Mega sports and fitness day today for which our reward will be the Lebanese Buffet at the Droushia Heights this evening. I am going in an official capacity as the official photographer - the Lebanese Ambassador will be in attendance so I have all the cameras prepped and all the batteries charged and all the SD cards ready and waiting. And, we are pleased to learn that our friends Maria and Soteris are in the village this weekend and have booked and will be on our table.
Before all that John, Diana and I did our regular Friday work-out in the Hotel gym, today we were joined by the Hotel owner who now knows who John and I are and stopped for a chat. He hardly broke sweat on the cross-trainer but heyho it was better than nothing!!!
We managed to sit outside on the Hotel terrace for our cup of lemon tea and before going down to Paphos John sat outside until he decided he couldn't read his screen in the sunshine!!!
We then had a very very very hard hour and a half pickleball courtesy of Liselotte and John who have embraced this game with gusto and boy do we know we have played on a Friday. They are brilliant with Mum too as her game of finesse can completely flummox them - I have never met anyone that can just dink the ball with such spin so that it dies completely! Mum does enjoy her Fridays and now we have a list of who plays when we can accommodate her sitting out and make sure that we change partners and ends on a regular basis. John then went on to play badminton (with Liselotte and John) and Mum and I went in search of a small sun brolly for their patio. We had a quick turn round tonight as I wanted to be at the Hotel by 6.00pm at the latest.
Apparently there were going to be over 160 people at the buffet - this didn't fill us with much confidence as generally places like the Hotel struggle with such large numbers when they are only used to catering for a few. The numbers are testament to Orexi food - a sell out and with a waiting list no less!! When we arrived the Hotel looked beautiful - all the tables were laid up with crisp white tablecloths and all the chairs covered - it looks a bit like a wedding reception.
We found our table, Maria and Soteris were joining us as were David and Edda and their son Julian - a fascinatingly interesting guy who is about to go on tour with Coldplay as their sound engineer!!
I shot off downstairs to get some photographs of the Ambassador as he addressed the assembled throng - almost a full auditorium!!! I was given a warm hug from Philippos Droushiotis who was thrilled to see I was involved in the evening from behind the camera!
I then shot back upstairs to try and get some photographs of the food before it looked like a plague of locusts had been at it.
I even managed to get behind the scenes in the kitchen to take a snap of Elena - complete with lippy at that point!
For once the Hotel had thought it through and been sensible enough to set up two buffet stations so that the diners would not all be crowded around the one hot station and we were lucky in that our table was right next to the new temporary one so we were called to eat first - RESULT!!
Bassam was doing what he does best and working his magic on the grill - he was busy cooking (in what looked like the black hole of Calcutta) chicken, lamb and beef goodies and hundreds of them!!! I was invited by the lovely Rabia to try one of the chicken skewers before they went out to the punters and I can confirm that they were delicious!!
It was so nice to meet up with Maria and Soteris again - it has been a while - I think the last time we went to the Brewery for beer and a pizza and sat outside so it is possibly six months's ago!! They were on good form and it transpired that Maria is related to Elena tenuously!!! COUSINS a million times removed I am guessing!! Anyway we hope it isn't going to be another six months' before we see them again but know that they are both very busy.
And sorry to all my girlfriends but I now have a new BFF - the lovely sister of the Nikos, the actor in the village - she is a follower of mine on FB and loves the fact that John and I love the village as much as we do and loves to see the photographs I take - what a lovely lady - no idea where she lives unless she lives in the same house as Nikos.
We were treated to some pretty spectacular belly dancing by El Fen - blimey she put us novices to shame with her moves. She danced two sets and was fabulous.
It was a brilliant evening. We had great fun on our table so thanks David, Edda, Julian, Soteris and Maria for your company. The food was brilliant but then when it is provided by Elena and Bassam it always is. The Hotel staff (some drafted in for the evening) worked really hard and El Fen topped it off beautifully. I have no doubt I shall stink of garlic tomorrow morning and have a baggy head!!!
Before all that John, Diana and I did our regular Friday work-out in the Hotel gym, today we were joined by the Hotel owner who now knows who John and I are and stopped for a chat. He hardly broke sweat on the cross-trainer but heyho it was better than nothing!!!
We then had a very very very hard hour and a half pickleball courtesy of Liselotte and John who have embraced this game with gusto and boy do we know we have played on a Friday. They are brilliant with Mum too as her game of finesse can completely flummox them - I have never met anyone that can just dink the ball with such spin so that it dies completely! Mum does enjoy her Fridays and now we have a list of who plays when we can accommodate her sitting out and make sure that we change partners and ends on a regular basis. John then went on to play badminton (with Liselotte and John) and Mum and I went in search of a small sun brolly for their patio. We had a quick turn round tonight as I wanted to be at the Hotel by 6.00pm at the latest.
Apparently there were going to be over 160 people at the buffet - this didn't fill us with much confidence as generally places like the Hotel struggle with such large numbers when they are only used to catering for a few. The numbers are testament to Orexi food - a sell out and with a waiting list no less!! When we arrived the Hotel looked beautiful - all the tables were laid up with crisp white tablecloths and all the chairs covered - it looks a bit like a wedding reception.
We found our table, Maria and Soteris were joining us as were David and Edda and their son Julian - a fascinatingly interesting guy who is about to go on tour with Coldplay as their sound engineer!!
I shot off downstairs to get some photographs of the Ambassador as he addressed the assembled throng - almost a full auditorium!!! I was given a warm hug from Philippos Droushiotis who was thrilled to see I was involved in the evening from behind the camera!
I then shot back upstairs to try and get some photographs of the food before it looked like a plague of locusts had been at it.I even managed to get behind the scenes in the kitchen to take a snap of Elena - complete with lippy at that point!
For once the Hotel had thought it through and been sensible enough to set up two buffet stations so that the diners would not all be crowded around the one hot station and we were lucky in that our table was right next to the new temporary one so we were called to eat first - RESULT!!
Bassam was doing what he does best and working his magic on the grill - he was busy cooking (in what looked like the black hole of Calcutta) chicken, lamb and beef goodies and hundreds of them!!! I was invited by the lovely Rabia to try one of the chicken skewers before they went out to the punters and I can confirm that they were delicious!!
It was so nice to meet up with Maria and Soteris again - it has been a while - I think the last time we went to the Brewery for beer and a pizza and sat outside so it is possibly six months's ago!! They were on good form and it transpired that Maria is related to Elena tenuously!!! COUSINS a million times removed I am guessing!! Anyway we hope it isn't going to be another six months' before we see them again but know that they are both very busy.
And sorry to all my girlfriends but I now have a new BFF - the lovely sister of the Nikos, the actor in the village - she is a follower of mine on FB and loves the fact that John and I love the village as much as we do and loves to see the photographs I take - what a lovely lady - no idea where she lives unless she lives in the same house as Nikos.
We were treated to some pretty spectacular belly dancing by El Fen - blimey she put us novices to shame with her moves. She danced two sets and was fabulous.
It was a brilliant evening. We had great fun on our table so thanks David, Edda, Julian, Soteris and Maria for your company. The food was brilliant but then when it is provided by Elena and Bassam it always is. The Hotel staff (some drafted in for the evening) worked really hard and El Fen topped it off beautifully. I have no doubt I shall stink of garlic tomorrow morning and have a baggy head!!!
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