Catching up with Georgia...

This morning I had been invited to go for coffee and catch up with Georgia who lives in South Africa but who has a family home in the village - I was also calling in to Clare's to pick up the crockery and tables I had lent them last night.  It was an interesting journey because the horse tether has been moved and so it can now stand in the middle of the road and it does - in fact on my way home I was stymied because it was stood in the middle of the road and refused to move so I had to get out of the car and encourage it back into the field!!!

The locals are currently creating Trahana which is used to make soup.  The weetabix type 'lumps' are made from wheat, yoghurt and lemon juice and allowed to dry in the sun where it is open to the elements, birds, mice and cats!!!!  It is used to make a thick soup which is like marmite - you either like it or hate it - we hate it but that is because we are told we have never tasted 'good' trahana and we really don't want to take the risk that we will and we will still hate it!!!


My visit to Georgia allowed me to channel my inner Lloyd Grossman and question 'Who lives in a house like that?'  Georgia's house is a traditional village house and recently it has had a very modern extension built onto it.  This is apparently Georgia's cousin's house which looks small from the outside but inside WOW it is like a tardis and is light, large and modern with some key antique pieces like the two wooden cupboards in the corner of the dining room area.  I had met cousin Despo previously and she and her husband live in Paphos - he owns or runs the Duomo restaurant just off the Tombs of the Kings road.

Georgia's family house is beautiful and although only one room wide is much bigger than it looks from the outside as there is a bedroom with en-suite upstairs.  I first met Georgia when Elena was alive and we have kept in contact ever since.  She owns and runs a nursery school in South Africa but in her limited spare time is an artist and is preparing for an exhibition in New York the week after next.  Her husband and children arrive on Sunday.

We managed to grab the opportunity of a coffee and a chat in her courtyard garden to the back of the property which is actually directly in front of Clare and Les's house.

Her garden gate was secured by a chain and padlock for which she has lost the key so John went up later with his bolt crops to remove it for her.

It was fascinating to talk to her about her journey from enthusiastic amateur painter to someone now exhibiting in Milan, Paris and New York.  She tried encouraging me to take my art further but it is simply a hobby for me and I want to leave it that way - although a bit of extra money generated by my pictures might be nice!!!

I went down to check the post - you can drive down as far as Stathmos and I went to have a look at the area underneath the vines which Bambos has recently paved or had paved - there are now posh new tables and chairs there and the area looks enormous.  It will be interesting to see what he does with the other coffee shop that he has taken over - it would be good to think that despite the roadworks we will be seeing some improvements to the eateries in the village.   Maybe Bambos has seen the likes of Kathikas and wants a slice of that action once the cobbles are in place.

I went off down to the cemetery afterwards because I had decided to clear the grave next to dad of all the weeds.  I don't know if anyone ever comes to Ivan's - I am guessing no-one really since he was buried in October last year.  It took longer than I had anticipated and it was hot work - I was glad I had taken secateurs because some of the weeds were well embedded.  There was one determined Chrysanthemum which had presumably self seeded from the one which had been on Dad's grave which I left.  I have some plants in pots here in the garden which don't have a home - I may just go and take them down and put them there so that his grave looks less unloved.

Di and Rob and Clare and Les were going to a blues concert tonight out at the Yurts which are Simou way - not the yurts where Jane had spent her special birthday which are/were at Lysos - not sure now that Caroline has left the island.  John and I have seen The Zilla Project a few times and really enjoyed them but I wasn't sure I wanted to listen to a whole evening of Blues - it isn't really my choice of music so John and I weren't going and were having a picnic on the beach near the campsite and a swim - my first of the year I am ashamed to admit.  En route John stopped to make sure the horse had water - we know that someone comes every day to see to her but sometimes she appears to be left for long periods without anything to drink.

Our evening didn't quite go to plan in that the picnic idea went out the window - we had a drink at the campsite as planned but then decided to leave our sweaty sarnies in favour of eating elsewhere and the beach was packed so we decided that we would find somewhere quieter for us to swim being Mr & Mrs Billy No Mates!!

We actually drove along toward Latchi and decided to go and try the newly opened upstairs restaurant at the Eliofos Centre.  Our friends Matthew and Sarah Dickinson have stayed at the Centre twice and absolutely loved it.  Each time they stayed we could see one of the buildings was set aside to be a taverna or cafe but nothing happened to it - we used to ask and were told 'soon' and then last year is looked like it might be happening but then we were told they couldn't get reliable and local staff!

We were eating early - far earlier than most people would so the restaurant was empty but that meant we got the undivided attention of the chef and the restaurant manager which provided us with some entertainment as we covered all subjects from the amount the chef can drink to going for a mamagram!!

The food is fairly traditional fayre so the benchmark for John is a pork chop which was what he ordered and I went for a Chicken Caesar Salad which is straightforward but you cannot believe how much they vary.

We started with some dips - in fact we had only ordered Tirokafteri which is a spicy cheese dip together with some pitta but the chef had other ideas and brought three others for us to try along with some tomato and cucumber.

The three others were an aubergine dip (Melitzanosalata) which was delicious, an avocado dip (no idea what they call it but nothing like guacamole) which was also delicious and a fish, onion and coriander dip (also name unknown) which was nice but I am not overly sure about cold fish - we had a good stab at eating them all but that really would have been enough for our meal.



Our main courses were excellent - John's pork chop was humungous but perfectly cooked and my salad was so full of chicken I struggled to make a dent in it - we really should learn that our appetites now rarely stretch to more than a main course!

The meal was rounded off with some beautifully ripe water melon - we ate about four pieces just to show willing.  We shall definitely suggest it as a place for John's Mum, Jackie and Stan to try.

By the time we had finished our meal the sun was going down nicely and we took our fold up picnic chairs down to the beach and found a spot between La Plage and the campsite which was quite but not far from a changing room and a shower and settled down to let our meals digest before trying out the water.

So we did it - we went for our first swim in the sea this year and I reckon our pool is warmer!!!  It was nice but I am not entirely sure it is worth all the sand in your crevices thereafter!!!