Friday...

Above is another photograph of the enclosed 'conservatory' extension to the Extreme View Cafe which makes for a lovely warm and cosy eating space.  I would encourage anyone who has not been and it going in that direction either to Omodos or up to the Troodos to make it a stop whether it is for tea and stickies or a full meal as you will get the warmest of welcomes from Marios and the food is good and reasonably priced - not so sure I would want to go on a Sunday when ex-pats flock to the place to enjoy the buffet lunch and entertainment - that looks to be a boisterous affair and we enjoyed the peace and quiet with just a few other punters for company!!!

So back to today and poor Diana got a right old baptism of fire at Pickleball today because she kindly made up a four as Liselotte is of trekking somewhere and Mum had an appointment to see the oncologist regarding the sun damage she has on her forehead and, as it turns out, she was right to do so because they think it will need some pretty major surgery to sort it out which will take place after we have been to Matthew's wedding.

So as I said it was just Diana, John, John and I for pickleball and we girlies were given a right old runaround by the boys this afternoon - Diana said she never sweats that much after a Tuesday game and she is right it is a completely different kettle of fish and she is doing brilliantly bearing in mind that she has only played a couple of times and has to borrow some pretty grotty spare bats. Mum did manage to join us for the last half hour which was good and afterwards she,

Diana and I went to the Mall so that I could get my hair cut and Di and Mum could sample the delights of La Croissantarie whilst they were waiting for me.  It is warming up and my hair has gone mad and is completely unruly so I was glad that I persuaded Lumi to give it a major scalping - I like the sides and back very short and she is always reluctant to cut it so short but it never bothers me, the shorter the better as far as I am concerned.  I asked her about going completely grey as I have enough of my own anyway but she says that grey is a difficult colour to maintain as it would need to be done regularly and there is always a chance that because of the pigmentation it could react with the sun or swimming pool chemicals (no danger of that here in Droushia for a few months) and go green.  I keep looking in the mirror and wondering who that old woman is looking back at me - where the hell have the years gone?  most of them are etched on my face I think - never having been blessed with nice skin it is now sun blotched and wrinkled - how I wish I had taken better care of it when I was younger but as an early acne-adopter there never seemed to be any point because it was shot before I evens reached my teens - in fact I never realised I had chickenpox until the spots appeared in my hair and in my mouth.  I digress but my impending birthday is weighing heavy on my mind as I will no longer be able to claim that I am in my mid 50s... hey ho!

On the way home we managed to locate the Unique shop which we tried to find yesterday - it used to be located opposite the Early Learning Centre but the showroom was empty and the information on the internet was a bit hazy at it appeared that there was only a head office in Paphos but I managed to email them and they said they were on the Mesoghi Avenue up near the small roundabout and I had seen stuff being moved into the empty shop next to where the Euroshop used to be so we thought that was where it was and we were right.  It sells kitchenware and equipment probably more often on a commercial scale rather than one offs but there is some really nice stuff in there but no bloody prices and when there is beware VAT has to be added.  I was looking for some individual old fashioned style lidded casserole pots like they use to serve food at the Thanasi taverna in Emba - they had them in there but not at a price I wanted to pay so when John goes back to the UK for a school reunion I will ask him to bring me back some as I see they are available from Amazon.

Some of you have been asking about how my Valentine's roses are faring and I am pleased to report that they are still looking fabulous.  I don't know where they come from but whenever I have had roses here in Cyprus they have lasted weeks rather than just days.

I was on the ball today and got up early and put a Normandy Pork casserole in the slow cooker so we would have something nice and hot to eat for supper.  I had purchased some pork shoulder steaks when they were on offer in Paps the other week - I think the meat came to about 3 euros and with a few other bits and pieces chucked in there was enough for us for two meals!!!

John loves Friday nights - our big night in and we were warm and toasty having had a shower on our return followed by a lovely meal and a glass of wine.

The weather has been so good that we are thinking seriously that we need not light the wood burner any more which will be nice as it means we can then give the house a real good clean as the burner is quite messy but not tonight - John had it ticking over nicely and we all snuggled down to enjoy the cosy warm environment.  Chivers was particularly happy!