The lull after the storm

My walk yesterday was postponed in favour of today which was a wise decision because we were blessed with some sunshine and broken cloud for the most part and I managed to get home before we had a few spots of rain.  I was walking with Liselotte today and had plotted a route which started at her house and then went meandering out towards the winery before we crossed the road and came up through Kathikas, crossed over and then walked parallel to the main road, crossing back again before ending up back at her house.

The walk in total was around 12Km and we had some fair bits of uphill which I know Liselotte enjoys and when the sun was shining it was actually pretty warm and I managed to take her on some paths which she had not walked before.  As Liselotte said today the beauty of walking with someone else who choses the route is that she never knows exactly what where she is going to be going and she is seeing places she hasn't seen before even though she has been walking regularly and for years.

Towards the end of the walk it was really nice to see a new installation of bee hives on a commercial scale - I am wondering if they belong to the Bee-Man who has his shop down the road from Mum as I seem to remember that he had several installations in the Kathikas area.  Anyway it makes a change from photovoltaic panel farms or rubbish!

Once back home we had a quiet afternoon.  It was rather a sad day today because my beloved Jo Malone candle (the small one as I cannot bring myself to light the big one just yet) came to an end - this one was in the bedroom and I used it sparingly but loved the scent of Lime, Basil and Mandarin.  This had been a gift for my 60th birthday so it lasted nearly a year!  

Sadly Brexit is making it much more difficult for us to receive parcels, or order goods, from the UK as they are now subject to charges on arrival and without a supporting invoice those charges seem to be at the whim of whomsoever is dealing with the parcel at the time.  

We are telling friends and family not to send us anything at least until the situation settles down and we know what is what otherwise it could end up being an expensive mistake.  This is all a bit of a bugger as I had just started to use one of the shipping companies to bring things over - it had been working out to be much more reasonable but they are having to put up their prices and you have to supply an invoice so that the duty and taxes can be worked out if there are any.

We were absolutely over the moon that tonight we were going to be able to order a Chinese/Thai takeaway from the Farmyard because at long last they have been able to get their chefs over and able to work.  It has been a very long and very difficult year for Rachel, Savvas and staff but this was the smallest shard of light at the end of a very long tunnel for them.

We ordered a chicken satay starter to share - I think the satay sauce was probably the best I have tasted from there so that was a good start.  I love the honey-chicken but ask for it to have chili added (which it does not normally) and it was exactly as I wanted it.  John had the Kung-Po chicken - he had a bit of a dab on after eating it as it was spicy but he loved it - we have enough left over of the mains and rices to eat it all again tomorrow - woo hoo!!