Monday - Art and Cooking...

Our bodies have still not adjusted to the clock change and so we were up early or earlier than we would have wanted.  It was a beautiful start to the day and Minnie Mou was relaxing in T&V corner.  She seemed fine then but by this afternoon she had become quite distressed, not helped by having to pin her down and try and get a worming tablet down her.  We have now realised that she seems to have a problem with her tail and so think she has probably been in a bit of a fight.  We could hear some cats scrapping last night so it could well have been her.  We will see how she is is coming in in the morning and if necessary stick her on some antibiotics just in case.  She is coming in but yelps if you try and pick her up or runs around flat to the ground with her ears back.  I hate it when she does this - she is not the most affectionate cat at the best of times or not with me anyway - she is giving John a wide berth too so we know that there must be something amiss.

John had things he wanted to do today whilst I was at Sheila and Klaus's so he dropped me off and was coming back later to take me down to Greek so that he could go to the Woodyard and get a replacement gas bottle and pick up the few bits I wanted from Paps.  Sheila was waiting for me and my box of pencils was all sharpened and ready for the off and I worked hard on the second flower today and the leaf in underneath but having seen the picture from a distance I can see that there is a bit more work required on the flower before I am compeletely happy with it - Sheila you must be rubbing off on me as you are never happy with your work and I always think it looks FAB!  Before we knew it our time was up and Klaus was giving us the warning to get the table laid ready for lunch.  Today he was trying out a new recipe.  We were a bit concerned because early doors there was no singing coming from the kitchen - this is a bad sign - then there was a little humming - this is a better sign - before full on singing which is the best sign of all - lunch is a success and almost ready!!  Today I was treated to a Jamie Oliver recipe of Sticky Kicking Chicken with melon radish salad and crunchy noodles - It was sooooo lovely I detailed John off to get some chicken thighs when he was doing the shopping.

My Greek lesson today concentrated on opening and closing times and cost of entry etc etc and I have to admit I struggled - Sam speaks more and more Greek to me which is good but I cannot always formulate the answer and I get frustrated, this is because I want to answer truthfully rather than just use the words I know.  I am so grateful that we have our lessons on a one to one basis because if I make a fool of myself  no-one else knows!!

On the way back home today we decided to call into the cheese factory at the top of our road to get some more halloumi - it is lovely providing that it has been soaked long enough to remove all the excess salt.  Poor Maria was telling me that she wasn't feeling very well and that she had to go out to her Olive Trees and get the fruit in.  She is one of the people that I can practice my Greek on as her English is limited.  She is going to have to be quick with the olives as it is only about 4.00pm and the sun is low in the sky and the shadows long and by just after 5.00pm it was dark although not so dark tonight as it was full moon yesterday and we have clear skies.

On Wednesday as a thank you for last week I have invited Prodromi Pam to come and do craft at our house and she is bringing her neighbour Curry Rivel Chris (actually Chris is not from Curry Rivel but her husband was) and who couldn't make last week because of an exciting morning spent at Polis Hospital where her husband was having some sort of check up.  I had to think about what I was going to cook for our lunch.  We often have soup when we go to Jeannette's (whose birthday it is today - 29th October so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANNETTE) and last week Pam made a delicious cauliflower cheese soup so I dug out my three New Covent Garden Soup Books as I had got John to get some butternut squash and some sweet potato when he was in Paps - I hadn't actually got a recipe in mind but was confident that I would be able to find something and I wasn't disappointed - page 65 - Spicy Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup and thank goodness I had all the ingredients it required.

The fruit and vegetables over here are not all uniform in size and appearance when you go to the supermarket but they are real and fresh and so full of flavour that it makes cooking a real pleasure.  John is not normally a lover of butternut squash or sweet potato but as taster in chief I had to prize the spoon off of him so I take it that the soup was a hit.  Let's hope that the ladies think so on Wednesday!

Apparently I am in for a real treat tonight as the Mighty Blades are on the TV playing Portsmouth - fingers crossed they win otherwise John will be a right old misery guts!!