Family Times

My family (brother, sister-in-law and niece) have been over from Australia for two weeks which has been so nice.  It's been almost four years since I last saw them and my niece has grown up so much.  She's nine now and gorgeous, have loved spending time with her. 

We had them over for dinner, as previously posted, and the Sunday after we went to my Dad's golf club for a carvery, and we went into Manchester and had lunch at the New Hong Kong in China Town.  Not a big fan of Chinese food but this was quite good.  We had hot and sour soup, dim sum, crispy duck with pancakes, crispy shredded beef and sweet and sour chicken.  Quite a lot for lunch!

We were too early for the Chinese New Year celebrations unfortunately so went to the Natural History Museum until my niece got bored :)

We had our 'last supper' on Friday evening at Valentino's in Heaton Moor.  The menu hasn't changed in 30+ years! We used to go when my Mum couldn't be bothered cooking and it's still the same, and still as popular.  It is always fully booked.  The food is quite heavy but good honest food and cheap.  The rib sauce is to die for - sticky and black, with an aniseed flavour - and the garlic bread is the best I've ever had.  I went for the lasagne this time, which is unusual for me - I cook lasagne myself so rarely order it but knew I'd be full by the main course anyway so went for something I wouldn't mind leaving some of.  It was all good and had a great time with the family.  The house red is very chuggable and we had a black sambuca and calypso coffee to finish.  Was a little merry on the walk home...

Going to miss them all loads but great to catch up and hopefully they will be back again in a few months x