Aphrodite's Afternoon - a Stalkers' Jamboree

Oh what a beautiful morning - NOT - wet grey and miserable - we hate January - it's official but apparently we haven't had the worst of things yet so we had better get used to the wet and the cold - Louise Jones you and Hywel knew exactly when to escape the Island!!!

 We were going out for lunch today meeting up with our Number 1 Stalkers Wendy and Bill Bailey and taking our Number 2 Stalkers - Diana and Rob Veasey and. had we but known, we could have been joined by our Number 3 Stalkers - Janet and John Jinty who passed by the Brewery this afternoon whilst the rest of us were there.   Our Stalkers have all come into our lives via the Internet - how fab is that?  I  know people need to be wary about meeting strangers from the world wide web but we have struck very lucky and made some excellent friends as a result.

When we left the estate this morning it was a heady 8 degrees, drizzle and cold wind - lovely!!! when it is like this the estate looks grim - in fact lots of places on the island look grim!!!  We were happy to be leaving our cold villa but were wrapped up like Nanook of the North just in case the Brewery wasn't as warm as we had anticipated.

So this is Diana, Rob and John as we walked from the carpark to the Brewery Restaurant - the Outside Inn - Wendy and Bill had arrived seconds after us but hadn't ventured out into the rain at this point!!!!  We had everything crossed that it would be nice and warm inside and we weren't disappointed!

We had an absolutely fantastic afternoon.  I don't think any of us expected to still be sitting there at gone 5.00pm but we were and only left then because I needed to get back to Droushia.  We enjoyed a lovely atmosphere, great food, great company and the boys would say great beer!!

John, Bill and Rob signed up for the new loyalty programme and we are hoping that we might do this sort of lunch/afternoon rendez-vous with the various stalkers a couple of times a year - they are saying we need to in order for them to make the most of their discounts!!!

It was good to see that the venue was full during the lunch-hour although we are slightly concerned we might have driven everyone else away as we were last men standing!!!  The food was excellent - I have to say it was better than we had anticipated and we will certainly return - in fact we have booked to meet up with Mum and Dad there for lunch in a few weeks as it is only 15 minutes up the road for them and the menu would suit both of them.

John and Bill opted for the spicy Dragon Burger, Rob had pulled pork roll with chips and salad, Diana had chicken pie with green beans and chips and Wendy and I chose the spicy Salmon Fishcakes with salad, chips and sweet chilli sauce.

The Outside Inn was toasty warm - think it must be heated by the pizza oven which was lit whilst we were there - there is also a nice little internal bar area which sports two signs that John made and which he gave to the Brewery.  You can also get a variety of drinks other than the real ales and ciders which they brew and there is a  new super duper coffee machine if that is your choice.

Whilst we were there we noticed that the wet weather moved away and was replaced by some nice sunshine coming in through the windows - apparently it had been tipping down in Pissouri that morning and tipping down in Paphos so maybe our Droushia Drizzle wasn't so bad after all!!

We were all quite reluctant to tear ourselves away from our comfy seats but just had to as we had our second and not so successful meeting for the Theatre Group this evening at the Droushia Heights Hotel - I dragged Diana along with me so I wasn't on my own.  Not much to report on the meeting save that there was a man there called Doug who lives in Inea and who was originally from Scotland but....
... just prior to moving to Cyprus he lived in West Lydford which was only a couple of miles from Keinton Mandeville where I was born and brought up.  He knew the James's who had a farm and whose daughter Pat went to school with my sister and he knew the Phillips' family - one of whom used to be a car mechanic and looked after our cars but even spookier prior to that he lived in Charlton Mackrell which is where my mum was born and brought up.  He was also in the Fleet Air Arm but years before John. OMG it is such a small small world!!!