Happy Birthday to my soul mate and happy heavenly birthday Dad

Today I have had to adopt the new Blogger interface which, to be totally honest, is absolutely rubbish.  What normally takes me about half an hour to create has, so far, taken an hour and I have one paragraph and no pictures.  Why change something that worked perfectly well???????  I am not happy - perhaps another reason for calling it a day 😒😒😒

Today was John's birthday and would also have been my Dad's birthday.  I can't believe Dad would have been 89.  Sadly I woke with a bad headache which developed into a migraine during the course of the morning so our day was somewhat curtailed by the fact that as it wore on I felt progressively worse.  It had all started well with an early morning swim and slice of toast before we headed off to meet Mum at the Cemetery .

There were weather warnings out for today and it was certainly beginning to get very warm as we wandered down past the Val's heading for the main road.  From here you can see the little church in the Cemetery and we reckoned you must be able to get across there without having to go all along the road, however today was not the day to find out as we were hot, bothered and I had on decent shoes.

All was good at the Cemetery and John watered David's grave and topped up the jug which we use to water Dad's flowers which are now looking a little tired.  I shall take the trough away at some point and pot it up again.  I think there is an ant's nest in it because every time I water they seem to pour out in an aggravated state.

Had Dad been with us he would have insisted on calling in to the Hotel for a drink so we had arranged to do that, checking on the Covid restrictions beforehand.  We were made to feel so welcome by the girl on reception and by Yiota who came to serve us.  They seemed pleased to see a friendly, local face as they have actually been really really busy since being allowed to reopen.  The hotel is taking part in a scheme which subsidises holidays and as a result has been full since May.  We had managed to slip in during a couple of hours' respite between one set of visitors leaving and a new set arriving.  It was beautiful sitting in the shade on the terrace looking out over the swimming pool and down to the coast - Dad would most certainly have approved.

John had opened his cards along with his early morning coffee but had left the big box that Mum and I had bought him until we got home from the Hotel - it came as no surprise to him that I had ordered a selection of Ales from the e-Drinks company and had been amazed that the lovely delivery man had actually managed to come at a time when John was out so I could hide the box.  This was a little 'extra' from Mum who also gave John some money to go and treat himself - this may well go to e-Drinks in the future!!! 

John also received some very special Cypriot Craft Beers from a company called Mastros which he had looked at before but has yet to sample.  He is keeping them for a special occasion when he and his bestie (the Bobster) can sup and critique together!!!  

These beers also came with some special Red Leicester Cheddars which John ate later in the evening as his 'romantic' birthday meal because I didn't feel well enough to cook as planned - anyway by the look on his face these were probably better than whatever it was I was going to knock up!!!  They were deemed a huge success so no doubt we will be on the look out for those in the future.

Fortunately before my headache got too bad I had got everything ready for lunch today.  I referred to this as mum's Sound of Music Lunch as it included a few of her favourite things!!!

We had Virginia Ham with Grilled Halloumi on top, coleslaw and sweet potato chips and then finished it with a sort of deconstructed cheesecake made with mum and her sugar intake in mind because there was just the smallest crumb base then a layer of Greek Yoghurt whipped with a little cinnamon and then a layer of sharp blackberries, more yoghurt and a smatter of crumbs on top.  It was light and fresh and slightly tart so I think it really hit the spot.  John was well impressed!!!

Mum got home successfully and I went for a lie down - I haven't had a migraine in years and I used to be plagued with them as a child/teenager so know the signs and know that there is not much else I can do save get some rest and drink plenty of water.  It meant that John was left on his own on his birthday evening but he had the company of the ODI Cricket where England snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with an abject performance when fielding.