Farewell to Friends...

  

Today Matthew and Sarah will go home - they are coming up to us after checking out as they will have several hours to kill and we thought they could have something to eat, a swim and a shower before setting off for the airport and their evening flight back to the UK.  This left us the morning free to do a few bits and pieces.  I was having a bit of a tidy in the garden - we have three citrus trees there, one of which is looking healthy, one which is looking ravaged and the other which seems to want to remain in miniature as it has never grown.  The mini tree is purported to be a clementine although until it fruits we remain in the dark because when you buy a tree like this and ask if it is a clementine or a lemon or whatever you either get a shrug or an enthusiastic 'of course' but when they are small they could be anything!!!  The ravaged tree has fruit on it which we are sure are lemons but the tree looks like it spent its holidays in Chernobyl - we don't know why it struggles and loses its leaves as we water it and feed it and it is next door to the tree which is healthy and flourishing - a picture of which is on the left.  It has loads and loads of fruit on it - they are only the size of an olive at the moment but we are sure having scraped the skin of one and crushed the leaves that this is indeed a lime which was what it was supposed to be when we bought it and as the price of limes is quite high here and we were told one would never grow in Droushia we are quite excited.  It has taken the best part of five years to get it to this stage.

With guests coming today and having invited ourselves down to the Veaseys to have a cuppa and say goodbye I decided I should be a good girl and make a cake, plus I had some yoghurt that needed using up and that always makes  a nice light cake and Paps had let us down by not having any carrot cake anywhere just when we had bigged it up!!!  Short on eggs I needed to find a recipe that used olive oil and I found a fabulous one on the net so the recipe is here Lemon Olive Oil Yoghurt Cake.  Easy to make and delicious.  I doubled the amount of drizzle because I like it to be very drizzly and poked the top and put on one half and then turned it upside down and poked the bottom and drizzled the second half!!

I had also been given on of the courgettes on steriods marrow type squash thing from Mum and decided to make some fritters as I had feta that needed using and I thought they would make a nice addition to the pittas, lounza and halloumi that we were having with the Dickinsons.

Again this was a nice easy recipe and the chilli gave them a nice bite.  Matthew certainly seemed to enjoy them as he finished off the pile I cooked for lunch - good on him.  I shall certainly be making these again - this was a Jamie Oliver recipe and it is here Courgette and Feta Fritters.  I didn't only make just one - this was my test piece for the heat of the oil and to see how long they needed cooking!!!

It was nice to sit in the shade down at Diana and Rob's - Matthew and Sarah loved looking around their home and seeing what they have done.  I know Rob says there is still a lot to do but what he has done is to such a high standard and it is beginning to look fabulous.  I particularly like the green colour of our bedroom which we will be moving into when we are in our dotage!  I took half my cake down to them and it seemed to meet with their approval!!

It was only a quick visit because we wanted to fit in a swim and then some lunch so we had to say goodbye and make our way back up cardiac hill and home.  It was a beautiful afternoon and it was nice that Matthew and Sarah could relax and then get down to the airport without rushing.

We managed one shot of us all together in the pool with the help of the self timer and some nifty footwork to get in the pool without falling over - not easy as the granite tiles around the pool retain the heat so you end up hopping around like the guy in the film Arthur!!!  Swim was followed by a late lunch which was followed by a rest and then another swim before we all got ready and headed off to Paphos airport.  We knew the incoming flight was a little delayed but decided to get down there and waste some time at Bona Mare before dropping them off.

As we approached the airport we caught sight of some sort of military aircraft coming in to land - it was enormous and we wondered if maybe it was Russian - any of you plane spotters out there able to identify?

We sat at Bona Mare enjoying the view and the last of the sunshine and a couple of drinks before it was time to go - two minutes to the airport - no-one in the drop off zone so no hassle - a nice and relaxed start to their journey home - we hope that the rest of it was the same.

We rushed back because Rabia had invited us to his 11th birthday party - he is actually 11 tomorrow but was having his celebration tonight.  I had done him a picture of two players from his favourite football team and mum and dad had bought him some of his favourite ginger beer. He is such a lovely boy and growing up fast.

A more civilised party than last year when we all got soaked from the water pistols that Bassam handed out but maybe that was because we arrived later!

Good to see Elena was holding court in the garden and good to catch up with others that we have not seen for a while.

A bit of a noisy walk home as we think Stelios was throwing a party for his son who is about to join the army - fortunately once we got indoors we could no longer here it and after a very busy week enjoyed a really good night's sleep!