January 1st

For the last few years we have chosen to spend January 1st with Mum and Dad.  As they, and we, get older the thought of spending the previous night with the great unwashed waiting for midnight to arrive has lost its appeal and to be fair our midnight comes two hours earlier than for friends and family in the UK so you stay up and still wish them a Happy New Year prematurely - that is if you can get through on the phone!

Twice in the past we went down to Argaka to have lunch at a friend's house.  For personal reasons Annie had found herself renting there and didn't want to spend the festive season alone and needed to generate a little cash so she offered to cook a New Year's lunch for a select group of people all overseen by her lovely dog Wilf.

The first year Mum and Dad and John and I went along - we had a marvelous time - it was all so friendly and relaxed, the company was great, the food was excellent and we took along our own drink so everything was perfect.  I seem to remember it was a very hot day too as we started proceedings sat outside having our aperitifs in the sunshine.

The following year we went again, this time taking Jane and John with us and again we had a lovely time, good food and great company and, by the looks of the photograph it was another nice day.

Later that year Annie returned to the UK to help her son who had become a single father.  I was sorry to see her go - we had always got on well and not least because she used to have a papaya tree in the garden and we used to benefit from the fruit when it was green turning it into all sorts of fabulous curries and using the dried and ground seeds like black pepper, with her departure went our access to unlimited green papaya!  We kept in contact for a while and then sadly lost touch - it would be good to hear from her again - I shall add that to my list of things to do this year.

The year after that I remember it snowed on New Year's Eve which we spent with Lou and H and Mina and Clare and looking back on the blog I am struggling to find what we did on New Year's Day but after some investigation it looks as though the weather forced us to stay in and stay warm - sensible really as we none of us would have wanted to travel.

Last year Jane and John were back for Christmas, in fact they were back over for a month and had about the worst weather they could possibly have wanted with only about two dry days the whole of the time.

I saw that the Farmyard was advertising a New Year's Day lunch so I know that last year we went and were joined by Di and Rob and asked June and Barry who were dining alone to join our table.  It was a good meal and saved me from cooking!

This year the Farmyard were doing the same again and because we didn't see Mum and Dad last night we though it would be a nice way of getting together and celebrating the New Year without having to wait up to some ungodly hour!

First thing this morning I wasn't sure I was going to be able to tackle one of Rachel and Savvas's carvery lunches but it is amazing what a couple of hours can do but by the time we got there I was ready to eat and we had a lovely lunch.  Soup, salad bar, six meat carvery with all the veg and trimmings and then a whole load of puds to chose from.  I was most excited about eating sugar snap peas as they are so blooming expensive here that we never have them.

Have to thank Dad for coming to pick us up and taking us back home so that we could have a drink although we didn't go mad and only had a bottle of wine between us.

It was another lovely day today - we must have some bad weather on its way but until we do I will remain grateful that it is dry and there is some warmth in the air even here in Droushia.   The evenings are still chilly and we lit the fire later.