Wednesday 25 May 2016

Happy Birthday Mum

So my Mum will be 81 years young today and we are going to go out for a meal tonight at Manzanillo's with is one of her and Dad's favourites but not one that John and I have visited so it will be a new experience.  Sheila and Klaus will be joining us along with Angela and Richard who will be returning to the UK on Saturday after spending 9 weeks here on the island.

It was a grey and quite miserable start to the morning, ideal for gardening and as John and I had bought a plant yesterday which I had earmarked to grow up the side of the wood store I thought I would get up early and get it planted.  I wasn't quite sure what the plant was and didn't recognise the name the woman told me but it turns out that this is some sort of Myrtle.  I hope it does better than the last one I had which looked lovely for a short while and then steadily lost its leaves and died.

The second plant (on the right) is a bit of a project I have set myself as I want to try and grow it into a standard ball shape on top - it is all a bit leggy at the moment so think it will need regular haircuts and lots of them.  I also managed to find a home for the pretty little striped gazania I bought and now all it well in the garden.



We are making short work of the crumpets which Elena brought as back from Nicosia.  We are hopeful that she isn't going to have to go back for a while in which case our supply of superior crumpets from M&S may well dry up for a while and they are undoubtedly John's favourites.  I will just have to try making some more again.



On of the steamer chairs has now been completely refurbed and is located on the decking outside the guest bedroom - the other will be completed tomorrow.  We now have too many chairs in the garden and are going to have to have a sort out as to what we want to keep and what is surplus to requirements we shan't rush particularly as we hope to have Elena, Bassam and the family here on Friday for a bbq to celebrate Bassam's 50th bithday.



With the birthday in mind I shot off to see Elena who had been feeling rough but hopefully the anti-nausea drugs I picked up for her yesterday will have kicked in plus her mum arrived last night so that should help.  Elena is still keen that Bassam's birthday is marked in some way so we plan a simple bbq here - if the weather is ok the kids can swim in the pool and Elena can recline like the Queen of Sheba in the warmth of the conservatory and direct proceedings from there.  As you can see the weather today was no-where near up to outdoor eating and although it didn't rain it really threatened to.

I have a load of things people want me to make so I took the opportunity this afternoon to get stuck in whilst I had an hour or two to spare.

I am going to do a series of beach plaques on canvass for Rebecca at the Blue Olive - just going to try a few to start with to see how they go on.

I also needed to make sure I had a nice card for Jackie and Costas as we will be seeing them tomorrow night to celebrate their 25th anniversary.

I have a sign to do for Lou-Lou but this is going to be a big one and I need to make sure I have got John's help with the sanding of the planks and he is busy sanding the second steamer down at the moment.



So this evening the eight of us assembled at Manzanillo's for Mum's birthday.  This is a nice place and the dining is considerably more 'fine' than many of the other restaurants we go do with Mum and Dad.  Not quite up to the standard of Gabors but very close with some nice touches.

We all seemed to enjoy our meals.  It was lovely to catch up with Richard and Angela who are the reason that Mum and Dad came to live her and therefore can be considered the reason why we are here now too!

The food was very nice and there was a nice ambiance to the place.  They certainly made a fuss of Mum and brought out special birthday cake for her.

Even though we were not an eight who had socialised previously there didn't seem to be any problem and by the time the evening came to an end conversation was flowing along with the wine.

Out again tomorrow - my stomach is beginning to rebel!!!

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