Sunday Lunch at Mum and Dads

Today we were going down to Emba for lunch rather than an evening meal and we set off early to do a bit of shopping whilst we were down that way and as it happens Richard was coming to sort out Mum and Dad's android box so we didn't want to be in his way whilst he was doing so.

I said yesterday what a difference a day makes so above is photographic evidence of what a difference two days make!  Each photograph taken in more or less the same spot 48 hours apart.  As you can see today (the photographs on the right) was a fabulous day with not a cloud in the sky and really warm temperatures.  This is always a bit of a worry for me as I dress for Droushia and forget that Mum and Dad's sunroom will be tropical in temperature!!!

We had been to Jumbos a few days' previously and got some storage boxes for the cupboard under the TV - we realised that on the top shelf we could have accommodated one additional box and that on the bottom shelf the two boxes would be better stacked on top of one another.  John said he had seen trays or possibly lids for the larger boxes so I was keen to go and get some and finish the job properly.

What we hadn't realised until we went to get said trays/lids was that when we purchased the boxes they should have come with the lids - we didn't have any receipts or anything to prove we had already got the boxes and just needed the lids and the lids had no bar codes so we couldn't just buy two.

The staff were fabulous and, in the words of Spandau Ballet, to cut a long story short, one guy counted the brown boxes and counted the lids and satisfied himself that there were more tops than bottoms, in fact many more tops than bottoms so we weren't the only ones not to have realised they came as a set.  He then took two lids to the other side of the tills and waited for us to come through and handed them to us so we would be able to complete our tidying exercise satisfactorily which was great - resolved with no hassle.

We had some time on our hands so decided to grab a coffee at Costa and sit outside and enjoy the sunshine along with nearly everyone else!  I managed to find a seat although not in the sun but still outside and still in the warm.  January 7th and John is in a T-Shirt but then he was better equipped for Emba!

Following the Bobster's lead John has a loyalty card for Costa, the only problem is we don't go in there very often.  I am hoping we will amass sufficient points to get some nice ground coffee but John informs me that we haven't even got enough for a free cuppa!

Now that I take my coffee black I have become a bit more aware of the taste - we bought some really Tchibo instant coffee in Paps last week because it was on offer and very reasonable but it is back to full price and good coffee over here is super expensive.

We quickly called into Lidl in search of some insulating tape they had advertised in their brochure but couldn't find it so John decided he would try in the DIY shops instead and then a quick mooch around Paps before arriving at Mum and Dad's albeit ahead of Richard who arrived about five minutes after us.

We left him to do his thing and then settled down for the first half of our regular Noms game before stopping for lunch, and what a lunch we had, it was absolutely lovely.  Mum had cooked lamb tenderloin in a lovely sauce flavoured with 'flava' as Mum calls it - this is a seasoning with mint and who knows what else that you use when cooking lamb served with roast potatoes and parsnips, beans, carrots and swede.  Mmmmmm mmmm mmmm Mum can certainly do that again!

We completed our game of Noms - I was arse end Charlie by a country mile!  We had a lovely lunchtime and yes it was warm in the sunroom but not too warm and we ate in the dining room so that was fine.  Mum's eye is slowly improving so that is good news.

I plan to go down early on Tuesday and go with her to find a housewarming present and have a spot of lunch before going to pickleball.

We drove back with the sun setting in a cloudless sky which meant only one thing - the evening up in Droushia would be super chilly particularly after the incredible warmth of the day.

John lit the fire on our return.  The house soon warms up and he says we have been burning nothing more than 'guff' for the past few days so our store of proper logs has been relatively untouched.  With the arrival of the pallets from Charalambous we need to get our wood organised so that the new stuff gets put away and the old stuff sees the light of day before the witchety grubs get to it!

We have struggled to find a series to grab our attention since we finished Peaky Blinders but I saw in Mum's TV magazine that there is a new series of The Tunnel and we enjoyed the previous two so we managed to find it on the box and settled down to just one episode, it is still being televised so we don't want to watch the available episodes too quickly otherwise we will have to wait for the finale and then forget what has happened thus far.