Food Glorious Food

We began the day with a visit from Mr Plumber-Plumber Man (Alan) who came toute suite when we told him that we had water overflowing from the bathroom - it was much more technical than that involving flanges possibly or blow off valves or some such but the upshot is that Mr Plumber-Plumber Man who we love because he is so straight and honest has declared our pump to be a disgrace and even though it is fairly new he told us what we already knew - no pump in a good condition should be making that sort of racket and he didn't know how we put up with it.  We have asked him to get us a new good quiet one that won't spew water all over the conservatory roof and he has said he will.  Phew rather glad about that because if I am sleeping and the pump kicks in it gives me a heart attack.

 I left John and the plumber discussing ballcocks and went off to Greek at the local village taverna (Kaponas) where we had a full class.  Eleni had made cake and cheese pie for us to sample and as we were concentrating on words relating to food today it seemed appropriate.  I would like to practice the words we learn more rather than learn them in isolation so I shall suggest that maybe we could have one week on new words and the follow week learning how to use them.

I had a very pleasant walk back home having dropped of Mr Pappadopolous and his Sons at Elena's so that her mum could watch the film before she returns to the UK on Sunday.  As I approached our estate I was greeted by the goatherder and his herd who were taking advantage of the greens in the field next-door.  They aren't bothered by a passerby they just gave me a bit of a stare and then continued with their breakfast.

We were off to the Brewery today so that I could (a) drop off the signs I had made and (b) more importantly take photographs of the food they produce for some advertising they want to do.  This was supposed to have taken place on Monday when Lou and H could have joined us but Duane had a trip to the hospital so it was postponed until today.  We had asked David and Gillian to join us and they brought their friend and driver with them.

John had been reading up about food photography and watching some YouTube videos so we had a good idea of what was the sort of effect we were going to try and achieve.

Apparently nowadays food shots are arty and tempting and rarely should you just photograph a boring plate of food - a bit like garden design you want to tempt people in and get them to investigate further!!!  Our first challenge was to set up a table with a decent tablecloth!!!  Some of the shots were to be indoors and some outdoors.

There were regular punters in the Brewery - in fact it was pretty packed and most were eating so we didn't want to delay their food getting to the table and going cold so the deal was that the kitchen would cook some extra dishes purely for photography and I would snap snap snap until I was happy and then the food would go to our table and we would eat it - bargain!!

OMG we had sooooooooo much food to sample - we really needed a table of about 10 to do it justice!!!  We were pleased when Mina and Claire pitched up but they had ordered their own meal and so only helped out with a chip or two!

In the end we started taking plates around to the paying punters as we couldn't see such lovely food go to waste.  I really think that if you are going out for a beer and cider sesh then the type of food they are serving goes just right with it.  Quality burgers, fish and chips, sandwiches and wraps, chunky chips, salads and pizzas.

Suffice to say we had a brilliant afternoon - good company and good food and hopefully from it some good photographs that the Brewery will be happy with - it is never easy to judge people's expectations and as they weren't entirely sure what they were going to use them for that made it even more difficult.

We returned home for a quiet afternoon/evening only to have the peace shattered - literally - by a very large mirror falling off of our bedroom wall and shattering into a million pieces.  It went everywhere and I guess we will still be finding bits for months to come.  That is the trouble with tiled floors - nothing bounces!!!

Initially we had thought that one or other of the cats were to blame as they race around the house chasing one another.  I had visions that it was one of the bedside lamps that had gone but with a crash as loud as it was it had to be something big.

Makes a change for it not to be one of the cats!!!

After spending a considerable amount of time clearing up we eventually settled to our nice quiet evening and an episode of the not so nice and quiet Happy Valley.

Charlie made me laugh as he showed an extraordinary amount of flexibility for one so portly as he gave himself a wash and brush up before settling down for the night!!!