Boxing Day...

For many many years Mum, Dad, John and I did a walk on Boxing Day which was followed by mulled wine and Cornish Pasties beautifully hand crafted by Dad the Cornishman.  Over the years it has been held in a variety of different places and we have been joined by different people.  Then Boxing Day changed for us forever when my brother in law Richard passed away having spent his last Christmas Day surrounded by family.  He lost his fight with cancer on 26th December 2014.  Then my Dad passed away in February last year and so for the last two Boxing Days the pasty-making was down to Mum and I and the weather was against us so we didn't actually get to walk, actually somehow it doesn't seem quite the same although after all the rich Christmas foods the pasties are always a welcome change.

This year the weather has been rough to say the least and the storms last night brought drifts of hail so we had a White Christmas of sorts and nwow snow can be seen clearly clinging to the slopes of the Troodos.  We had quite a lot sitting in the gutter above the front door.  We were lucky enough to have a bright enough start to the day to get down to the Cemetery where things were not as bad as we had anticipated - amazingly the wreath was still on Dad's grave and intact - my old glue gun had done good!!!.  We had expected massive puddles and loads of mud but it was reasonably tidy.  So it was a day later than we had hoped but we had got there.

We decided that it was probably not going to stay dry and sunny long enough for a walk but knowing that Mum likes to get out we, or rather John, decided to go and see if the Kathikas Gin Bar was open for a coffee and failing that we would go further afield to the coast.  I actually wanted to go down to the sea - it looked quite impressive from up in Droushia - lots of white horses but John was not so keen - secretly I was hoping that Kathikas was closed but it wasn't so my trip to the coast was off.

Actually it turned out to be warm and cosy in the Gin Bar as Savvas's mother turned on the patio heater in the lounge area and we all had a nice warming drink.  I wanted to try the Hot Bulldog Gin combo but Valentina apologised for not having the apple juice so I opted for the Bailey's Chocolate instead which was really very nice and served in one of those nice thermal glasses like the ones I use for mulled wine.

John kept giving me one of those infuriating I-told-you-so looks because I had been convinced it was going to be closed.

Mum seemed to enjoy herself too, Savvas's Mum brought her a plate of her homemade biscuits which we all sampled and Valentine was her normal charming and delightful self taking time to reassure Mum that she would be getting veg soup rather than mushroom soup when we go off to The Farmyard for New Year's Day.

This is Mum enjoying just about the last of the sunshine for the day!!!!  We left Kathikas and went home where pressure was on to get the pasties cooked.  Johns was infinitely bigger than the one made for me and doubly infinitely bigger than the one made for Mum so it was quite difficult to work out how long each would take!!!

This is John's monster nasty - it is a little over cooked at the end and my crimping is a little over thick in parts and the swede was a little over tough in places but apart from all that this year's pasties were declared to be a success.  In fact there is nothing quite like the smell of a freshly baked tiddy-oggy as it is brought out of the oven.

Our weather deteriorated badly in the afternoon - we had thunder, lightning, hail, rain and high winds.  Fortunately we were warm and toasty in the house.

The Blades only managed a draw tonight - John was confined to the conservatory to watch it in between the power outages.  Mum and I were going to watch the Sound of Music but with the power cuts there was so much start and stop that we gave up.  So glad that hadn't happened yesterday when I was trying to cook our Christmas Dinner!!