Wednesday - Cooking and Packing...

This morning John was keen to try out a recipe he had seen on the internet which was for some breakfast muffins made with oats or muesli.  The recipe was easy enough but timings were a bit difficult - one lot got over cooked on top and under cooked inside and the ones baked in the paper cases were shy to come out but one batch turned out absolutely as they should have done.

I was keen to get some to offer Elaine who was popping in and dropping off my Ikea Octopus which she picked up for me when she was in Nicosia last.  These octopi are the best thing ever for drying socks and small things and I have had one for about 4 years and it doesn't seem to have been affected by the weather.  In fact Ikea pegs are the best and last so much longer than any of the others which I have bought.  It was a glorious glorious day so I wanted to get washing out on the line - John is beginning to think about what clothes he wants to take with him when he goes home for his mum's special birthday and I don't want to be trying to get things washed and dried the day before he flies - this is usually what happens - that or we do some last minute panic shopping for something he just has to take with him.  This cannot happen this time as we have been asked to show our faces at a Golden Wedding celebration en route to the airport!

It was lovely to see Elaine and catch up on the gossip and she seemed to like the breakfast muffins!!!  After she had gone we nipped down to Polis to do a bit of shopping.  As I said it was glorious and as we were heading down we could see a mass of snow sitting on the hills of Turkey - it was so clear to the naked eye but so difficult to capture on camera.

In order to help me out John took the car off road to try and get a better shot - didn't really manage it but at least we went up a track we have never been up before!!!

Apart from the fact that it is so cold at the moment the island is looking really rather beautiful as the sea is a spectacular shade of blue and the fields are covered in fresh green - probably weeds but it still looks good!

It was bright and fairly warm down in Polis and we did our shopping - we didn't need too much so it was stress-less wandering around the supermarket gathering our few bits and pieces.

On our return home the cats were making the most of the suntrap that is the conservatory.  We decided that we would make the most of it too and move into the lounge later.   It was a bumper day for sunshine and we were really pleased that today we made more electricity than the house had used.  We are going to have to keep an eye on production and consumption now as we don't want to end up giving too much away to the electricity board.

The shock of me getting the ironing board out proved a step to far for the iron as it decided to give up the ghost on me - I think there must be a build-up of limescale on the steam button so when I pressed it in it refused to come back out.  It really is time for me to get a new one so I did a bit of research and found the one I wanted could be delivered here by Amazon so decided to order it there and then - strike whilst the iron was hot so to speak!!!

We bought a Greek Ciabatta from Paps (this seems to be a bit of a contradiction in terms or maybe it is an oxymoron not sure) so I decided to try and make a sort of spicy meatfeast type pizza concoction for our supper.  For a first try it was ok but we eat our food much spicier now so it could have done with more chilli - I was using a fresh one I bought today and had no idea how hot it might be so erred on the side of caution plus I loved the mozzarella cheese so probably would double up on the amont next time - it was still pretty tasty though!



This evening we had Sharon and Sean round for a game of crib - Sharon is no fool and remembers exactly how cold the winters can be here so was fully prepared in her Deputy Dawg onsie!!!

I am pleased to report that once again the girlies were victorious - in the game proper and in the 'winner takes it all' final round.