Now Minnie Has Lost Her Collar...

We were woken this morning at around 5.00pm by a very very vocal Minnie Mou.  A very very vocal Minnie Mou who was minus her collar - I don't believe it Victor - that is three collars and three magnets in the space of a day.  I don't know where the cats are going but wherever it is there are two blue and one pink collar each sporting a little mouse shaped magnet and I wouldn't mind having them back!  We have looked but needles and haystacks spring to mind - not to mention the danger of an encounter with a snake!  She was vocal because without access to the kitchen she was being kept apart from her food bowl so I got up and sorted her out.

We had planned a relatively quiet day today getting ready for Debra's arrival on Sunday - which means that my posts during that time might be a bit sporadic.  We went into town this morning so that we could catch the bank whilst it is open and to get some food shopping.  The little bank in Polis is so friendly that even the Bank Manager comes out to ask us how we are doing!

Paps had a box of small solar lights on offer - with only a single bulb in each they are never going to be up to much but I thought it would be nice to have them on the corner of the decking - might come in useful if someone fancies wandering the garden in the dark!

We treated ourselves to lunch at To Karabani on the junction sitting in the garden sharing a frappe and a beef gyros whilst watching the world go by.  We haven't done this for ages and it is a real treat - it also gives me a chance to practice my Greek which is improving slowly slowly (siga siga as they would say) - in fact I managed to ask for what I wanted at the deli counter in Paps even thought the woman serving me said that she was able to speak English .  I shall have to knuckle down and do some homework as I dont have a lesson for two weeks and will easily forget things if I am not careful.

I have also treated my little tomato plants to a watering tray.  I was given the plants by Simon and Melanie - they came complete with names but I have forgotten them!  I will probably have to repot them soon but they are looking reasonably ok and if the yield of tomatoes that Helen got off of her self seeded ones is anything to go by we should get one or two to have in a salad.  I also have a couple of pepper plants which Helen gave me and which are doing pretty well to.  I wasn't going to bother with growing my own this year but people are so kind it seems a shame not to try one or two.

I was going to have a cookathon when I returned home so that we had some food ready for next week.  It really was a bit too hot and sticky for cooking but now we have the conservatory the temperature doesn't really drop too much in the evening and we had planned to take a little walk into the village to get our faces seen.

Monday night we are having stifado - I know I cook it all the time but I always have to refer to my good old faithful Kopiaste cook book which falls open at page 78 and which is covered in splashes of previous cooking sessions!  I had also bought some pork and John suggested I did some pulled pork so that we could have that in pittas for lunch.  This time I chose a slightly different recipe than the one which requires the meat to be soaked for 24 hours in salt water and vinegar - two reasons - the first that I was short on time and the second that the pork was so lean it didn't need that sort of preparation to break down the fat.  This time it was cooked long and low in the slow cooker in a barbeque sauce.

We took time out for that wander down into the village and a drink at Christos's Taverna where their daughter Christianna was in attendance - she is a primary school teacher - as she told us a currently unemployed primary school teacher but as such has huge amounts of patience and spent some time with me helping to improve my Greek - this am determined to master language if it kills me!

We wandered home for a late tea - I prepared a salad and some lemon roasted Cyprus potatoes and we had it with the Coronation chicken that Mum had brought up for us.  She said she thought it needed a bit more curry or something to give it a bit of bite so I threw in some mild Lime Pickle as I had a little bit sitting in a jar that needed eating up.  End result - DELICIOUS!!