Easter Monday

Easter Monday here in Droushia is a cool and changeable day - we had a thunderstorm overnight with rain and it has brought all the snails out - the garden has been glad of it and it will save me watering tonight.  It is a bank holiday here today and there will be fun and games down at the Amphitheatre this afternoon but we have a day of visitors and visiting as John is going away tomorrow for a short visit to the UK.  We have been down and watched in the past but the wind today is nippy and not one to be sat down on stone.

The lovely weather of March has been replaced by much cooler temperatures and it is unsettled - it is a firm reminder that Summer has not yet arrived - we should not be surprised and we should be grateful for the rain - the last time we saw the reservoirs they seemed very low and with the number of tourists to the island anticipated to be even higher this year we need all the rain we can get.

We have been invited to return to our neighbours later today to finish the souvla that we didn't manage to eat yesterday.  The problem is that it wont just be souvla, Argy will be supplementing the meat with all sorts of other things - I am beginning to feel well stuffed and will be quite glad that John is going away and I can cut back for a bit on both food and drink as every meal is accompanied by red wine, gin and tonic and zivania.

I burned my Easter candle today - apparently the fact that it blew out almost immediately upon lighting after the church service means bad luck.  No change there for us - we clearly swore at a gypsy way back in the day and have suffered for it ever since - in a two horse race we will always manage to chose the donkey even if it is odds on favourite to win.

We had invited newbies to the village, Les and Clare, for coffee this morning.  Clare teaches in Hong Kong and she and Les will be returning their on Friday so this was the only opportunity.  They have bought a traditional village house at the back of Christos's taverna and they also have a flat down in Universal so split their time between the two when they are here.  They have the opportunity to chase the sun and when they fly in or out an be nearer the airport.

Somehow they managed to get lost even though they live pretty nearby and I had given them what I thought to be clear instructions - thankfully they made it as far as Lynda's who pointed them in the right direction.

They had a nosey around our house, not having been here before and we discussed the pros and cons of houses built in Cyprus and the cowboys that there are around that declare themselves to be experts - like the kitchen company they used and the tiler we used!  Then after a couple of coffees they returned home - we will no doubt catch up again when they return for the summer holidays.

Having said goodbye to them we went down to visit Rob and Di for another coffee (I shall spend most of the remainder of the day confined to the loo at this rate) and a piece of Di's very nice marmalade cake - Di is very kindly picking mum up tomorrow and taking her to pickleball - I am not playing as I have the airport run to do with John and I am making the numbers up on Thursday.

We wanted to have a bit of time back at home before tackling the souvla so didn't stay too long down with the Veaseys.  We shall make up for it on John's return and hope to get back into some sort of routine and reinstate our Droushia Days Out.

I was right about the souvla being accompanied by lots of other food.  We started with freshly made egg and lemon soup which sounds odd but actually tastes really nice and is a bit like a watery rice pudding flavoured with lemon.  There were dips and salads and vegetables and the finest roast potatoes I have had in a very long time and cake and fruit and wine and more wine and yet more wine and when wine was done gin and tonic and eventually I waved my white flag and went for chamomile tea otherwise I could see me going to be with severe indigestion!  I am not complaining but my constitution is being killed by kindness.