Happy Birthday Andy...

We were up early this morning because we had asked a local company to come and have a look at George and Pam's garden which is now getting more than we can handle.  It isn't so much the cutting of things back or down more the getting rid of the waste - we would need a truck and we do not have access to one and, in the front, where George and Pam have discussed having it paved there is an awful lot that needs removing, roots and all and the level of the garden lowered.   We think now is a good time before everywhere gets waterlogged. 

In the back the shrubs have just gone wild.  The bay tree outside the bedroom door we tackled earlier in the year before Andrew and his family came and John got stung when he grabbed a branch and grabbed a wasps nest.  Suffice to say we had to leave it rather less pruned than we had wanted but we did all the others and they have (save the lemon) quadrupled in size over the last couple of months.  Anyway Lisamarie and her husband Darren arrived just after 8.00am to look at the job.  They live in Droushia and yesterday they had gone to do some work at Di and Rob's and Judi's and I had asked Di if she was happy and she had been delighted so that is good enough recommendation for me.  We await the final quote but think they are reasonable and can't think they could afford to do a poor job if they are living in village.

We had organised to have a quiet day until 5.00pm when Andy and his girlfriend Nikki were coming up and we were going out for a meal and a few drinks.  Tomorrow is Andy's 55th birthday and we haven't seen him for five years.  John and he met at the badminton club in Emba and hit it off.  Andy was a musician here on the island but left 5 years ago to seek pastures new which includes entertaining on cruise ships and ski resorts.   

We had arranged that they would ring us from the Droushia Heights Hotel so we could go down and find them and they could follow us back here so that they were not driving around the rubbish roads in the village.

Bless John he did my ironing today - the basket was overflowing and I just didn't think my foot would be helped by me standing on it for a couple of hours - it seems to have made some improvement and then stopped and it is still painful and sore.  I have to say that every home should have a John - his ironing is much better than mine!!!  That's the naval training he received.

Andy and Nikki arrived about ten minutes later than planned which was fine and John brought them back to our house where we had a quick drink and catch up before we piled in the car and trundled off to Arodes to pick up Liselotte and John who had also been friends with Andy through the badminton club.  In fact it was at Andy's 50th birthday celebrations at Gino's in Paphos that I first met Liselotte and John and poor John couldn't get a drink for ages so got a little grumpy.  We had planned to have a pizza in Kathikas but it is closed on a Wednesday so we suggested the Chinese/Thai at the Farmyard which got the thumbs up all round but we were surprised because John and Liselotte don't go there having been ages ago and had poor service.  Anyway we arrived at the Farmyard and I got out the 'jump seat' at the back because we had the sixth seat in and as I was getting out Andy reached in to make sure that the brollies we had put in didn't get crushed and Liselotte's John wen to shut the boot down and smacked Andy across the top of his head causing it to bleed!!!

Happily this was the only bad thing to happen because we were seated on the nice round table and all ordered the different dishes we wanted - Liselotte is a confirmed non sharer like my John so there was no danger of ordering something only to have someone else eat it for you!!!  Everyone agreed that the food was fabulous and the service (thanks to Valentina) second to none and the price exceptionally reasonable.

We managed to walk up into the village and to the gin bar in the dry - amazingly because the weather began to deteriorate which was not surprising as we have been having bad weather warnings for a couple of days now.  It was quiet at the gin bar which was great because we had the lounge area to ourselves and by the time we got there we were probably a little louder than we had been at the outset.

This was also a great success with people having all sorts of lush drinks and cocktails to round off the evening.  I have no idea what Nikki made of the rest of us but we all did our best to make sure she felt included.  It is quite intimidating to go out on an evening where everyone else knows one another and your are an outsider.  I am always conscious of that so sat next to her and engaged her in conversation as much as I could.  

Unbelievably Nikki lives in Bridgwater so not a million miles away from Yeovil and I used to go and work in the Bridgwater office and she knew exactly where that was.

I leave with my opinion on my drink - an Opihr gin which was garnished with a fresh chili.  Let's just say it gave me some pretty good internal heating!!!  I think I was sensible to stop after just one as I was in danger of losing the feeling in my lips!!!!

Thank goodness we had booked a taxi home with Tassos and his bus - we just have to remember to go and rescue the Pug tomorrow morning.