I think I'm turning Japanese - I really think so!

I rang and spoke to Mina today.  She, quite rightly, is angry that the fire which ravaged part of her property and the surrounding areas was started deliberately.  

When we went a couple of months ago it was all looking so beautiful - she has worked so hard over the last few years to build a successful business and suffered many personal difficulties.  She feels like someone somewhere has a doll and is sticking pins into it because each time she gets herself together and starts looking forward to the future something else goes wrong.

She was lucky that the actual kennels remained unscathed and so she can continue to earn money whilst the insurance claim gets settled and she rebuilds.  The area in the picture was a workshop/studio attached to the main house.  Mina tells me that even the windows of the main house have melted due to the heat.  

I cannot begin to imagine how frightening this must have been for her and the other neighbouring households that were affected but to be in charge of other peoples' dogs and to have to try and get them to safety when everything around you is in flames is just incomprehensible.

This morning I was on a voyage of discovery.  Sadly Jackie's mum passed away shortly before they were coming on holiday and her funeral will be Friday and they will watch via a video link.  We have invited them to come here afterwards and we are going to try and recreate the food that they had chosen for the wake which was Meat and Potato Pie - I have never heard of it so I will be attempting to make one.  

I have found a recipe which doesn't look too difficult BUT Paps do not have any frozen pastry in stock and I am not renowned for my pastry making but I have made some and it is in the fridge because apparently you can keep it chilled for 3 days then I did the filling which is - meat and potato unsurprisingly.  This means that we are ahead of the game when it comes to Friday although I have said to Jackie that if she doesn't feel she wants to come that is absolutely fine - nothing will spoil and we can have the meal some other time or not at all - it is entirely up to her.

John is on pudding and he has that under control as long as we can find some cherry pie filling or similar.

Today it was our visitors choice to go to the Japanese in Polis.  We went with them two years' ago and have not been since, not for any other reason than Covid really as we had liked the food.  JJ&S had walked from their accommodation calling into C&A en route to catch up with Eva who has recently celebrated her 80th birthday.  Poor Janet was feeling the heat as it was a very hot day and that walk is longer than you think.  Anyway we decided to sit inside as it was lovely and cool and apart from two others there was no-one else inside and it gave us chance to take in the surroundings because it really is a beautifully restored building.

The food was excellent and the portions enormous!  We made the mistake of having starters along with our mains and it was really too much food - we could have shared more and still been full.  Anyway our starters were prawn toasts, chicken strips with 3 sauces and some duck spring rolls.  Then Jackie and I had Street Food Pork (picture above), Stan had Chicken and Cashew Nuts, Janet had a Duck dish and John a Beef Tagliatelle Noodle dish.  It really was very nicely presented and full of flavour and Stan took his leftovers to have for his supper!

I left John early evening to drive on down to Mum's as she had her dressing appointment in the morning and we are taking her car to get the leak on the A/C sorted - she doesn't know it but JJ&S will be accompanying John so that they can have a chat with her whilst we are getting the car sorted which will take a couple of hours.

It was a glorious evening although there is rain forecast in the area tomorrow.  I hope that Mum gets good news tomorrow but the haematoma around her ankle still looks nasty and is causing her some pain.  I know she needed to have her hair washed and I was planning to do it tomorrow but we did it this evening so she will look tidy for the guests she doesn't know she is having.  I just hoped she still had milk in the fridge and she did so they will be able to get a cuppa!