Work Life Balance

Lots of work needed in the garden at the moment as things are starting to go over or just go mad and as we want the garden looking its best for our Silver Wedding Anniversary get together in July now is a good time to start with sorting it out.

After a great deal of deliberation not least because our anniversary falls at just about the hottest and busiest time on the island we are going to have a small get-together here at Villa 10b with some family and a few close friends.  Not everyone we would have liked to have joined us for lots of reasons but hopefully those who cannot come or who weren't invited due to limited space will think of us and rise a glass to us on that day.

We are having a vintage afternoon tea-party with a bit of bubbly thrown in and a 'turn' as John's mum calls it in the shape of Louise Vreony who sang at our Father's Day celebration a couple of year's ago in Orexi HQ gardens and then again at Mum and Dad's diamond wedding celebrations last year - she is now almost part of the family.  We are having a caterer too - there's posh!!!!  The lovely Louise (a pattern is emerging here) Rance will be doing her Ooo La La best with the limited facilities at 10b but we are sure it will be lovely now that we have tweaked the menu a little.

We chose an afternoon low key event because we will have a right mix of ages with Frances the youngest (she is about 2 I think!) and my dad the oldest at nearly 85 - there will be no pressure for people to stay hours because this is happening on a school day.  We just hope people come and enjoy a civilised couple of hours in the garden.


On a different note we are pleased that our front door has come back today so we will be able to go out and not leave the conservatory wide open!!!

John was very concerned that it wasn't going to fit properly but good old Alex has done a great job and the door fits, it shuts, it locks, it has a new brushy thing on the bottom and it is all tickety boo!!

We are now deciding what, if anything, we are going to do with the door in the spare bedroom.  I wanted a stable door so that anyone in there could get light and air and still have some dignity but apparently because of the profile of the surround we could but it would have to open inwards which would be ok if it could swing right the way open and lay flat against the inside but I am not sure that is possible.    We will have a think - it isn't as though we get many people staying with us in the Summer but that room can be a little dark even with the new lightbulbs we have installed.

We were really glad that Alex came as promised because we were going out today to meet up with Lou and H for lunch at the Extreme View Cafe and we didn't want to be late.  I was foregoing a ladies' lunch at Stathmos for this but we are trying to encourage Louise to embrace a better work life balance (WLB) and it was starting today, June 1st.

We set off in good time and now we know where we are going were a little early to go straight to the taverna so drove on a little further up the road to see where it would lead us.  The landscape was pretty dramatic.  In some places fertile in others like the moon.  John just kept saying "who would want to live this far from civilisation?"  and the answer was only a few as the villages we came to were pretty small.

We found a nice little cafe/coffee shop in a village called Kidasi where we stopped for a beer and a conversation with a group of heavily tattoo'd Harley Bikers about whether or not the local dogs were vaccinated as one appeared to have mouthed one of the children.  No broken skin so we said we thought she would be fine.  Not sure if they were referring to Rabies and have no idea if it is an issue here or not.

Next is a random shot of quite a pretty church that we passed en route and as we had time to kill we stopped and took some photographs.

We made it to the Extreme View just a little before Lou and H and started off sitting out on the verandah but it was a bit windy so we moved indoors so that when we ate our food wouldn't get cold.  Extreme View is one of those quirky places that you find and you just can't put your finger on why you like it.  The view doesn't rival that of Viklari (Last Castle) and the food isn't going to rival that of Gabors but the hospitality is second to none and Marios makes us feel like we are the best customers he has ever had - he probably does that to everyone but it doesn't feel forced.


The home made lemonade was pretty good and my pork chop cooked in orange and honey was absolutely delicious and I don't eat pork chops but when John had it last time I thought it looked and tasted lovely.

It was so good that Lou and H had done all their work this morning so there was no rush this afternoon just a nice friendly and leisurely lunch and we plan to do this once a month from now on although not on the first Wednesday of each month which is Ladies Lunch day and I can't do that to Sheila!!






Finally I close with a photograph of my most favourite chocolate bar and yesterday I had eaten my very last piece - how spooky then that when I called in to see Elena her Mum appeared with a bar asking if it was the one I wanted.

OOOOOOOH YES - that will last me a little while if I am good and only have one square a night.