Sunday Lunch...

Today we were going down to Emba to have lunch with Mum and Dad.  I had several texts from Mum and then a frantic phone call because she wasn't getting my text replies - that was because she had, for some reason, black-listed me!!!  I have set her phone to lock the keypad when not in use because this is the second time I have been black-listed and so Mum obviously manages to press keys when her phone is in her handbag.

As you know when we get together we are great card players and the current favourite (thanks Kaye - I think!!) is Noms which is a kind of whist where you say how many tricks you are going to make in advance.  John is very, very patient but his patience is sorely tested when playing as we all keep asking "what's trumps?" and 'how many did I call?'  To counteract this Mum has come up with the idea of using the funny shaped dice to remind us which suit is trumps and an ordinary dice to remind each player how many tricks they have called - which is OK providing you haven't called more than six!!!  The only trouble was we kept forgetting to change our dice so poor John still gets asked the same old questions - it is all part of the fun and it is fun and someone has to win and someone has to be drag arse Charlie!!!  They say that anything which keeps the grey matter working is good so our Christmas together will include Noms, Cribbage, Uno, Canasta, Rumikub and Dominoes.  Those eagle-eyed readers of the blog will see that Dad has had his Christmas haircut so is looking rather dapper but I bet his ears are cold!!!

Our friend Tea for Two Jackie, is currently taking part in an art exhibition at the Elea Golf Resort.  We are due to see Jackie and Costa on Tuesday for a meal together but we always like to try and get to her exhibitions so Mum wanted to go over this afternoon to take a look as we couldn't go to the opening on Friday.

We made our way over to the Golf Course and were a bit confused as there was no signage advertising the exhibition - we found out that this was because they seemed to be holding some sort of children's Christmas party in the exhibition room!!!  So we didn't get to see her work!!!  If you are interested then check out this website Jackie Pentaliotis Art 

She is one very talented artist and I would recommend you to go and see her work if you get a chance (but not when there is a children's party on obviously!!!)

Never mind though the Elea is a stunning location and although it was a fairly miserable day the sun was shining when we got there and the view was spectacular.  

It always amazes us how places like this keep going as they employ a guy to man the gate even though they have yet to build any domestic houses on the site.  The cost of golf in Cyprus is exorbitant so only a small percentage of the population can afford to play there and I am guessing that it is not the cheapest place to eat on the island!

We stayed for Coffee which is actually pretty reasonable bearing in mind where you are and as we sat down (outside) we were joined by a little boy ginger cat who could have passed for Minnie Mou's brother and he was a very sweet and friendly thing although he was determined to get up on the table and check out the macaroons that came with the cafetieres!!

As always we came away from Mum and Dad's laden with goodies - we are really going to have a good Christmas as Mum has been stocking up with the finest that Lidl can sell.

John and I have been putting together an itinerary so we know what we are going to be doing each day and to make sure we have food organised whether it be eating out or eating in. 

We also seem to have accumulated an interesting pile of presents even though we don't really 'do' presents but the Christmas Day would be a long old boring day without something to open or something to look forward to!!!

I needed to get my gift for Sheila and Klaus organised this evening as I wanted to drop it off tomorrow when I go to Art (if I make it depending on how John gets on at the dentist!!).  As a thank you to them both for my wonderful Mondays filled with Art and Food I wanted to give them something personal so I am putting together a basket of home-made preserves with a signature Gecko.  There will be some Citrus Marmalade, Grapefruit Jam, Fig and Onion Relish and Virgin Olive Oil from the pressing the other week.

We needed to descant the olive oil out of the 20 litre container it had been pressed into.  You will see that the blue bottle on the left is the last lot to come out of the container - full of crap by the looks of things.  This is going to be our control - if this clears then all the other bottles are bound to be clear!