not all beer and skittles!

I didn't sleep so well last night as Miss Minnie-Mou (who you cannot go near during the day) took it upon herself to come to bed with us.  She is normally waiting when we 'turn in' and is a bit vocal if we take too long to get ourselves settled as she is desperate to have a cuddle with John - she sits on his chest like the cat that got the cream and looks daggers at me!  She will leave as quickly as she arrives, normally because she has got too hot and then takes herself off somewhere cooler and then in the early hours she returns but at that time I am her target and she is the most loving snuggly cuddly cat imaginable until she decides to wrap herself around my neck like a real life snood.  She makes it exceptionally hard to get comfortable let alone breathe and will not budge until she is ready - if you do manage to push her off she comes back twice as determined!  Anyway last night I found it rather warm and her pinning me to the pillow didn't help!

It was the most beautiful Saturday and unusually we had nothing much to do save for a quick trip to the supermarket to get some food in for lunch tomorrow when Mum and Dad will be coming up.

It really wasn't so very hard to get into the pool this morning and as we didn't get up too early the sun had been up sufficiently long enough to give us some reasonably hot water for a nice shower afterwards.  There is just over a week until the end of October - that is my personal goal with regards to the pool although I think my efforts might be thwarted later this week as the forecast is for some rain mid-week.  The island will be glad of some rain as the reservoirs are low I just hope we don't get such a wet winter this year - last year the rain started in December and didn't seem to stop for several months.

Have you seen the magic trick where there is a fully laid up dining table and someone whips away the table cloth and everything remains in situ?  Well I can do a similar thing in reverse as I am able to make our bed, to hospital standard, with Charlie asleep in the middle from the outset and he never moves - I can move him, I can move the sheets, I can move the cover but he remains fast asleep.  He is at his most cute when he is like that - at least he isn't whinging for food!

I was quite prepared to nip down to Polis on my own and do the shopping but John and I struck a deal - we would go together if (a) I could take the camera and get out on the coast and take a few snaps and (b) he could do a bit of research as to the quality of the beer at the Turtle Tavern in case he were to persuade the Bobster to go there for a pint of real ale at some point.

We stopped a bit short of Limni Pier taking the car down a track which ultimately led to a farmer's field but we were in Kenny so it didn't matter.  It really was a glorious day and the sea looked absolutely stunning and the beach was empty for as far as the eye could see.  For me this is the best time on the island - most of the holidaymakers have gone and it returns to being 'our' space.

We stopped at the Turtle Tavern and managed to find a table in the shade as it was pretty hot and sunny and decided to have 'brunch' whilst we were there.  John opted for ham, egg and chips washed down with a pint or two of Old Speckled Hen and I had a small English Breakfast.

Both the meals were good, cheap and cheerful and hit the spot - there are times for me when only a hit of baked beans will do!  Often having returned from some exotic holiday where we have sampled some fine rich and spicy food I crave beans on toast!  We have eaten out so much recently that the sight of a big fat breakfast sausage surrounded by a lake of baked beans just did it for me!  We enjoyed a peaceful hour or so, John completed his research, we filled our tummies and then wandered back to Polis to do our shopping.

We bumped into the Bobster and Diana doing their shopping - this is an unusual thing - although we know plenty of people we rarely see anyone we know in Paps.

John was delighted to find that Paps had an offer on Marstons Pedigree selling them buy one get one free so they worked out to just over a euro a bottle with is the same price as Leon.

John loves a real ale and he loves a bargain even more so as we didn't need much by way of shopping and therefore our bill would be relatively small he took the opportunity to stock his shelves with some nice beer!  We also got a couple of fruit ciders for Dad tomorrow as we know he likes one of these before his lunch.

We returned home and got sorted so that John could settle and watch the Mighty Blades take on Reading.  Uncle David had predicted a 3-1 Blades win against his team Reading and he was very nearly right - in the end the score was 2-1 to the Blades and John was a happy bunny.

As he watched I got the lunch ready for tomorrow.  We are having a sort of shepherds pie - but only sort of - Paps had pork mince on offer - only 2.99 a kilo so we are having pork cooked with apple and cider and leek and carrot in a creamy sauce on the bottom and mustard mash on the top.

I actually bothered to use John's potato ricing machine for the mash and although it is a bit fiddly it did make it very smooth and lump free - with the extra I made some cheesy chili potato croquettes which I served to him with a sweet chili dip, bbq dip and salad cream.  He loved them - so much so that they filled him up and we didn't bother with our picky tea which we had pencilled in for tonight!