Fire...

Today was a glorious day, bright sunshine but a cool wind and over in Turkey the weather was not so good looking at the clouds amassing above the mountains out on the horizon.  The Turkish coastline is a mere stone's throw from Polis and Latchi and on a good clear day you can easily make out the mountains.

Some of the garden is looking bedraggled and ravaged by the winter weather whilst other things are beginning to spring to life.  The gazanias are beginning to bloom with cheerful heads of yellow, orange and red and some of the osteospurmum have a few purple flowers coming through.  It is a time of great expectation to wonder what might have and what might not have survived.

Although bright and sunny and warm in the conservatory the lounge can feel chilly so we decided to light the fire so that if Dad, or anyone else, fancied a snooze after lunch they could do so by the side of a welcoming fire.  I had been making the bed and came into the lounge to a fug of smoke, John had all the windows open and the door and was moaning that he couldn't work out where it was coming from and he was concerned the seal on the door was shot.  As it turned out the culprit was the old fire-mitt that he uses for cleaning the inside of the glass - it was quietly smouldering away for some reason!!!

When John went to the Beer Sellar he found some Ales from St Austell which is not a million miles from where Dad was born and bred and he thought Dad might enjoy a taste of the old country before his Sunday lunch.  Dad opted for Tribute rather than the rather stronger Proper Job!

I had done a shepherd's pie with green beans, carrots and leeks - I had everything under control with the shepherd's pie bubbling away in the oven and the veggies partially cooked so I only had to finish them off.  I was feeling pleased with myself as I know that this is a surefire winner with Mum and Dad.

We were playing our Sunday Game of Noms and I was keeping an eye on everything when I decided to heat the plates which I do every time and which I do quickly in the microwave although I could have popped them in the oven but then they tend to get too hot.  We suddenly got a rather awful acrid smell coming from the kitchen and I could see some arcing coming from under the glass turntable.

Deep joy the spindle underneath upon which the turntable fits had melted and was melting the glass turntable which subsequently cracked in half.  This is the second time this has happened with a Panasonic combi microwave and I reckon there must be a fundamental design fault with them.  It was a good job we were there and had not left the oven unattended otherwise I reckon we could have had a bad fire on our hands.  I have had combi microwaves for years, normally Sharp which have lasted and lasted but this Panasonic was less than a year old and it was a replacement to one which did exactly the same.  When we ordered it last year from Amazon it arrived and I had a terrible job with the door steaming up so they sent a replacement - this was the replacement.  I can't live without my combi microwave so I will have to see what we can do about getting one from Paphos - we have people coming for a meal on Wednesday so I am rather desperate.