It was Ladies Lunch today and you know that winter is on its way when we stop shlepping around the village frequenting the local tavernas and return to the Droushia Heights Hotel where we soon be grateful for the warm and cosy surroundings when the fire is lit and the central heating is on. This is an excellent venue for the winter, light, warm, airy and with plenty of parking and such a range of food that you would be very unlucky not to find something to eat.
We started the day by both having a dip in the pool - bloody hell the temperature is plummeting now - it was well below the benchmark 70 degrees we set ourselves but I am determined to go in for at least the remainder of this week and then my excuse will be that we have visitors at the weekend and I don't want to subject my octagenarian Aunt and Uncle to a string of expletives!
I walked down to the Hotel - it was a lovely day but I had donned a frock and had dug out a pair of heels which I regretted on the walk home as it was the first time my feet had been enclosed for months. I stopped to take a photograph of the 'veriko' (very good) grapes which are growing at my neighbours house. Somebody clearly knows what they are doing in looking after this vine as each year they manage to get it to produce some excellent fruit.
I walked down the roughish road that takes you past Cataract Val and Lady Val's houses and turned off along the main road at the Clampetts and then walked up the hill towards the cemetary and nipped in by the Holiday Apartments which brings you out on the top carpark above the Droushia Heights. These apartments might be basic but there is a lovely garden with a spectacular 'hidden' view of the bay below. The golden Elder is in flower up here now and looks lovely - if I didn't think it might cause a mess I would contemplate getting one for our garden.
After a very busy summer the hotel is a bit quieter now - in fact today there were only two people around the pool and neither of them mad enough to have a dip - it still looked inviting but I know, first hand, that looks can be deceiving!
We were a select bunch this month. Di is away in Malta with Rob visiting her parents and apparently it has bucketed down almost all the time they have been there. Clare is still in Hong Kong, Luscious Lynda is on her way to the UK to visit her Mum and various other people are away or have visitors. However we were joined by Judy who is slowly finding her feet after the death of her husband at Christmas, Elena's outrageous Aunty Maura (Maroula) over from South Africa and one of our long-term stalkers Jan Fox who has a holiday home in the village at Lordos 2.
The Hotel were clearly happy to have us return and had laid the table with lovely little place settings and a little note welcoming us back.
I have to say that the salads were absolutely fabulous this time - so much so that I didn't really bother with any of the hot food and had several servings from the cold buffet. Sometimes the salads all look much the same but today there were all sorts of lovely ones to chose from together with some rather nice garlic bread and a couple of the chicken drumsticks from the hot selection. Everyone seemed to be happy to be back at the Hotel and as I said there was so much to chose from you would have had to have been really really picky not to have found enough to eat. Maura kept Jan and I entertained with her stories - she really is a larger than life character and I have promised that Di and I will go up to her house next week for coffee. I found out that it is her house that has the fabulous outside shower that we came across back in the spring and which we want to recreate in our garden.
As I said I regretted my decision to wear filled in shoes on my walk back home - by the time I got to the Skrimshankers house I had collected a couple of nasty blisters.
It was a hive of activity at the entrance to our little estate - they are picking the grapes in the small field between us and the Skrimmers - if you read the sale details for the Skrimmers house you could be forgiven for believing that that particular piece of land came with the house but it doesn't. The field doesn't look very big but by the number of pickers and the number of buckets delivered to the site they were clearly expecting something of a bumper crop.
I limped my way back home and was happy to take my shoes off the minute I got through the gate - bliss!!!
John had had a productive morning and had been more than happy that his lunch had been the leftover chicken and potatoes we had picked up from Paps at the top of the Mesoghi Avenue yesterday. They have added a hot and cold food sales section which is going to be our downfall. A whole barbequed chicken was just €5.99 and a small box of oven potatoes just over €1.00 - we toyed with the idea of having a large box not being sure how much a small one would hold but the girl serving us manfully managed to force nine potato halves into a small box! They were absolutely delicious - and remained hot although another time I think I would just give the potatoes a little blast to make sure they are piping. There is all sorts to chose from and I can see it will be John's mission to try most of it!!
Before George left he asked Bassam to treat his flat roof and build a growing frame for his grapevine. We have no idea when Bassam found the time to nip round and do the jobs but he had already done them so we went to take photographs to show George what has been done.
We were just planning on going up to see Bassam with the money when we had a knock at the door and were greeted by the dulcet tones of Miss Lola, her best friend whose name escapes me and Elena's mum Elizabet who had brought me some of my favourite Lime and Chili chocolate. It was so lovely to see them - I feel a bit guilty that having had so many visitors over the summer we have not spent as much time with them as we would have liked but then they were away in the Lebanon and Finland.
