Saturday 25 May 2013

May 14th...

Today was Elaine's hen day.  I know that she and Paul have done the civil ceremony bit but this weekend is the big celebration which has been planned down to the last dot of the I and cross of the T as only Elaine can!

This weekend sees them getting 'married' once again with a blessing at the tiny little traditional Church in Akourdalia, celebrating with local Cypriot Villagers and then having a well earned knees up at Porthgwidden - the lovely house belonging to Lynn and Al.

Today was the girlies day for a party - Thursday will be the boys day for a more sedate boat trip - weather permitting!  Girlies were going down to Liz and Jeff's house at Sea Caves and kicking Jeff out for the day!

Elaine's beautiful daughter Hadeel has arrived from Vancouver - and I apologise because I have absolutely no idea how she spells her name.  Previously Elaine was married to a Jordanian and Hadeel has certainly inherited the sultry beauty and colouring which comes from middle east.  She was the one who kept a sensible head on to make sure that the day went smoothly - well both she and I did as I was taking my camera and keeping firmly behind it.

The order for the day was that we were to dress like 'tarts'  - deep joy - John is always game for Fancy Dress but you can see by the expression on my face that I was less than enthusiastic.  I spend my life trying not to look like a tart so I really panicked about what I was going to wear and I didn't want people to think I would dress like this normally!  

The weather was appalling with thunder and lightning so I had to try and find something that was suitable just in case it was chilly where we were going.  I shall never wear that top again - it makes me look the size of a house!

Even worse I was due at Akourdalia at 12.00 midday and I was leaving it to the last minute for a shower just in case the sun decided to show its face - at 11.15 I jumped in the shower and soaped up my hair and then at 11.16 the bloody power went off so I was soaking with soapy hair and having a complete melt-down.  Elaine offered for me to go to hers to finish getting ready as they had power and I was going to do that but fortunately the electric came back on after about 20 minutes.  I never quite managed to get the soap out of my hair so it was rather sticky all day.

John took me down to Akourdalia, the weather was reminiscent of when we had gone just before Christmas and there was a tidal wave of rain running down the road.  I was prepared for it this time as was John so there was no repeat of him stepping out into water that reached his knees.  Elaine was resigned to the fact that we were going to have to be inside all day but to be fair it didn't really matter.


Paul ferried Hadeel, Elaine, Lynn, Ann and me down to Sea Caves (thank goodness most of us are only small as it was a bit of a squeeze in the Volvo.  The weather was appalling and we nearly got soaked just getting the stuff out of the car and into the house.  


It was a typically girlie, silly, fun day.  There were varying degrees of 'tartiness' on show with hostess Liz dressed as a playboy bunny!  For a woman of a certain age she has one hell of a figure to be able to get away with just a leotard, tights, fluffy tail and rabbit ears!

We started the proceedings with cocktails served with the requisite willy shaped straws which Elaine had had sent from Limassol!  The pina coladas were a bit on the strong side and I have no idea what the pink one was but there were plenty of demands for some soda to make them less lethal!

We had all been asked to bring a plate of food and were sensible enough to sit down together and eat before too much alcohol was consumed.  

The beautiful dining table was actually inlaid with semi precious stones - I would have put a table cloth on it if it had been mine!

We had a fantastic range of dishes which included some traditional Philippino noodles which had been brought by Cencia who is from the Philippines herself.

I took my good old favourite standby of the carrot, coriander and halloumi fritters which went down well and Sandra even asked for the recipe.

Lynn had made one of her fancy cakes - she is famous for her cakes - and today's little number was modelled on a part of a man's anatomy but ended up looking more like a toadstool and the heat in the house made it wilt a bit - much to Elaine's amusement!

We played some games as we sat round the table - one of which entailed us all drawing a picture of what we think Elaine's dress is going to look like on Saturday and as she is making a scrapbook of her wedding these are to be included in the scrap book.  


On Saturday when the girlies hear Barry White singing You're my First, my Last, my Everything they are all going to jump up and do a wedding dance.  This has been choreographed by Jo (who also has a stunning figure and is in the front in a jumpsuit).  Although it was a bit like herding eels she managed to get them all together to show them the moves required.  I managed to bail out of this little pleasure by video-ing it so that I can post it onto the internet and they can then watch it and practice between now and Saturday.  Being behind the camera has its advantages.


The menfolk pitched up at around 5.00pm thinking that by then we would all be flagging but they were wrong so were confined to sitting outside and waiting - fortunately the weather had improved considerably and the sun was shining so it was warm and dry for them outside.


The sun encouraged us all to go outside in the end actually it was the beginning of a lovely evening and it would have been a shame not to take advantage of it particularly as Liz and Jeff have a wonderful view.  By this time Lynn had had to change because she managed to get something all over her dress and Cencia had had enough as being dressed as a belly dancer.


There was some rather wild dancing before the proceedings drew to a close.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and that was what it was all about.  We finished rather later than anticipated so I had to go straight to the airport with John to pick up our friends and neighbours Sean and Sharon who were arriving at 8.00pm.  I had to go still in my lovely party outfit - I looked like I was touting for business!!

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On a more serious note my friend Elena had her operation today in her fight against Breast Cancer.  John text me to let me know that he had heard that it had gone as well as could be expected - we await more news. 

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