So after a week and a half of mentoring the new intern, the last day came and my role ended. I hugged, I cried and I gave out mini cacti as gifts (they don't die as easily as flowers and they're unisex!)

A couple of my colleagues persuaded me to go for lunch with them one last time and the four of us headed out into the sunshine where we feasted on chilli and garlic spaghetti and baked eggs with mozzarella and courgettes. They also ordered me a litre of red, a coffee with a shot of grappa and a glass of Jagermeister. Lucky me.

On the way home, I popped to Exeter for a few days where the only photos I took were awful drunken ones of me with my friends. Who knows, maybe I'll reveal them to the public at some point.

And then today I arrived in Margate and have been playing with little Bertie, our new cocker spaniel puppy, for the last five hours.

He's a bit of a livewire and doesn't know how to pose for photos but we'll get there. First, I have a horrendously huge backlog to get through from the past, wonderful year.


Spontini is famous in Milan for its deep pan pizza. You just rock up to one of their 'restaurants', get ushered to a cramped table and are given the choice between a normale or abbondante (big). You choose the latter, get presented with a beast of a deep pan slice, work your way through it with a tankard of beer to help and then ushered back out again when your plate is empty for the next customer.

Pizza A Pezzi dishes up similar fare but there are a couple of differences...

  1. You can choose different toppings
  2. You can book a table



Magro has been coming here for years. Back in his Kung Fu days, he'd be in at least once a week with the guys and gals from the gym to chug litres of beer and eat slice after slice of deep pan goodness. I don't know where he puts it...


The slices are, after all, pretty humungous. Especially if you're greedy like us and order the extra large serving.


But it's a great place to go with friends and have a chat and a beer in an informal atmosphere, knowing you can stay there for as long as you like without being chucked out for the next in line. I do love Spontini but sometimes, lingering is the only way to tackle pizza like this!



But apparently not if you're Martina who defiantly exclaimed she would never be able to eat it all at the beginning but definitely ate it all before I did.


I tried to kid myself it was healthy by smothering it in fish and veg. Every little helps...


Proof that Martina ate more quickly than I did:


This is the problem with my dear friend. She is deceptively skinny. I take her out for dinner and rub my hands in glee when she orders something I fancy. There's no way she'll finish it!

Of course she does, every single bloody time.


And then she has room for dessert.


Some people eh?

We'll see how she fares when I introduce her to fish and chips in two weeks time... bring it on Marty.