Sunday Lunch - Chez Nous...

Spending time with our visitors continues and today it was my turn to cook Sunday lunch for Mum and Dad, Aunty Joyce and Uncle David.  It was a slow start to the day though with Minnie Mou coming in for her regular early morning cuddle with John.  She has stopped sleeping on the bed at night - it must be too warm for her - and I can't say I am sorry because she wriggles and flops, wriggles and flops and spends hours picking the burrs out of her fur and spitting them across the bed.

We had another one of those alien insects in the pool doing the 100m freestyle this morning.  It may have been the one which I rescued from Chivers yesterday and which was stupid enough to fall into the pool.  It had obviously been in there a while because by the time I got to hook it out it was dying or dead - I didn't inspect too closely because they really are horrible.  As we had guests coming John wanted to clean the pool and have it looking sparkling and he also wanted to clean the windows of the conservatory even though it was far too hot and no sooner had he got water on them than it dried and dried dirty which sorely tried his patience and apparently it was all my fault.  I think I preferred it when he used to blame his sister Janice for everything.

When I say that the temperatures are hotting up you can see from the weather station exactly what I mean.  At midday the temperatures both inside and out were rising rapidly - nearly 30 degrees in and nearly 40 degrees out.  Fortunately we generally have a breeze up here and with several different places to sit in the garden can normally find shade somewhere which was going to be important for Aunty Joyce and Uncle David who struggle a bit when the temperatures are too high.  I was beginning to question the wisdom of cooking 'Sunday lunch' rather than providing a salad!

Our guests arrived around 1.00pm and we had a really lovely time with them.  I cooked my piquant pork with Cyprus lemon potatoes and vegetables and followed it with a platter of fresh fruit.  There is so much fruit to choose from at the moment with melons and cherries, peaches and figs all in season.  It's great to cook for people who enjoy their food and are appreciative of the effort you have made.  We gave Dad and Uncle David time to catch an afternoon nap before getting out the old photographs from Portholland and talking over old times. 

We then decided to take a walk into the village - Aunty Joyce and Uncle David have only ever come directly to our house so had heard about the village but never seen it.  John went down in the car with Mum and Dad as they were going to leave from the taverna to go back to Emba when they were ready.  It was a glorious evening and we opted to sit under the shade of the vines at Christos's taverna.   We were being aggravated by little thunder or fruit flies to Alkisti went off to get a fly trap which John had to put up in the vines for her.  Alkisti is helping me with my Greek an insists on making me have some sort of conversation with her - the only trouble is that she speaks too darn quickly for me!

Our family left and we decided to stay put - initially for just one more drink but as the football was on inside the taverna we were asked to join the family to watch.  John and Kyriakos had a little side bet on the result of the Spain v Italy game but neither of them got the result right.

Another lovely day finished as we made our way back home in the dark - it was beginning to feel a little cooler thank goodness but I was expecting snorey snorey man to appear in the bedroom so didn't expect a good night's sleep.