Polis, Paps and Panic...

We had a trip down to Polis this morning.  There is a super long bank holiday weekend next weekend because of Easter running into May Day and with Mum and my sister coming for lunch on Sunday I wanted to make sure that there was something for them to eat and that they would have a lovely time.  I try hard to do that but sometimes fall short of the mark.  I had planned my fool-proof Sunday favourite meal of Hunter's chicken but then realised my sister doesn't do dairy so I am panicking a bit - bloody fusspots making my life difficult!!

It is easy to nip into town, do your shopping and then leave without really taking in your surroundings.  I had some stuff to drop off to one of the charity shops and John wanted to go and see Savvas the Tyreman about Lakis's spare tyre so I got him to drop me off and then I walked to the bank and then to Paps.  By doing that I got a good look at some of the more attractive buildings from a different perspective.

One particularly lovely building is the Polis Museum.  I am ashamed to say I haven't been inside but plan to do so and soon.  It is called the Museum of Marion-Arsinoe and was built to store and exhibit finds from the ancient city of Marion (renamed Arsinoe in the the 3rd Century BC).  It consists of two rooms and an atrium.  In room one objects are on display which originate from the area around Polis and are chronologically arranged to portray the area's development from Neolithic to Medieval times.  The second room houses a rich collection of objects from the area's rich necropolis.

The island is preparing for its most important celebration of the year - Easter and everywhere (including outside our own community office) there are massive eggs appearing.  There is a candle and an egg on the roundabout in Polis.  The candle is to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world and that when he rose to life on Easter Day he got rid of the darkness of evil.  In some churches the Easter celebration starts in darkness then twelve candles are lit and these are taken around the rest of the church lighting other candles. When a candle is lit the Priest says 'Christ is Risen' and the congregation respond 'He is risen indeed!'  The eggs are dyed red to represent the blood of Christ with further symbolism being found in the hard shell which symbolises the sealed Tomb of Christ, the cracking of which symbolises his resurrection from the dead.

John takes me to all the nice places - when he went to Savvas he was very busy so John came with me to Paps and then went back to Savvas's tyre shop.  Paps wasn't too bad bearing in mind that the more devout worshippers here are about to break their fast but there was pandemonium at the meat counter as the ticket system was in operation which is a mystery to all concerned.  Anyway we negotiated our way around fairly quickly and without too much damage to John's wallet - I am not sure I can expose our forthcoming visitors to endless meals of fridge/freezer surprise so we have had to stock up a bit to cover all eventualities and tastes.

John and I are living on fridge/freezer surprise this week when we are at home (we are going to Fitos tomorrow night so I shall stuff my face then).  We have been through the freezer to see what needs eating and what we can save for visitors and there are some odds and sods sitting around in the fridge so this afternoon I made a traditional Cypriot Filo Pastry Orange Cake.I am still experimenting with quantities as the recipe I have says a packet of Filo Pastry but doesn't say what size - it also seems to ask for far too much syrup for the top.

Our main meal was very much fridge surprise as I used up half a jar of passata, a wrinkly old red pepper, some chili and some basil to make a soup which I served with some elderly Greek Pittas which had been in the depths of the freezer along which had some grated Kefalotiri cheese which had seen better days!  It was delicious and was a fabulous pre-cursor to the orange pie!