July 19th - our Wedding Anniversary!

July 19th is our wedding anniversary and, when we tied the knot 22 years ago, it was also on a Friday on a bright but breezy day up in Bonnie Scotland at Gretna Green.  

We were accompanied by just seven guests - our choice as we were paying and we didn't have a lot of money in those days - in fact I had recently been made redundant and was about to start a new job at Porter Dodson solicitors (then Porter Barlett and Mayo) on my return.

Mum and Dad came, picking John's mum and (now) stepfather up en route.  My uncle Gordon and aunty Margaret traveled up from North Yorkshire and our friend Andy Parkinson made the trip from Aberdeen where he was contracting.  Initially we had planned to have just Andy and another witness as Mum and Dad had not long moved to Cyprus but they were adamant they would come back and make sure that John's Mum was there too.  We had to apologise to everyone else that it was such a small, select group!!  I can't believe that we managed to organise everything by post or by phone - life is so much easier nowadays with the internet.  I remember describing to the florist what I wanted by way of a bouquet and was moved to tears when it pitched up at the hotel and was exactly what I had envisaged and I also remember that it cost £25!

Today John had planned a day out which started with a trip to the beach at Limni Pier and a competition to find the best heart-shaped pebble - it turned out to be not such a good hunting ground and in the process I managed to stub my toe and make it bleed!  The sand was too hot to walk on without our flip-flops and we could see a nasty rip tide so decided not to swim near the pier as it might have been a bit dangerous.

We stayed a while to enjoy the peace and quiet of having the beach to ourselves for as far as the eye could see and unusually no-one on the pier fishing.  There has been quite a bit of tidying up done there and there are now some basic facilities by way of a portaloo and washbasin if you need it.  We decided to avoid the real heat of the day and go off and have some lunch.

As we were going out later to a barbeque at Helen and Al's we didn't want too big a lunch so after some debate decided to stop at Mosfilos and have a simple village salad with some olives, dips and chips - in fairness we didn't mean to have chips but the waitress misheard us so we ended up with some!  

Our anniversary day out moved from Mosfilos down to the beach at Polis Campsite where there are now quite a number of campers so immediately around the campsite it is a bit messier than usual - what is it with people not being able to deal with their own rubbish?  Our search for the perfect pebble continued until John reckoned that he had the winner!  

John then got all romantic and decided to make a pebble heart as a visual reminder of our years together - well at least until the tide came in and washed it all away!!!

We took a swim and dried off before getting back on the trusty moped and making our way back home so that we could get ready to go to Helen's.

I had been tasked with bringing a pudding and with cherries so reasonably priced now and the lovely fresh eggs I get from Helen I had decided to make a clafoutis which is a bit like a cheesecake with no biscuit base.  I haven't actually made one before and hadn't realised that it is supposed to be served slightly warm from the oven so I was hopeful that it would be ok served cold from the fridge and reckoned that by the time the puds were served people would be so full from the mains that they wouldn't be too bothered - either that or well oiled enough not to care!!

It was a good evening - Helen and Al did the lovely barbequed lamb again and that is a winner in my book!  It was exceptionally hot when we arrived so the girlies retreated to the shade around the side of the house.  I had decided to wear long trousers because I always get bitten and was beginning to regret the decision!  John was an absolute sweetie and drank water as it was his turn to drive and we were both getting up early the following day so that we could get Mum and Dad moved into their new home.  We had lots of offers of help but knew that it could end up with 'too many cooks' so Running John and Susan and Trevor and Vicki are coming along and we reckon that with an 8.30 start we should get all the heavy stuff done by lunchtime and the heat of the day.