Ive now been learning Italian for about 18 months. Im mostly practising listening skill at the moment as that seems weakest skill. But I’m very happy when i saw this joke book at the airport that i was able to understand much of the word play inside. Explanation in alt text.

I met a friend in Rome from a language exchange app and visited the museum on musical instruments. Here are some photos in case anyone needs to see a piano cross with a harp, or a bassoon that looks like a dragon.

Im back from Italy, 8th visit in the last 12 months! This time i visited Viterbo which had very Knightmare type vibes walking around.

Playing Brass: Birmingham is how everyone spends New Years Eve right? #boardgames

Ive passed my Italian exam i took in October! I now have CILS A2! If your unfamiliar with CEF levels, A2 means pre intermediate/good beginier. So i know enough to get around and have single conversations but I’m not good enough to live there.

Ive not made these in a while but @nigella.bsky.social triple chocolate buckwheat cookies are always delicious and quick to make. Its good to have to a quick and simple #GlutenFree recipe in the repertoire.

Im finally trying to learn boardgames vocab in Italian. In English we ‘draw a card’. In Italian “Pesco una carta” or “i fish a card” Suddenly the name of the game ‘Go Fish’ makes much more sense.

Ive just baked this amazing #glutenFree quiche that looks exactly like picture in book. Im normally critical of my own work but these really was amazing. As I’ve had coeliac diagnosis almost 3 years I’ve got the hand of much of baking now.

After many attempts and recipe tweaks i think I’ve perfected Caccio E Pepe. Im using pecorino and not any oil or butter. So hopefully this is authentic and wont upset and italians. Penso che sia squisito!

Today i played Caylus 1303. I still love this game and how it took an great okd game and added a bit of modern polish to it. We were surprisingly nice to each other. #boardgames

More #boardgames played ar top secret games con… I learnt Compile. Apparently this is has been selling out but left me abit flat. A bit to ‘play card and do some text’ for my tastes.

Im at a top secret private games con. Yesterday i played Barcelona. I fell Victim to the classic “I’ll just take the points things” strategy in a game that ended unusually quickly! #boardgames

@matthewdunstan.bsky.social i just saw in Italy that they sell a My Shelfie jigsaw. Can I ask is merchandise/promos something a designer should ask a publisher when signing a contract?

Apparently in italy there is a market for jigsaws of #boardgames art.

Exam time!

Im back in Rome for 6th time this year. Feeling almost like home here now! Tomorrow morning, after 15 months of studying, I’m taking an Italian for foreigners exam at a CEFR A2 level. Not sure exactly why I’m putting myself through this! Anyone else done exams they don’t need to?!

My #Italian learning is at Peppa Pig Level. Out of all the language skills I’ve found listening the hardest. I’ve needed subtitles a lot to follow film and TV. Peppa Pig in Italian on Netflix doesn’t have subtitles. But despite it still being a little fast for me I can understand about 90% of it.

Im not #vegan but I’m experiment lots more with aqua faba as eggs so expensive now. This omelette is made by folding garam flour and spices into whisked aqua faba so #glutenFree too. It ended up sticking to the pan but the crispy bits were really nice. I will absolutely experiment more with this.

Today was the #Leeds @playtestuk.bsky.social event. I seem to be trying to make another children’s game. A sort of push your luck roll and move with player interaction. Seems to be finding some sort of shape Also I’m happy that so far it’s all be totally analogue. No digital development at all.

I’ve baked @nigella.bsky.social ‘s buckwheat chocolate cookies. I forgot to add the cocoa powder but still delicious. It’s good to make a simple and tasty #GlutenFree chocolate cookie recipe. I’m going to try and tweak this to do chilli chocolate perhaps! #baking

I don’t know when I last was #baking #cupcakes. I really wanted to see if using aquafaba to make Swiss meringue would work. I’m happy to report that it does. Now I need to adapt lots of old recipes for #GlutenFree versions. I will try is as well in other egg white recipes.

This wonderful book about Manic Street Preachers arrived. Its so nice to read human sounding words and critique in the year 2025. I’m alittle sad the book has destroyed my believe in the myth Richey played on No Surface All Feeling. Listening to it feels different now. @keithcameron2.bsky.social

After getting back from Italy I’m now wanting to bet back to #baking more breads again. This is a #GlutenFree Foccacia and is frankly amazing. I’m thinking of so many ways I could customise this. Recipe from The Loopy Whisk blog here. theloopywhisk.com/2024/06/07/e...

How’s my Italian going…. Well I’m in Rome and was just stoped by the police whilst geocaching. I managed to explain in Italian what the hobby was before they let us go on our way! If that’s that’s not basically fluent I don’t know what is!

