Monday - the Diet Starts Now...

 

We were woken this morning but the dulcet tones of the Electricity Board at Angela's connecting her house to the grid.  We are guessing that because there was a guy up the 'cherry picker' that the alarm had to be going off continuously - we were not impressed, Chivers was not impressed and Minnie Mou was certainly not impressed!!!  Still it is one step closer to that property being finished for Angela who had expected to be holidaying in it in the Summer and give her credit, she has been cracking the whip to make sure that they tidy up the outside and she has even had two women in clearing the garden of her house 3B and the one next door 3A.  She is planning to spend Christmas here with her husband Phil - so the estate will be more of a bustle in the Winter than it is in the Summer - what fun!

It being Monday it was art at Sheila's and I am still working on my Morning Glory picture but it is taking me AGES - can you believe that all I managed to do this morning was the blending on the second flower and that took about three hours and it is going to take quite a bit more work until I am happy with it! 

 

I have asked Sheila if, from next week (as the clocks will have changed), we can start a bit later.  With the clock change and the cooling temperatures we need to wait a bit longer some mornings to have enough hot water for a shower and I don't want to pitch up looking like the Wreck of the Hesperus or smelling like Stig of the Dump!!! and for some reason my time keeping has been pretty poor of late so I have been pitching up nearer 11.00 anyway!!  Good job I don't have to be ready for work anymore - I just wouldn't make it!!!

 

I had a good Greek Lesson today although it is getting harder but I feel I can begin to string some sensible and meaningful sentences together at long last!  I shot off afterwards to do some shopping and then realised that I had forgotten to pay Sam - what on earth is happening to my brain??? 

 

I called into E&S to see if they had any beer on offer and found that they had all their Christmas decorations in store - how times have changed since Mum and Dad first came over here when there was nothing Christmassy in the shops until December and well into December at that!!!  It did remind me though that I need to galvanise myself into action and try and get a little organised for the Festive Season.  Mum has at least got the Turkey Breast for Christmas Day but that is about it so will have to get my act together and soon!

 

Whilst out shopping I bought some new plates in Paps.  Just two, one for John and one for me, they are rectangular and smaller than our normal dinner plates and as we want to cut down a bit after months of over indulgence I thought they would be a good idea because it would look like a full plate of food albeit a much smaller plate!

 

 

I am a firm believer that if food looks nice and is prepared with love and care then the meal, whatever it is, tastes better.  We are going for a week of 'pretty salads' and fortunately Paps had the lovely mini-pittas in today to go with them.  Tonight we had a bacon salad with some pan roasted peppers and apples.  Good job we both love salads because that is all there is going to be for a while!!! 

 

 

The weather was very strange tonight - a right old electrical storm was rolling around us all night.  We had one particular cloud that was illuminated by lightning directly in front of us and at one point it was like something out of Close Encounters when they start playing the music and the lights light up - it isn't easy to capture lightning - I didn't have the tripod out for a start but hopefully the picture will give you some idea of what was going on.