A slightly different Tuesday today because I went down to Paphos early and picked up Mum to do some bits and pieces in town and then stayed for lunch before going to pickleball...
First stop in Paphos was to go and get my eyes tested and once parked up I took the opportunity to go an investigate a place where John and I used to eat. Andreas's was on the corner and when we first went in there it was run by his father. It was a dusty old place frequented by workers and you had a limited menu and on a couple of occasions I actually went into the kitchen to chose what I was going to have to eat. We had thought this place might have suffered during the regeneration of the Old Town but on one visit recently we saw young Andreas with an architect and it was clearly going to be refurbished. It has been and it looks fabulous - it has retained its simple charm but has been updated - John and I will be visiting again and soon!
In fact along that street some of the most traditional shops like the ironmongers have managed to survive and in some cases now sell their wares from very nice bright and clean looking establishments. It is good to see that not all of the charm and history of that area has been wiped out. Eventually when completed and with all the units flourishing it will be a good place to visit.
For many years when we used to come out as tourists I used to seek out a particularly grotty shoe shop where I could pick up a bargain pair of shoes for five Cyprus pounds. It was a tiny dusty shop with limited choice but some bargains nevertheless and if any shop had gone to the wall during the refurbishments this would have been a dead cert but NOOOOOOO bugger me that shop still exists and has been given a facelift and still has bargain shoes - I spotted a lovely real leather court shoe for only five euros!!!! Shoes were not the order of the day so sadly we walked on by!
Mum needed to have her Christmas watchstrap put back on her watch and we had bought it from Gregory's so took it back there - quite possibly one of the smallest shops you could go into it is situated next door to the Kiniras Hotel. Gregory looks to be about as old as the shop - a tiny little man of few words with a jewelers magnifying glass permanently stuck in his eye. If you go in that shop check out the original tiles on the floor - they are marvelous. Opposite and up a bit is the carpark where we used to park when Makarios Avenue was a through road. It is now one of the many places where they have encouraged street art.
We walked back to the car via some side streets which used to be familiar but now can leave you feeling a little disorientated! We ended up in an area which is on the periphery of the regeneration and is clearly in need of some TLC but if you look beyond the graffiti you can see that the buildings were once magnificent and could look so once again without too much work.
As I said street art has been encouraged and appears all over the place - all sorts of styles and subject matters but they brighten up the ends of buildings or divert your eye from something else. Not sure that Banksy has been doing his stuff here but the weird picture of the goat and the gramophone is similar to his style!
We eventually made our way back to the car and by the looks of it I was the only person that had bothered to purchase a parking ticket which I had firmly secured to the windscreen because knowing my luck I would have been the only car to have been penalised if I had not!! I seem to remember that Dad once got a fine for not displaying his ticket on the windscreen but on the dashboard.
I stayed with Mum and Dad for some lunch and it was another lovely day down in Emba so having some time on my hands before pickleball I decided to sit outside and then thought I would do a bit of weeding whilst out there. Mum and Dad have a marvelous gardener called Graham but his work is akin to painting the Forth Bridge - it takes him all year to get the vast area weeded and tidied and then it rains and he has to start all over again!!!
Mum does quite a bit still herself but she was worried that the Solanums were getting out of hand and would soon be too tall for her to manage so I cut back one of them and also one of the jasmines which has proved to be indestructable - the high winds have had it right over on a number of occasions but it still survives.
I left Mum and Dad to go to pickleball - we are short on numbers this week so it was only Di, Liz, Tom and I and we had a very good natured session which was fun. Di has now been a member for a year - so happy anniversary Di it has been great having you join the club!
I had been up early this morning and put supper in the slow cooker so by the time I got back home and had a shower and got myself sorted it was time to eat. We had slow cooked pork shoulder steaks and they were absolutely delicious - shall certainly do that again. The basic recipe is here but I tweaked it slightly so I caramelised the onions and some apples first and laid that on the top of the pork steaks which I had smeared with garlic paste honey and mustard. I made the stock with a little orange juice too and then took the liquid out, reduced it and added a dash of cream.
