International Womens' Day

It is International Women's Day today and when we stopped to fill up with petrol in Peyia where the man with the fabulous hipster metrosexual beard works (he didn't serve us today) I was presented with a glorious carnation to celebrate being female.  How lovely and somehow I couldn't imagine that this would happen at your local filling station in the UK.


We stopped at the nursery where we had got the flowers done for Dad's funeral last year and on International Women's Day last year when we went in to thank them for doing such a good job they presented mum and I with a dianthus each.  Mine has survived in the garden but it is nowhere near flowering yet.  Anyway we had stopped there because I had asked John to get me a small olive tree for one of the blue pots I have which currently houses an interesting 'twig' which was something which did not survive the winter.  We did manage to get my birthday present here - a nice healthy specimen which I will transplant in due course.  I want it to sit between the two old village chairs which I plan to paint duck-egg blue whilst John is away.

Friday is pickleball day and today we had a full house - all six of us present and correct and we all had good games.  We are short of a player for Tuesdays and Thursdays but it is so difficult to find someone with reasonable racquet skills who will commit so if anyone is reading this and they live near Emba and want to have a go please get in touch and if you look it up on tintyweb don't be fooled by thinking it is a bit slow - looks can be very deceiving!!

I left before the last game with Mum to go and have a cuppa and a fruit scone.  I will not be seeing her tomorrow for my birthday, instead we are stretching the celebrations out for the whole weekend and Mum, Jane and John will be coming up to Latchi to have lunch at Molos with us on Sunday.

As I said last year with my birthday being just a few days after Dad's funeral I wasn't really in the mood for much celebration so I think John wants to make up for it this year and will certainly have to pull his finger out for next year when it is a biggy!!  This evening we kick off the celebrations with a big night out in Kathikas with Di and Rob.

We started off in the Kathikas Square Cafe Bar going into the Adults only cosy snug so that I could have a gin or two before eating.  Savvas has hundreds to chose from but I settled for a good old Botanist served with ginger beer with a garnish of lime and thyme which was lovely - so lovely I had two!!  Di is not a gin lover but I am determined to initiate her in the fine art of gin-supping and have her up one evening to try the various ones we have in the cupboard.  Bobby stuck to a couple of pints of Oyster which he thoroughly enjoyed and John joined me by having Barkesten Gin with good old Schweppes tonic and a garnish of lemon and rosemary.  It was lovely sat in that little room - it didn't feel like we were in Kathikas it felt like we were in some trendy city escape so well done to Savvas and Rachel for creating what is truly an adult space.



Savvas and Rachel benefited from our pensions last night as we walked from their gin bar down to the Farmyard to indulge in a Chinese which was my choice.  It was warm and cosy in the restaurant as they had the fire lit and there were several tables of diners so there was a convivial atmosphere.  I really really enjoyed my food as I was really wanting to sample some different flavours from the normal Cypriot grilled food that we eat and we love.  The chefs are Nepalese (I think) so their take on Chinese may be different to others you may have eaten but their food is most definitely Far Eastern and it was oh so tasty.  We started with prawn crackers, chicken satay and spring rolls, then duck pancakes with hoisin sauce then we shared a beef dish, a chicken dish and a pork dish with boiled rice and noodles.  Initially I thought it might be too much food but we kept on going and by the time Tassos (taxi driver from the village) came to pick us up we had clean plates.  We had decided to leave Kenny in the carpark and taxi back to the Droushia Heights hotel and grab a coffee there to complete the evening.

We managed to get into the hotel just before the bar closed which was good timing and Kleopa was on duty so we had personal service as we sat on the comfy sofas by the fire.  It had been a really lovely evening - great venues, great food and drink and great company.  A brilliant start to my birthday weekend - tomorrow I am to be spoiled by John he tells me!  We had a brisk walk home - but it was lovely to do so in the dry and it wasn't as cold as we had thought and our four little fur babes were all sat waiting for our return.  Perfick!