A full day...

We had a full day today for our visitor which started with a nice outside breakfast of coffee, juice and crumpets - can you believe that a packet of Warburtons over here is just shy of 3 euros and in Tesco is 50p - I can make them but it isn't really financially viable.  Expensive they may be but we love them and if we want to make a meal of them we have them savoury with eggs and bacon.  We were doing a village clean today - it is long overdue as the constant stream of lazy visitors going down the main road lobbing their rubbish out of their cars has taken its toll.

We were a small but beautifully formed group today just John and I, Klaus and Mike.  I had thought it might be cooler now towards the end of September but I was wrong so our start at 10.00am might have been better an hour earlier and as the day progressed it just got hotter and hotter.  Hopefully it will remain good for the next couple of weeks so that John's Mum, Stan and Jackie have good weather - mind you if you look at what it has been like in and around Sheffield over the last couple of days just being dry will be a bonus.

Back to the clean - we reckon it was the worst that road has been since we started.  There were hundreds of cans and bottles but interestingly no mucky DVDs - mucky DVDs must be a Winter thing!  We worked our way down the hill safe in the knowledge that at least for a few minutes/seconds that stretch of road would be clear of crap.  I have read on social media today that money has been granted for the refurbishment of 'roads' in and around Droushia.  We hope that this means our village will get the cobbled facelift that others have benefited from.  We know it will mean upheaval whilst it is happening but hopefully afterwards the village will look smart and maybe we might even get the 'square' that people have been talking about for years.

We finished our clean down at the bottom of the hill where we were met by Loukas and some lovely cold bottles of water.  We were also greeted by the plaintiff cry of a small kitten who was sheltering in a bush with its sibling - sibling was shy so didn't emerge for long but was the most beautiful colour.  Ginge was ballsy and wanted company.  Loukas gave them some water and Andri thinks that the mother comes from up the hill and has probably placed them there because they were in the shade and relatively safe.  I hope so but we are having NO MORE.

Mike had offered to take us to the Souli for a light lunch today.  We went down and bagged a table and then the boys went for a swim - I would have but it was windy and quite rough today.  We had a starter plate of calamari each and a single portion of chips and village salad and it was absolutely delicious and we will most definitely go back there again.  George the waiter was lovely and when I showed him a photograph of Carole and Paul he recognised them straight away.  The Souli might be a little old and maybe a little tired looking compared to the 21st century new builds down on the Paphos coast but it has a charm all of its own and the outside area with the pool is lovely.

We did a little shopping in Paps before returning home - I needed to get some bits in for Louise and Malcolm who arrive late tomorrow and I wanted it to be as fresh as possible.  If they are delayed they aren't going to notice or even want anything!  Anyway we all had a swim before the boys put themselves through the torture of watching the Mighty Blades who were at one point comfortably 2-0 ahead then were pegged back to 2-2 then miraculously managed to scrape a winner.  I, on the other hand, was cooking tea.  We had decided that today would be the right day to eat part of the massive forerib of beef we had purchased the day before my Dad died.  He would have loved it and we wanted to make sure we ate it with someone else who would appreciate it.

I have to say that cooking this joint was rather painless although personally I would have preferred it to have been slightly rarer but I think my oven cooks hotter than it says so I will know for another time.  Basically it was cooked on high for about an hour and then the oven was turned off and the joint left - NO OPENING THE DOOR FOR 3 HOURS!!!!!  Then a quick re-heat and stood for a good 20 minutes.  It was served with a red wine gravy, hasselback potatoes, peas and hot coleslaw and the boys made a fair attempt to finish it up.  The meat was fabulous, tender and tasty - I shall definitely buy it again.  There is still the remainder of the joint in the freezer - think I shall save that for around Christmas time.