Great Neighbours

I didn't walk this morning because Nicky had to go to Paphos to help her Mum and John and I were both a bit tired so we have decided to go on Monday as we don't have anything much planned then - tomorrow we have Mum coming for lunch so that takes up most of the day.

We have been inundated by ants this year - I don't know if it is something to do with the mild winter but they are everywhere and in all shapes and sizes.  The bathroom sink seems to be a haven for minuscule ones and the regular sized ones seem to have a passion for cat biscuits which means we cannot leave anything down for the cats which is confusing Boo no end.  We cannot afford to drop a single crumb or leave a smidge of sticky on the work surface because the emmits hone in immediately.  This morning we were greeted by a million tucking into an opened but rolled up bag of cat biscuits in the cupboard so I had to take everything out and have a clean and reorganise and so this gave us an opportunity to look at extra shelving in the kitchen cupboards and it also made me take out my Multi Function Pressure Cooker which I plan to use for the first time tomorrow with a piece of Brisket from Shukrous.

We had a visit from Arodes John today, he had been busy picking apricots from the garden and came armed with a massive bag of 'good' ones for Mum as he remembered she had said she liked them and another massive bag of 'in need of some attention' ones for us to do with as we wish.  He stayed for the beginning of the cricket and a sandwich and chat with John.  For a very short period of time it looked like England were going to make a bit of a game of the test match but sadly they simply flattered to deceive.

After what was a nice quiet day we were going out into the village with our new neighbours Richard and his mum Ellen - they had wanted to thank us for finding them their new homes after Richard came to clean my windows last year and fell in love with Droushia.  Incredibly he managed to buy to adjoining houses off two different banks and has spent the last yay many months doing them up.  We did not expect them to pay for our meal - we are conscious that they have had a very expensive time of it renovating two houses which needed to be absolutely gutted but they insisted and we were very grateful to them.  They had wanted to get to know the village a little better and so we walked in, pointing out various bits and pieces and we had organised a meze at Finnikas so they could get to experience a really rural, traditional eating establishment.

They were absolutely blown away by the venue and the food and the ambiance and everything.  I have to say it was one of the best meze we have had there as we had a couple of different dishes including deep fried filo wrapped anari with a drizzle of honey which was as light as a feather and absolutely moorish.  John wasn't so impressed by the fresh mushrooms which were stuffed with cheese and garlic but the rest of us were.

Our fabulous meal was rounded off by some beautifully ripe melon and a slug of Phillippos's Rodi Zivania (fire water with pomegranate, cinnamon and nutmeg).  We had a slow walk back up through the centre of the village which is beginning to show a little more life now thank goodness.  Marios's bar was open, Bambos was open and up the top Kaponas grill house was open.  Richard never knew the village had so much to offer!