Things I like - seeing #GlutenFree food in Leeds clearly labeled. Things I don’t like - when I ask if it’s #coeliac safe GF or just gluten intolerant safe that I’m asked “what’s coealic?” By someone working with food. Decided as it’s was on a bottom shelf they probably weren’t coeliac safe :-(

Played the classic Alhambra. There was once a time where the classic 3 gateway games were this, Carcassonne and Ticket To Ride. It seems to me Alhambra has been mostly forgotten in recent years which is a shame as it’s a brilliant* game. *At low player counts anything above 4 is chaos. #boardgames

Played Pirates Of Maracaibo. Like Maracaibo but but so much of the extra faff stripped away and for me a better game. It still felt fairly solitaire but I had a lot of fun playing. #boardgames

Note to #boardgames publishers. If you need token to represent 4 different things…. Please don’t make loads of tokens with unique, but very similar, artwork. We made so many mistakes playing because we are always having to work out exactly what a token means!

Yesterday I played Keltis. I hadn’t played this in along time and I enjoyed this a lot. Very similar to Lost Cities but with a. Little bit more to think about. #boardgames

Gig night tonight at The Brudenell seeing Luke Haines and Peter Buck. In the 20 years I’ve lived in Leeds I’ve come here soooo many times. I feel very lucky to live in a city where such a vibrant music venue is still thriving.

Today in my online #Italian lesson I managed to use a verb I learnt though an online play list of Italian Rock music. Who knew I’d be able to take a song called “Spacco Tutto” (I break everything) and use it the context of trying to make supermarket dry lasagne sheets fit correctly into a pan.

After about 2.5 of #coelaic diagnosis I’m pretty certain I’ve got the hang of the #GlutenFree #Bread #Baking.

Played Cat In the Box which I love a lot. Round one: 9 points Round two: -3 Round three: -1 I don’t think I’ve ever gone from first to worst so spectacularly and can’t wait to play again. Another game full of unused extra content! #boardgames

Played Wolves. Again game I really enjoy still. Every time I focus on upgrading an ability and wish I did a different one. This makes me happy and want to keep playing a game. #boardgames

Played Murano. After last week I really wanted to play this again. Even at 3 it’s good. At the risk of sounding old why can’t #boardgames be like this again? No variable powers, no bloated rules. Just a great elegant euro full of tricky decision, player interactions and just over and hour to play.

Played Ichor. More Knizia genius. Sort or area control chess? I really liked this a lot but all the games I played felt very short. Was that us making mistakes? #boardgames

#boardgames night began with Pixies. The game is a good short drafting game. What bothers me is utter pointlessness of the theme. The back of the box has to sentences of theme. This isn’t even the carried over into the written rules in anyway! Very strange to look at totally irrelevant art.

It’s the #Leeds @playtestuk.bsky.social Meetup tomorrow. I will be taking a push your luck game designed in sharpie. I love this stage of the process where the thing I make is basically just a blob eating to be polished. #boardgames

Finished the evening with the classic Lost Cities. I often think was would be said if this was a new game at a play test group or online. To random…. Themeless… no replayability….. Yet here I am still playing this many times a year in 2025. A work of Knizia genius. #boardgames

Played That Time You Killed Me. A great little abstract with fun variants in the box and soo much stuff in sealed envelopes I’ve no idea If I’ll every get around to seeing! #boardgames

Played Iliad. I know Knizia is highly prolific and made many brilliant games but did feel a bit Knizia-by-numbers to me. #boardgames

Played Agent Avenue. A very quick 2 player game based on the on the offering opponent a choice of cards and they only know what one is. Was ok but felt far to quick. #boardgames

Played Murano. I hadn’t played this since 2018 and I forget just how good this is. Reminded of why I got into this hobby in the first place. Clear rules, takes just over an hour. Felt just so much fun to play without a load of unesscessary bloat of complication! #boardgames

#boardgames tonight started with Zenith. A very simple set of rules slowed down looking up a sea of icons. There some fun tactical decisions to be made and will prob improve when more family with the never ending icons to learn.

Back in England again. Where attempting a train from Manchester Airport to Leeds on a Sunday takes longer than a flight from Rome to Manchester Airport.

Just wait until British people find out what the Italians think ‘English Soup’ flavour gelato is! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sadly in Italy shrinkflation is clearly a thing! That is not the amount of cereal I expected in a box that size!

I’ve said before and I’ll say again….. Italy really is the easiest place to be #Coeliac. Look at the 2 massive #GlutenFree signs in the supermarket. This isn’t a tiny ‘free from’ section where you still have to check everything because free from could mean no milk. It’s just so much easier here.

Played Galileo Galilei. I enjoyed this a lot of second attempt. The game is surprisingly quick for a game of this weight which I like. All 4 players tried very different things which I like as well. Only down side is it very solitaire. #boardgames

Yesterday I played Roll Through The Ages. This is a civ yatzhee game will one of the first games I played when new to this hobby. I still really want to try Era which is the same game but with a board. #boardgames