Tuesday 16th April...

The weather was so awful last night that I hardly dared look at the state of the garden this morning.  I guess that we are lucky that the Californian poppies shut up at night because they were reasonably unaffected although my birthday rose got a right old battering.

We had more rain this morning which was a shame as we were off to Pissouri to meet up with Wendy and Bill and Pissouri is so lovely and the view from their house is so stunning that a grey and damp day really doesn't do it justice.

I kept doing the British thing and told John that it was 'brightening up' and actually I wasn't joking - I could see brighter weather down in Latchi that was moving up towards Droushia and then hopefully down to Paphos and along the coast to Pissouri. 

The weather brought with it the age old dilemma of what to wear - should we wear shorts - should we take a cardy?  Layers layers layers - it is always the sensible way to go!  We did wear shorts and I did take a cardy!

We made our way to Pissouri and now that we know the way to Wendy and Bill's home went straight to their house without a detour.

By the time we arrived the weather had picked up no end and I took a couple of photographs from the Bailey's balcony just to prove what a wonderful view they have and a view which they will never lose.

They have been over now long enough to get over their colds (or in Bill's case his man flu) and to unwind from the trials and tribulations of owning their own businesses - I shall now give their two shops - the Bathstores in Nuneaton Bathstore Nuneaton and Stratford upon Avon Bathstore Stratford - a big old plug (pardon the pun).

Wendy had asked John to come armed with a saw as they wanted to take the legs off of their dining room table because they were hosting a curry night.

WHAT!!!!!!!  We thought they might be joking but apparently the dining room table was too high in comparison with the level of their dining room chairs.  I sat at the table and had to admit that my chin was resting on the table!!!  John and Bill measured up and after a lot of conversation agreed on how much to reduce the height by and we all agreed that the final result was much better.  Let's hope the curry night attendees agree!

Wendy and Bill wanted to take us somewhere different for lunch.  To be fair we don't really know the area around Pissouri particularly well so they wouldn't have to take us far!  They wanted to take us up into the hills to a Taverna they had found at a little village called Plataniskia.  We had a really lovely drive up there through fertile fields and stunning views of the sea on one side and the wind farm on the other (I know opinion is split but I actually really like the wind turbines!).  We eventually got to the taverna only to find that it was closed so we decided to drive to Kouklia and try the tapas taverna that Wendy and Bill had mentioned (Aspris Taverna).

We got to Kouklia only to find that Aspris was closed (was it us I wonder???) so we opted for the one opposite which looked very traditional and welcoming and by this time was so warm we wanted to sit outside!

We had a very pleasant lunch sharing salad, dips, halloumi, stuffed mushrooms, sheftalia, souvlakia and chips.  Half way through we had to swap seats because Wend was getting a bit pink around the decolletage!

On our return to Pissouri Bill loaded our car up with a whole pile of wood that he thought we would be able to burn - Thank you so much Bill - when we are warming our tootsies next winter we will think of you and when you come over permanently and you have fitted a woodburner in your house we will do the same for you!

After a really lovely day we made our way back home via Mum and Dad's.  The police were out in force on the motorway and we were overtaken at great speed by a black Range Rover only to pass it a bit later pulled in on the hard shoulder by the traffic police - unlucky!!!

We called in to see Mum and Dad briefly - they had been out checking a new taverna where they intend to take their friends Jane and John when they are over.

Both cats were in when we got home - MM doing a pretty convincing impression of a cat that is starving!  

John put himself through the agony of listening to SUFC playing Brentford - 2-2 the final score - a game in which four penalties were awarded and two were missed, ten bookings, three sendings off  and four goals - the last being scored in the 89th minute by Brentford.  He is not a happy chappy.