December saw me attend 4 more matches for City, Forest at Home, Palace away, Juventus away and the home Derby against United

The Month actually started well against Forest with a 3-0 win , we were all thinking that this result might herald a new dawn.

As I’m mostly having a dry December I prerecorded a food segment at The Great Kathmandu restaurant in West Didsbury. I didn’t drink booze here but a deliciously spicy meal . Most of the dishes at this restaurant are Indian but I did form a meal with the nepalese specialities on the card . Momos , a type of dumpling and Chwela, a dry spicy preparation along with bread and spicy mixed veg.

The Match itself was surprisingly comfortable a 3-0 win , against a team that’s doing really well this season . At the time of writing , forest are in 4th!

Next up, Palace away. Palace are a bit up and down these days. But City really were their own worst enemy yet again.

The trip started badly , from Bristol with Storm Darragh causing massive delays. this left me a decision about whether to film a food segment and leave things tight or whether to just go to the ground. I chose the former and went to Borough Market as it’s almost adjacent to London Bridge Station. The place was heaving and a quick salt beef sandwich which was great apart from the bad bread. A quick glass of champagne and it was off to the station for another delayed train , to Norwood Junction, one of 3 stations almost equidistant from Selhurst Park.

The Match itself involved City’s defenders making egregious errors , but twice clawing themselves back into the game through fine finishes from Erling Haaland and Rico Lewis. The second palace goal was particularly bad, straight from a corner given away by a sloppy pass from Bernardo. All at a time when we were well on top of Palace. Controversially Rico Lewis was sent off when the foul came the other way round, and the referee blew up when it looked as if Jeremy Doku had a clear run on goal.

It has to be said that the views from the Arthur Wait stand are appalling,and it houses Palace fans as well as away fans.

I finished the evening off at the Arch House in Bermondsey, the Home of London Black porter. The way they serve the porter on 80%-20% nitrogen CO2 makes it extra creamy, for me the best stout or porter you can get outside of Ireland, I maybe shouldn’t have been drinking but I really did want to meet some City fans who’d made an excellent flag about myself and City.

Having spent the Sunday editing the matchday vlog, it was soon off to Turin, Italy for City’s game in the Champions League away at Juventus.

Turin isn’t the most exciting Italian city but it’s pleasant enough and as always in Italy, the food, drink and coffee is excellent , plenty of great restaurants , coffee shops and bars. I arrived on the Tuesday with the match being played on a Wednesday. I travelled with Air France , with whom I travel frequently so I get vip lounge access

I flew from Birmingham on the way out but returned to Manchester .

The Birmingham lounge was great with fresh to order food, though my idea of runny eggs for the Benedict wasn’t the same as the chef’s.

Onwards to Paris to the minuscule terminal 2G , after arriving at the much larger 2E. Charles de Gaulle airport is enormous and so is terminal 2E. a walk and a security check followed by a bus. But the frequent flyer lounges are good in Paris

Then on Arrival in Italy , the obligatory stop for an espresso. they simply do coffee better than anywhere else. There was a sign suggesting a flat fare of €40 but I was charged 42, so no tip. Although I was charged €39 on the way back so maybe I didn’t understand the sign.

On to my hotel and straight out for a pizza with my friends Andy and Fergus. I don’t take pizza very often but given I had a couple of hours work to do it fitted the bill. It’s not really a food local to this part of Italy , and the best pizzas are definitely those made in the Neapolitan style. Andy had researched Gino Sorbillo’s pizzeria and it proved to be a good call. They did serve some interesting dishes that were not pizza based and we shared everything we ordered . As usual the simple pizza proved to be the best. Tomato and buffalo mozzarella.

I went off to the pub afterwards where there was (as was the case on my previous visit here 8 or 9 years ago) quite a singing session with yours truly even starting some songs off.

On to matchday itself. after delivering my Camoes, dealing with your merchandise queries, and putting up instagram posts , it was time to head out at about 1700h for a 2100h kick off.

I always film food and drink segments. I was prepared to record in advance for domestic home games, but here in Italy is different. It’s actually tricky to find places open between 1430h and 1900h. Both places I researched were full, but plan C sort of worked, Catarina Bistrot, with plenty of local delicacies. However we did have to wait until 1900h to get our table. Fortunately an aperitif was available at “Trapizzino Piazza Carlina” We probably could have taken a meal here but we had the most wonderful bottle of fizz here. I really don’t like Prosecco but Franciacorta is massively better, at a reasonable price as well.

Come dinner time we more or less knew what we were going to have , and after a quick consultation with the waiter about local specialities we were on our way with white wine aperies, and the best wine type of Piedmont, Barolo.

On to the game itself, City did actually create a few good openings, but again mistakes at the back were costly. Juventus didn’t do much but waited for a counter and a mistake and got 2 of them. In terms of the spectator experience, 1 thing that was good was the view and less aggressive netting , you could say that the strict enforcement of names on passports was either a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it, many had either bought tickets from agencies and/or hadn’t read the regulations, many couldn’t get in and were bussed back to the stadium. Many complained about the hour’s hold back , but I seem to recall that it was at least as long if not longer last time round.

I always spend a day extra away from home , so I can get the vlog out and not feel wrecked or knackered after match day, and I took the opportunity to review a very fine restaurant, “Marchese” the night after, though I could feel a cough coming on.

The way back to Manchester and the Derby

I woke up after nowhere near enough sleep and was feeling a bit iffy but I had snagged an upgrade on the way back. Maybe a bad thing given the temptations on offer.

The egg based meal on the Paris Manchester leg was incredibly tasty, how they serve a cold but runny egg I’ve no idea but it worked very well.

By the time I arrived back in Manchester I knew I’d come down with something and wasn’t feeling good at all, but I did fulfil a commitment to try a beer being launched at my local, reasons to be cheerful in south Manchester, and with meetings the next day it meant I was pretty much 50/50 to attend the Derby,

Derby Day

I woke up only slightly improved and decided given it was a mild day and would be definitely my last football vlog for at least 5 weeks if not longer I went to the game , thankfully again having pre filmed a food segment in November. An Indian English Fusion breakfast called the big Bombay at Dishoom restaurant in Manchester’s City Centre.

The Match itself was very stodgy , 2 bad teams in action. City were all over the place in the second half, lumping balls forward being pressed to death and were trying to close out a 1-0 win from Gvardiol’s 1st half header. United had missed a couple of chances but it did look as if we were heading to a scruffy 1-0 but 2 tragic mistakes from Nunes in the same move handed United a gift wrapped penalty and equaliser, and a couple of minutes later conceding a goal that was well taken but again riddled with defensive errors. A disastrous and desperately disappointing 1-2 loss.

As I write City have lost again 2-1 away at Villa, an insipid performance, United doing even worse losing 0-3 at home to Bournemouth.

For City the transfer window can’t come quickly enough! At least we have some of the teams at the bottom to play in the next 3 games.

I’ll see you all on the next one, and I’m almost over the bug 10 days after I think I got it.