Day one of Hazel's holiday...

Day one of Hazel's holiday dawned fine and bright - we were all a little jaded after what turned out to be quite a late night catching up so what else is a girl to do but start the day with an early morning swim followed by an outside shower.  This will be Hazel's routine for the week and who can blame her?

We took a light breakfast outside and armed ourselves with our respective diaries so we could plan the bones of an itinerary for the week.  Hazel has requested time to do a little retail therapy before she returns home and so that was pencilled in for Friday - the morning in the Old Town looking at the refurbishments and then a spot of lunch and then the afternoon in the Mall before a meal in Finikas in the village.

Hazel has no great desire to go to the beach because having access to a pool is much less hassle but we are happy to go if she wants to - well I will, John is not so keen on the beach particularly because he has to ensure he covers up with a swim t-shirt if he is outside for any length of time and it is too hot for that at the moment.  We plan to take a trip to the winery and have lunch - we would have liked to sit there and watch the sun go down like we used to but they no longer stay open in the evenings - not even now which is a bit of a shame.

I would like to take her to the Herb Garden in Akourdaleia because she would be able to find something nice there for lunch being a pescatarian and we want to try and fit in a drinkie at the gin bar.  Tomorrow Haze has asked to go look at the gift shops in Polis and then have a bit of a walk along by the sea and we plan to have lunch at the Souli.

Back to today we were having a normal Sunday in that Mum was coming up to have lunch with us and to catch up with Hazel.  Mum looked lovely, she had been to the Here and Now Shop and purchased a lovely linen shift dress in buttercup yellow which is a bit of a departure for her but really suited her.  We had opted for a fairly simple barbeque today with meat for Mum, John and I and fish for Hazel with some sweetcorn, coleslaw and chips.  This seemed to go down well and Hazel really liked the fish - we did a salmon steak and sea bream fillets which were poached on the barbeque in a paper parcel filled with orange juice, chili, lime, ginger and coriander.

Mum returned home safely and Hazel and I plan to call in and see her in the afternoon of our retail therapy day so she will get to see her again before she goes back on Saturday.  A week really isn't long enough!!!  The remainder of the afternoon/evening was spent in and around the pool and the garden just chilling.

We now realise that we have not one but two caterpillars dangling precariously above our heads at the outside dining table.  They in themselves are not a problem but the poo they generate can be so we try and locate them and move them to a place on the vine where their poo cannot inadvertently end up in our meals.  One caterpillar is on the turn from green to brown and will shortly disappear to bury itself under the shingle as a chrysalis and then emerge as a fully fledged moth in due course.  The newbie is a big fat green one so younger - Hazel is fascinated by them.

We ended our day by finishing off a bottle of Vasilikon white (our trip had better be sooner rather than later looking at the wine rack) and enjoying what was a balmy and relatively condensation free evening.  We none of us fancied a late night and so armed with our plan for tomorrow retired for the night.