4th June

I think it is fair to say we worked like absolute trojans today and it was a hot one.  John was in charge obviously and I was his Part 4 and I must have done a reasonable job because he said he had seen definite signs of improvement and when he does my right-up/assessment he will make sure he mentions it.  This will mean little to anyone who does not have a Forces background and as I keep telling him you can take the man out of the Navy but not the Navy out of the man!!

Needless to say the construction of the Japanese Tea Room come DoJo was carried out with military precision and we managed to complete the task half an hour earlier than John's original ETC (estimated time to complete).

As a laugh we give the various areas in the garden a name - this is tongue in cheek but does at least give us a chance of recognising which bit of the garden we are referring to when we are making plans!!

My main task today was staining and I ended up looking like a leopard by the end of the exercise.



Here is the finished article.  The old metal gazebo structure remains as does the fabric roof (which was new this year) but John has added wooden panels which gives dappled shade along with rigidity and I love it - we know that we are lucky at the moment that there is no-one living in the house next door because this affords us the luxury of having this space and for it to be peaceful.  This could change but until it does we have a lovely little area to relax in.  We were both knackered by the time we had finished but it was a happy knackered!!!

We had decided to go into the village tonight and grab something to eat at Finnikas now that it was open for food.  We didn't know that Philippos is poorly again and was in Limassol awaiting an operation so felt a bit guilty but his daughter said it was fine as it gave her mum something else to think about.

It was so lovely in the garden and in spite of the situation with Philippos we were made to feel so welcome by Marina and her son Marios (who had obviously been called in to do the cooking which Phillipos normally does).  In fact we felt more like family coming in for tea than customers.

It was a fabulous evening with beautiful sunshine coming into the garden.

We opted for salad and dips followed by 'green' eggs (eggs and courgette) then some freshly fried hand cut chips and beautifully cooked sea bream.  It was like the best meal ever as we were starving and it was delicious.

Our meal was topped off with a bottle of chilled Vasilikon white wine and a plate of fresh apricots and we were in heaven.  We are so very lucky to have this taverna in the village - it makes Droushia very special for us as are the family so we have everything crossed that tomorrow will be successful for Philippos.