pubs in England Wales.

Survived from the terrible traffic jam on the motorway. Arrived at the still quite 16th century Sun Inn for lunch (Coniston, LA21 8HQ, 01539-441248) - wonderful chicken salad.

Then, had a walk around the lake and enjoyed one of Britain's best autumn leafshow (according to the Times).

Time flied by quickly. Luckily, even the road was so winding and dark, we still found 'The punch Bowl Inn' (Crosthwaite, Kendal, Cumbria 015395-68237) (recommended by the Times).

Sheffield

I went to see Chiara at Sheffield today. Got a cheap day return direct from Stockport costing 12.30 quit.

We were quite amazed at its museum cluster, winter garden and newly developed urban look.

We had lunch at an Italian/Napolian Cafe - Gusto Italiano (Proprietors Ester & Saverio) (18-20 Church Street Sheffield S1 2GL) (Tel. (01909) 771976 / 07791234251) - highly recommended by Chiara. I had vegetarian Lasangna which was good.

Then we had a walk to the Botanical Garden and had a lovely afternoon there.

Rivington Pike & the West Pennine Moors

Yesterday, we followed the 'suggestion' by GMPTE to have a walk around Rivington Pike and the West Pennine Moors. The GMPTE guide was not useful, however. We needed to figure out which bus/train to take and where to board/get-off. Eventually, we gathered that we needed to go to Bolton Bus Station (Blackhorse Street) and change the local buses. We "reverse-engineered" the tour, starting from the destination Johnson Fold, rather than Horwich, which turned out to be a smart strategy.

We took bus #8 to Bolton bus station. And then bus #125 to Johnson Fold. We asked the way at a local pub on Chorley Old Road. We started walking. When we finally found ourselves in the GMPTE map, it was beautiful (see photos).

We followed the Barrow Bridge Road, then climbed up the 63-step-of-the-miners. And started the 5-mile walk in the Moors. It was lambing season - lots of gamboling lambs (see photos).










Then, we also encountered the rebuilt ruined castle in the Rivington Park.

We sometimes got lost because the map had few references. The local we approached found it difficult to point out the direction to us given this poor map. The worse situation was at the end of the journey - when we were so tired - we got lost and did not know how to find a bus stop. We ran into the Rivington High School where many were operating their noisy toy cars (I suggested to have a proper psychological study finding out why people like noisy (car) engine). It was a stressful and frustrating moment. Luckily, three local ladies kindly pointed us to the main road, Chorley New Road, where many buses going (although they made a mistake saying that there was no bus running on Lee Land on Sunday - there were). We took bus #575 back to Bolton bus station and changed for bus #8 back to Manchester.

We both felt very exhausted after walking for more than 6 miles today. We need to exercise more. But after all, it was a beautiful day-out.

The 3rd Christina Conference on Women's Studies and the 4th European Gender & ICT Symposium, University of Helsinki March 8-10, 2007

Keynote speaker: Marja Vehviläinen (University of Tampere, Finland)
"Gender and ICT: In-between Research, Politics and Theory"


Susanna Paasonen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)









Els Rommes (Nijmegen University, the Netherlands)
"Images and Identities: Sex, Sexuality and Soaps"










Gabriele Winker (Technical University Hamburg, Germany)
"Challenging Feminist Agency in Technically Mediated Societies"

Maremma (Italy)

4 May 2007

Dine in Ristorante Osteria - La Poventa for dinner.
Address:
Corso Garibaldi, 29
Magliano in Toscana (GR)
Italy
Telephone:
(39) 0564.593030

Stay over night at Agriturismo San Francesco di Mario Quaglia
Address:
Strada Amiatina, 160 n. 38
58100 Albinia (GR)
Telephone:
(39) 0564.878154

5 May 2007

Bought a good apple grappa from Cantina Danei
(The first time I considered red wine better than the white.)
Danei s.n.c.
di Nunzio DANEI & C.
Via G.Borgia, 54/56
58015 Orbetello (GR)
telephone: (39) 0564.863935
Fax: (39) 0564.866175
Mobile: (39) 3356244291
Email:

And then we had lunch at a hotel restaurant suggested by the wine maker Danei.
Vecchia Maremma Hotel & Residence
V. Aurelia Nord km 146
58016 Orbetello Scalo (GR)
Tel: (39) 0564.862147
Fax: (39) 0564.862347
Web: http://www.vecchiamaremma.it


And then we drove on a very scenic road towards Volterra.