January 4th

Six years ago today we had a 'late' Christmas celebration with our friends Nicky and Mark.  Who would have thought that all these years later we would get a text from them asking if we were decent because they were up in Droushia, across the road, pumping out the pool of their 'soon to be' new home!!!  We were decent and we welcomed them in for a coffee - it will be quite strange for us to have neighbours and even stranger to have neighbours that we know so well, but we have already set our 'boundaries' so we think it is going to work pretty well.  They came, did want they wanted to do and left and will be back next weekend when we have planned to spend the day with them.

The weather continues to be indifferent - it started out very promising but deteriorated and became unsettled and stormy.  We had a phone call from Argy today whilst John was across the road.  It was lovely to catch up with her and we hope it wont be too long before they are back out but they have some health issues to resolve before they can commit to several months away.  It is always good to speak to them and Lakis reminded me that his car is due an MOT so when John returned we got all the paperwork together so that we can sort it.  Car tax renewals cannot be done on-line before 7th January and Lakis is going to do it form the UK.

I was on a cook fest today.  I have asked Sheila to come up here on Monday for Art.  She and Klaus have had an issue with their central heating which they are unable to get resolved until an engineer can come up after Epiphany which is 6th January.  They are always so good to me that I thought I could return the favour and asked Sheila to stay for lunch which is going to be a hearty vegetable soup and tomorrow for lunch with Mum I was doing a turkey, ham and leek pie with the leftovers from Christmas.  We had frozen the meat in the interim so no-one needs to be concerned about food-poisoning!!!  Having said that it is not something I have cooked before so it might be a complete disaster darling!!!  Actually we ended up with some extra pastry having made the pie crust so that got turned into a sort of apple strudel thing which we will have for pudding.

We have to give a big thanks to Di and Rob for braving the elements and the terrible road conditions in the village in order to check the post and for bringing ours up to us.

One of John's Christmas presents from me has finally arrived - better late than never and we had a couple of Christmas Cards - one from Joani and Roger in Plymouth and one from Catherine and Stephen in Yeovil.  It doesn't really matter to us that they have arrived a little late we are just happy that people remember us and take the time to write to us.

It is unusual for us not to go out on a Saturday, to be fair I can't really tell you what day it is at the moment as we are not back into a routine and it doesn't 'feel' like a Saturday even though I cannot really tell you what a Saturday feels like!!

There was a lot of FA cup football on today although not the Mighty Blades as they are playing tomorrow so whilst I busied myself in the kitchen John watched some matches.  The big one was the Manchester United Wolves match and throughout most of the first half we had a fly which adhered itself to the TV screen - in the shot above it is most definitely offside!!!  The most exciting part of the game was when the fly ran around with more passion than the players!!!

We ended a fairly quiet day (by our standards) with the leftover chilli and a couple of romantic candles!!  It was really tasty even though I had used the black eyed beans instead of kidney beans.

I really now need to start thinking about my packing for the UK, having spoken to Argy it would seem that the weather over the last couple of weeks has been better in the UK than up here in Droushia!  This time I am taking a suitcase so I don't need to be so careful and Angela and Richard are hoping to be on the same flight so we can travel back to Somerset together - I will drop them off at Somerton en route to Yeovil which will be good as I will be glad of the company.

We started to watch a new series tonight - I gave up with The Witcher which is supposed to be number one on Netflix - it just didn't grab my attention and after three episodes I waved the white flag!!!

A lovely day at home today - it would have been nicer if it had stayed dry as the house resembled a Chinese Laundry and I am always worried about the effect the damp clothing might have on the fabric of the building but needs must if I am going to get it dry.

We have visitors tomorrow when Mum is here - Melanie and Simon are coming with Jasmine and Frances.