Happy Birthday Mark

Oh what a beautiful morning, as the song goes, so beautiful that we got up early and shot off down to Latchi for a swim before doing our shopping.  We parked up down the little side road opposite where John's sister had rented a villa.  It really does look autumnal with the parched earth and the hay bales!!!  

There were a few more people at the beach than there had been on Saturday at Lara but it was still lovely and quiet with no worries about social distancing!!!  We had chosen this area because there is a little wooden changing shack with a shower so meant we would clean ourselves off afterwards.

The sea was like a mill pond and so clear and warm.  We have decided that we really should do this more often particularly when we read about the difficult conditions people are facing in the UK with regard to their freedom - things seem to be going from bad to worse.  

I said to John it would be quite nice to pop down to the beach on Christmas Day if the weather is nice.  We could go to Tsakkas because Mum could sit sheltered at the restaurant (although it will be closed) whilst we have a dip and keep herself warm with a flask of tea.  We shall see but it would be quite nice!!!

So after a quick swim we showered and changed, which was not so easy as the little changing hut's lock wasn't functioning!!) and set off for Paps which was lovely and quiet and, Alleluia, they had pig's liver in today and I managed to get three which will keep the cats quiet for a while!! 

I am getting much better negotiating my way round in my mask now - have to thank Janice for the masks she made as they are so much more comfortable and can be washed and we have plenty to chose from.

We decided to stop and have ice-cream at the Gelataria and to actually sit there and eat them rather than let them drip all over us on our journey home.  I am not a great lover of ice-cream but their vanilla and their orange is fabulous but in previous years they have had cinnamon-orange which was lovely and so my tastebuds were hankering after that today.

Sadly there was no cinnamon-orange - the lady said she only makes it as a special order and someone comes and buys the whole lot.  I said it wasn't a problem as there were others I could chose but it had been my favourite.

Anyway we were sitting down eating our cones when the lady disappeared into the back and then reappeared with a big fat tub and plonked it on the table saying that it was cinnamon ice-cream for me as a gift.  How lovely was that?  That put a smile on my face I can tell you.  I did actually take a photograph but this bloody horrible 'new improved' blog interface will no longer allow me to put two photographs side by side.  In fact it has taken me hours to get this bit of blog completed because it just keeps moving stuff and deleting stuff without any rhyme or reason.

This evening we were out celebrating Mark's birthday - I had thought he was 55 but apparently and unbelievably his 50th (which was such a fabulous weekend) was seven years ago!!!  He had opted for a meze in Finnikas with John and I and Di and Rob and we had a lovely evening.  We walked into the village and sat outside in the garden and enjoyed the lovely food.

It was a standard meze which we love with all our favourites like the green eggs and the pilafi and ravioli but they excelled themselves this evening by bringing two big plates of Loukamades soaked in honey and nuts.

Loukamades are like little donuts but these were as light as a feather because they were fresh out of the fryer - we haven't had these here before.

We had a gentle walk home - saying goodbye to Di and Rob at the bottom of the hill by the Clampetts and then taking it steadily back home pleased to hear that this time Mark found the walk less taxing so hopefully that means his recent operation is proving a success.

It was a lovely evening - a nice gentle way to spend an evening with friends.  John and I rounded it off with a little snifter of Ouzo - good as a decongestive after what was quite a large meal.