Birthday Party at the Brewery...

I have eventually managed to find some suitable bathmats in Jumbos that fit into our tiny shower room and allow you to shut the door so the old ones are now surplus to requirement.  I didn't really want to just throw them away so I put them on the bedroom side whilst I thought about what to do with them and they were commandeered immediately by Minnie Mou who made herself very comfortable for the remainder of the morning!  This was until she realised that I had put a second one out in the conservatory which was in full sunshine so she took herself off in that direction and made herself comfortable there instead.

Unfortunately all our cats moult like mad - this is a nightmare on the upholstered suite in the lounge but less of a problem on the leather sofas in the conservatory which you can just wipe down but if any of them have been sleeping there for any length of time it is just covered so hopefully if they sleep on these mats I can just bung them in the washing machine afterwards.  Note to visitors please don't come to us wearing black - that is a guaranteed recipe for disaster particularly as I forgot to get some of those sticky rolls from Jumbos that you use to clean fluff off of your clothes!

When we were at Elaine and Paul's last night Elaine very kindly gave us one of her terracotta flat backed vases.  Apparently she found a whole load in the garden at various times when she was having a clear out and it is just the sort of thing that we have been looking for so big THANK YOU to Elaine as this is going to look lovely in the garden.

I didn't quite finish my grouting job yesterday - it proved to be much more complicated than we had thought and after a couple of hours and a bad back I needed to give it a chance to dry a bit before I put on more guff - still the worst of it has been done and once we clean up the stones with some acid I think it will look ok - it has just been really awkward trying to fill gaps that you cannot actually see close up so you had to do a bit, get up and walk away so that you could then see what you had done and then go back and do a bit more.

John has got on really well with the barbeque area and started to do the tiling - he says that he can now begin to see the wood from the trees and I think that once we have got all the tools and stuff out of the garden and the furniture back in place it will look lovely even if we haven't finished all the jobs we wanted to finish before Debra comes in three weeks' time.

The weather has now returned to normal which is great as Diana and Rob's visitors arrived last night and later on today we were all going to the Brewery to celebrate Pete's birthday.

Diana had ordered a carrot cake from Paps and we had checked with the brewery that they were happy for us to bring it with us which they were.  We had been uncertain as to whether we would be sitting inside our outside but looking at the weather today it was definitely going to be ok to be outside which was good.

John had arranged for a 10 seater taxi to pick us all up starting with the six staying at Neo Chorio and then coming up to the Droushia Heights to pick up Rob and Diana and John and I.

We set off walking, making sure that Charlie and Boris were not around otherwise they would have tried to follow us!  At Savvas's house I had to stop to admire his bird of paradise plant which is in full flower.  I have had one of these in my garden for years and it does nothing except produce one or two leaves each year which replaces the one or two leaves ravaged by the weather!!

We had some company as we walked down past where the two Vals live - one of the tyre-man's guinea fowl was on a walk about.  These are strange looking birds with teeny tiny heads compared to the size of their bodies.  It clearly had wandered out of its comfort zone so as we approached it managed to fly about ten yards and then ran all the way back home and I mean ran like a comedy bird scooting from side to side until it seemed to recognise its surroundings and settled down.

Diana and Rob were already at the Hotel when we got there - Rob now you have set a precedent - being early for something - we will make sure you keep it up!!!

The taxi was on time and the three couples staying down in Neo Chorio were inside, Jeff and Lynn, Derek and Lynn and Pete and Rhonda were all neighbours of Diana and Rob when they lived in the UK - in fact they have all known each other for years and years moving into the neighbourhood as young marrieds, having their children and then staying there.  It is a testament to the strength of their friendships that this has lasted over 40 years.

Today was Pete's birthday - a sixty something celebration which was to take place at the Brewery.  Derek and Lynn had been before when they visited Diana and Rob last year but for the other four this was their first time so there was quite a lot of tasting done with three of the guys having paddles to start off with.  I was the only woman not to try a beer but stuck to a cider instead although my tastebuds are clearly changing as I found it rather sweet so changed my tipple after the first bottle.

We all drank and ate before the visitors embarked on the brewery tour with Bill.

The burgers proved popular and Diana was glad she took my advice to have hers without the bun.

I opted for the salmon fishcakes which were considerably spicier than the previous time I had had them and John surprised us all by having calamari instead of his usual dragon-burger - still he is eating less than he used to and he said he fancied a smaller meal.

Diana had ordered a carrot cake from Paps which they had decorated free of charge and even though cake and beer does not normally go together that cake proved irresistible and disappeared pretty damn quickly all barring one little slice which was rescued to be taken home.

The Taxi driver was there on time to pick us up and everyone seemed to have had a lovely day.  We were dropped off at the Droushia Heights with Rob and Diana and it seemed rude not to go in for a nightcap which ended up being a carafe of red wine.  We were a rather merry band walking back home and engaging Mr Clampett (Zacharia) in a deep and meaningful conversation about his tractor much to everyone's amusement.

A really big thank you for being asked to join this birthday party with Diana, Rob and their great friends - we had a really lovely time and hope they really enjoy the remainder of their brief holiday.