Charm offensive day...

 
My preparations for Mum and Dad coming to lunch today have been thwarted - I had been invited to Marianna's at 11.00am for tea and stickies along with the rest of the village and she has contacted me twice to ensure I will be there.  Charles Farles had made himself comfy on the spare bed so I wasn't able to put the clean bedding back on - he decided to hold my crochet blanket hostage and Minnie had settled down on our bed before I had time to make it and stoically remained there all day.

The village is bracing itself for the local elections for the Mukhtar and the local council.   I cannot tell you exactly what jurisdiction the Mukhtar has - he is like the local mayor/head of council.  Mr Stelios has been the Mukhtar in Droushia for more than 20 years.  He is an avuncular kind of chap whose path we only tend to cross on clean up day when we go to his supermarket and he provides us with bags and sometimes coffee and cake.  There are some who feel the village needs a change and needs someone younger, indeed I was under the impression that Mr Stelios was too old to stand but clearly I was wrong or maybe until recently there was no-one planning on standing against him.  Whatever the case the election will split the village with two people standing, the current incumbent Mr Stelios and Gregoris Kaponas if my information is correct.  Gregoris stood last time five years ago and was unsuccessful.  It will be a difficult decision - we know them both and like them both.

Anyway the elections are due to take place the second week in December and, as last time, there are definite charm offensives taking place so today Marianna was throwing open her home to the ex-pats.  Marianna is the Mukhtar's clerk and also the Mukhtar's daughter in law.  It would appear that irrespective of who wins the election she should remain in post but of course it may be difficult to do so if your boss is from the opposition.  Those of us who went for coffee felt we could do worse than to have Marianna as the Muhktar as she does a good job and from a personal point of view I have no problem with her - I like her and she has always done her best by us.  As previously she put on a right old spread and unlike last time she had invited both men and women - there was a definite Cypriot split as all the men sat down with the Mukhtar and the woman sat with Marianna.  Sadly I had to leave before the guided tour of the new Council offices which was a shame but I will see them in due course - I have promised to go and see Marianna periodically and supply her with cake!

Mum and Dad had arrived by the time I managed to extricate myself from the cakes - thanks to Diana for driving and getting me back home.  Lunch was all prepared so all I needed to do was pop the Cottage Pie in the oven and do some veggies.  It was the most glorious day so we sat in the conservatory for a while chatting.   In fact it was almost too hot in there!!!

Charles Farles obviously decided that there was more chance of getting something to eat if he dragged himself off of the spare bed and started a charm offensive of his own.  He settled down next to Dad but being the miserable git that he is (Charlie not Dad) almost took a swipe at him.  Charlie is troubled by ticks at the moment - not helped by the fact that the goats are being walked in the field next door regularly and the ticks bite and this obviously upsets him so he sat down next to Dad with tail flishing showing that he was more than a little disgruntled - Dad merely went to stroke him and nearly got lacerated for his troubles.  Little Shit (Charlie not Dad).

We squeezed in a game of Noms before and after lunch.  I stormed to victory in the first.  It makes a change for the scorer (always John) not to win but normal service was resumed after lunch when I was relegated to bummer - accumulating massive minus points when I took the majority of the tricks in the final Miz hand.  This probably makes no sense to anyone who doesn't play Noms - let's just say that it was about as bad as it gets!!

My lunch was a triumph - both the cottage pie and the bread and butter pudding went down a storm and Dad was more than happy to be offered some to take home for his lunch - cottage pie is one of his most favourite dishes!  Mum really liked the Christmas flavoured bread and butter pudding so she took the remainder of that with her.  It is always nice to spend time cooking something that people really enjoy and as I had done it all yesterday today was a breeze and even I could sit down and enjoy it - I don't always when I have been slaving over a hot stove!

Have to say a big thank you to Mum and Dad for going and collecting the pork pies I had ordered from Gina the Pie Lady and I have to thank Gina for making the trip over from Limassol to deliver them.  Gina made the pies for our Vintage tea party and they went down a storm so I was keen to try and get some for Christmas.  Have to thank Louise Rance for sourcing them in the first place.

Another week done - Christmas is fast approaching - HELP