Lola left reminding me that she WILL be buying our house in the future!
We started the day by both having a dip in the pool - bloody hell the temperature is plummeting now - it was well below the benchmark 70 degrees we set ourselves but I am determined to go in for at least the remainder of this week and then my excuse will be that we have visitors at the weekend and I don't want to subject my octagenarian Aunt and Uncle to a string of expletives!
I walked down to the Hotel - it was a lovely day but I had donned a frock and had dug out a pair of heels which I regretted on the walk home as it was the first time my feet had been enclosed for months. I stopped to take a photograph of the 'veriko' (very good) grapes which are growing at my neighbours house. Somebody clearly knows what they are doing in looking after this vine as each year they manage to get it to produce some excellent fruit.
I walked down the roughish road that takes you past Cataract Val and Lady Val's houses and turned off along the main road at the Clampetts and then walked up the hill towards the cemetary and nipped in by the Holiday Apartments which brings you out on the top carpark above the Droushia Heights. These apartments might be basic but there is a lovely garden with a spectacular 'hidden' view of the bay below. The golden Elder is in flower up here now and looks lovely - if I didn't think it might cause a mess I would contemplate getting one for our garden.
After a very busy summer the hotel is a bit quieter now - in fact today there were only two people around the pool and neither of them mad enough to have a dip - it still looked inviting but I know, first hand, that looks can be deceiving!
We were a select bunch this month. Di is away in Malta with Rob visiting her parents and apparently it has bucketed down almost all the time they have been there. Clare is still in Hong Kong, Luscious Lynda is on her way to the UK to visit her Mum and various other people are away or have visitors. However we were joined by Judy who is slowly finding her feet after the death of her husband at Christmas, Elena's outrageous Aunty Maura (Maroula) over from South Africa and one of our long-term stalkers Jan Fox who has a holiday home in the village at Lordos 2.The Hotel were clearly happy to have us return and had laid the table with lovely little place settings and a little note welcoming us back.
I have to say that the salads were absolutely fabulous this time - so much so that I didn't really bother with any of the hot food and had several servings from the cold buffet. Sometimes the salads all look much the same but today there were all sorts of lovely ones to chose from together with some rather nice garlic bread and a couple of the chicken drumsticks from the hot selection. Everyone seemed to be happy to be back at the Hotel and as I said there was so much to chose from you would have had to have been really really picky not to have found enough to eat. Maura kept Jan and I entertained with her stories - she really is a larger than life character and I have promised that Di and I will go up to her house next week for coffee. I found out that it is her house that has the fabulous outside shower that we came across back in the spring and which we want to recreate in our garden.
As I said I regretted my decision to wear filled in shoes on my walk back home - by the time I got to the Skrimshankers house I had collected a couple of nasty blisters.It was a hive of activity at the entrance to our little estate - they are picking the grapes in the small field between us and the Skrimmers - if you read the sale details for the Skrimmers house you could be forgiven for believing that that particular piece of land came with the house but it doesn't. The field doesn't look very big but by the number of pickers and the number of buckets delivered to the site they were clearly expecting something of a bumper crop.
I limped my way back home and was happy to take my shoes off the minute I got through the gate - bliss!!!
John had had a productive morning and had been more than happy that his lunch had been the leftover chicken and potatoes we had picked up from Paps at the top of the Mesoghi Avenue yesterday. They have added a hot and cold food sales section which is going to be our downfall. A whole barbequed chicken was just €5.99 and a small box of oven potatoes just over €1.00 - we toyed with the idea of having a large box not being sure how much a small one would hold but the girl serving us manfully managed to force nine potato halves into a small box! They were absolutely delicious - and remained hot although another time I think I would just give the potatoes a little blast to make sure they are piping. There is all sorts to chose from and I can see it will be John's mission to try most of it!!
Before George left he asked Bassam to treat his flat roof and build a growing frame for his grapevine. We have no idea when Bassam found the time to nip round and do the jobs but he had already done them so we went to take photographs to show George what has been done.We were just planning on going up to see Bassam with the money when we had a knock at the door and were greeted by the dulcet tones of Miss Lola, her best friend whose name escapes me and Elena's mum Elizabet who had brought me some of my favourite Lime and Chili chocolate. It was so lovely to see them - I feel a bit guilty that having had so many visitors over the summer we have not spent as much time with them as we would have liked but then they were away in the Lebanon and Finland.
Lola left reminding me that she WILL be buying our house in the future!
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