The tale of the lost earring...

Many years ago when John was on a tour of duty he bought me, from the Gold Souk in Dubai, a pair of beautiful gold earrings.  He gets cross with me because he says I don't wear the jewellery that he has bought me over the years and to be honest that is because I either break it or lose it.  Anyway, a few years ago I was at Mum and Dad's wearing said gold earrings and they were concerned because there was a cat stuck up a tree at the end of the garden and it had been there for well over a day even though they had tried to encourage it down.  I decided to climb the tree and save it which I did but as I was dismounting my hair got caught up in a branch.  When I got back home I realised I had lost one of my beloved earrings and assumed that it had happened when saving the cat.  Dad would go out every day and search around the base of the tree but to no avail and so reluctantly I had to accept I had lost it.  I could never quite bring myself to get rid of the one earring that remained and good job two because a couple of years later when Mum's gardener Graham was working on a border near the house he found my missing earring - it was nowhere near where the cat had been up the tree and I am not entirely sure how it came to be where it was but needless to say I was ecstatic to get it back.  Since then I have been loathe to wear the damn things but yesterday for Nicky and Mark's vow renewal I thought they would look nice with what I was wearing.  I couldn't believe it when I got home and realised I was without one of those earrings.  I had been on the beach, in a bar, in a restaurant and in and out of the jump seat of our car so the chances of finding it were slim.  We searched the car but it wasn't there.  I scoured the photographs to see if I was in any and still wearing them and realised I was whilst in Baracas so it wasn't on the beach - I text Baracas and Tweedies and asked them to look and this morning when I text Nicky to thank her and Mark for such a brilliant afternoon and evening I said I had lost it and that possibly it fell out when I got out of the car to say goodbye to everyone outside their house.  She said she would go and look and I cannot believe it but it was there.  Me and that bloody earring are meant to be together - that's for sure!!!  Bugger me if I didn't go and lose one of my cheap 'pearl' earrings today but ended up finding it perilously clinging to life on the grill of the shower soak-away.

Really that is just about enough excitement for one day but today sees the start of my 60th Birthday Weekend celebrations so this evening John was taking me for a romantic meal and had chosen Finikas in Polis as the venue.  Before it was refurbished this was a very traditional taverna - quite dark and with a vast menu - sometimes meals in there could be excellent and at other times it could be dire.

The face-lift was incredible and it is now sleek and modern and inside very bright and clean and, thankfully, warm!!  There is an emphasis on water with a pretty water feature in the inner courtyard and a wall of water inside.

We went once in last Summer with John's Mum and Jackie and Stan for what I think was their last meal before returning to the UK.  It was such a different place to what it had been previously - a small and interesting menu and good service.  In fact the waitress from that night is still there and remembered us - she is called Michaela and is completely on the ball.



I chose a smoked duck and mango salad for my starter, to be fair it wasn't actually a starter but I wanted to try it so badly that we decided to order it and I would eat as much as I wanted and then we would eat the remainder with our main courses.  It was delicious and I wouldn't hesitate to have that as my lunch - it was light and fresh and didn't look much but there was so much of it.  John opted for the scallops but asked for them to sit on a bed of humus rather than on the white taramasalata that it would normally come with.  He absolutely loved it and I have to say it was really, really tasty.

My main course was medallions of pork with vegetable spaghetti and herbed saute potatoes and John had the rack of lamb with roasted vegetables - both lovely.

I couldn't eat all my veggies particularly as I had the remainder of the lovely salad to finish!!!  John said his lamb was perfect - slightly pink as he likes it and full of flavour

We both managed a pudding - mine came with a flaming roman candle stuck in the middle accompanied by a chorus of Happy Birthday!!!

John had a pudding which was like a deconstructed carrot cake with the most fabulous pickled carrot on top and I had a Mojito Cheesecake - I am not normally a cheesecake lover but the sharp topping was the perfect end to the meal. 

It was not a late night but it was a lovely one.  We sat and talked and agreed that really we should go and eat down in Polis a little more often.  We are lucky and sometimes we are just so busy living day to day that we forget to enjoy all that we have around us.  It was a brilliant start to my birthday celebrations.