Mum had the best Christmas present - EVER!!!

When I got my early morning "I am ok and up and about" text from Mum this morning I could breath a huge sigh of relief.  The tickets I had bought her and her girlfriends for the Nutcracker on Ice show which was held last night were bona fide and they were not turned away at the door.  In fact the whole evening was a massive success - they had enjoyed a good meal at PalioElektriki before the show and then the show itself Mum described as "the most wonderful think I have ever seen" and that, in her opinion I had managed to get them the best seats in the house and it was actually two shows in one with a fabulous circus act to accompany the Nutcracker story.  I received texts of thanks from Sue/Fran and Lilian saying that the tremendous spectacle had left them speechless.  Well that turned out to be probably the most successful Christmas present John and I could have given Mum and we were so pleased that she and her friends had enjoyed themselves so much.

It was a shitty and horrible day today.  I was setting off early to go and do some shopping in the Mall before getting my hair cut and then I was going off to Mum's to get our Boxing Day pasties made and then as a treat we were going to see the Christmas Decorations at the Elysium.

It took me longer to get down to the Mall than normal because there was a broken down lorry in the middle of the traffic lights on the Mesoghi Avenue.  I managed to do a bit of a detour to avoid it and managed to get parked up relatively easily and then shot off to Jumbos to get a few last minute bits.  I was so early that it was about the only shop open which meant that it was fairly quiet and I managed to get the things that I/John wanted.  I had dressed up in boots and a thick top and by the time I got to the till I was melting!!!

Some of the shops have some fabulous window displays - in fact the Mall is looking very festive and it is beginning to look an awful lot like Christmas!!  I got a bit of a result in Zara Home.  We had six very nice ceramic door knobs on our built-in wardrobe in our bedroom.  I had brought them with me from the UK and one of them had got broken.  I went to have a look in Zara and found some nice ones which, when I got to the till, had been reduced in price so I got them even cheaper than I had thought.

I got my hair cut - for which many, many thanks Lumi and set off to Mum's where we tackled the pasty making together.  My crimping was poor this year so I hope to God that the contents don't make a bid for freedom when they are being cooked!!!  Still job done and lunch guaranteed on Boxing Day whether or not we manage to get a walk in or not.

Our reward for a job reasonably well done was a trip to the Elysium to have a look at their Christmas decorations which were not so in your face as last year but still very very nicely done.  The gingerbread house was there again and I persuaded Mum to let me take her photograph there.



My favourite area was in the library where there is an area which looks like old mosaics.  This had been turned into a winter wonderland.

Mum was very kindly treating me to a cuppa and, like last year, we shared a sticky.  Last year we had a very nice piece of apple pie but this year we selected a strawberry and lemon mousse tartlet which was very nice and not too sweet.

It had been a lovely day - this is now the second year in a row that Mum and I have tackled the pasties and then rewarded ourselves at the Elysium so I think we can now refer to it as one of our traditions!!!

I returned Mum home and then went back to Droushia where John had the log fire burning and the lounge was toasty warm and welcoming.

Today was the election in the UK - our postal voting papers never came in time for us to vote and had they done so we would have had to think long and hard about where our crosses would have fallen.  We didn't vote for Brexit but strongly felt that in the UK democracy was close to broke and that if it were not to be restored then the country might descend into anarchy.