First stop in Paphos was to go and get my eyes tested and once parked up I took the opportunity to go an investigate a place where John and I used to eat. Andreas's was on the corner and when we first went in there it was run by his father. It was a dusty old place frequented by workers and you had a limited menu and on a couple of occasions I actually went into the kitchen to chose what I was going to have to eat. We had thought this place might have suffered during the regeneration of the Old Town but on one visit recently we saw young Andreas with an architect and it was clearly going to be refurbished. It has been and it looks fabulous - it has retained its simple charm but has been updated - John and I will be visiting again and soon!
In fact along that street some of the most traditional shops like the ironmongers have managed to survive and in some cases now sell their wares from very nice bright and clean looking establishments. It is good to see that not all of the charm and history of that area has been wiped out. Eventually when completed and with all the units flourishing it will be a good place to visit.
For many years when we used to come out as tourists I used to seek out a particularly grotty shoe shop where I could pick up a bargain pair of shoes for five Cyprus pounds. It was a tiny dusty shop with limited choice but some bargains nevertheless and if any shop had gone to the wall during the refurbishments this would have been a dead cert but NOOOOOOO bugger me that shop still exists and has been given a facelift and still has bargain shoes - I spotted a lovely real leather court shoe for only five euros!!!! Shoes were not the order of the day so sadly we walked on by!
Mum needed to have her Christmas watchstrap put back on her watch and we had bought it from Gregory's so took it back there - quite possibly one of the smallest shops you could go into it is situated next door to the Kiniras Hotel. Gregory looks to be about as old as the shop - a tiny little man of few words with a jewelers magnifying glass permanently stuck in his eye. If you go in that shop check out the original tiles on the floor - they are marvelous. Opposite and up a bit is the carpark where we used to park when Makarios Avenue was a through road. It is now one of the many places where they have encouraged street art.
We walked back to the car via some side streets which used to be familiar but now can leave you feeling a little disorientated! We ended up in an area which is on the periphery of the regeneration and is clearly in need of some TLC but if you look beyond the graffiti you can see that the buildings were once magnificent and could look so once again without too much work.
As I said street art has been encouraged and appears all over the place - all sorts of styles and subject matters but they brighten up the ends of buildings or divert your eye from something else. Not sure that Banksy has been doing his stuff here but the weird picture of the goat and the gramophone is similar to his style!We eventually made our way back to the car and by the looks of it I was the only person that had bothered to purchase a parking ticket which I had firmly secured to the windscreen because knowing my luck I would have been the only car to have been penalised if I had not!! I seem to remember that Dad once got a fine for not displaying his ticket on the windscreen but on the dashboard.
I stayed with Mum and Dad for some lunch and it was another lovely day down in Emba so having some time on my hands before pickleball I decided to sit outside and then thought I would do a bit of weeding whilst out there. Mum and Dad have a marvelous gardener called Graham but his work is akin to painting the Forth Bridge - it takes him all year to get the vast area weeded and tidied and then it rains and he has to start all over again!!!Mum does quite a bit still herself but she was worried that the Solanums were getting out of hand and would soon be too tall for her to manage so I cut back one of them and also one of the jasmines which has proved to be indestructable - the high winds have had it right over on a number of occasions but it still survives.
I left Mum and Dad to go to pickleball - we are short on numbers this week so it was only Di, Liz, Tom and I and we had a very good natured session which was fun. Di has now been a member for a year - so happy anniversary Di it has been great having you join the club!
I had been up early this morning and put supper in the slow cooker so by the time I got back home and had a shower and got myself sorted it was time to eat. We had slow cooked pork shoulder steaks and they were absolutely delicious - shall certainly do that again. The basic recipe is here but I tweaked it slightly so I caramelised the onions and some apples first and laid that on the top of the pork steaks which I had smeared with garlic paste honey and mustard. I made the stock with a little orange juice too and then took the liquid out, reduced it and added a dash of cream.
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