Changing Rooms

We decided to have a bit of a move around today.  To be fair we don't have a lot of room to play with and probably have far too much furniture and 'stuff'.  We used to change the room around depending on the seasons and in the winter would move the sofas down to the end where the wood burner is.  When we got the red sofas that proved to be a bit difficult because the large sofa is also a bed and weighs a ton and so we really don't want to keep moving it about.  The problem is that with the dining table by the wood-burner it can often be uncomfortably hot if you are sitting there.  Even after 11 years here we are still learning!

We have managed to move the dining table as far away from the fire as possible without swizzing the room round and John is going to light it and get it just 'ticking over' and we have the gas fire and the space heaters if we need.  On that subject the price of gas is rocketing as is the price of petrol.  John went and got a full large 35kg gas bottle today and it was €56 euros compared to €41.  Anyway the reason for all this activity was because we were having Liselotte and John round for supper and one of our regular games of cards.  We haven't seen them for ages and we wanted to catch Liselotte before she goes on a trip back to Denmark.

We were having Thai food tonight.  Our starter was a Thai salad served in wanton 'cups'.  I had been down to one of the Chinese shops in Paphos to get the wanton wrappers.  I didn't really know what I was looking for so had a look around and then asked the guy serving - he told me they were in the freezer cabinet and I had to admit that I didn't know what I was looking for!!!  In the end he came and showed me and I ended up with what looked like an industrial quantity of four inch square pieces of greyish looking 'pastry' which I guess is exactly that they are!

I had to make the wanton 'cups' first and then fill them with the salad which was a bit like coleslaw with a spicy peanut dressing.  As it was LL & J dining with us everything got given an extra slug of garlic and chili as they like those flavours.  Even so I thought they could have done with more when we came to eat them.

We had stir fry pork with noodles as the main which I cooked whilst they chatted - I had got everything ready in the afternoon so didn't make to much mess or take too much time doing it and it seemed to go down well although I thought that this too could have done with a bit more zing - you can never actually tell how hot the chillies are going to be over here though.

Our pud was a coconut, lime and bazil panna cotta served with lime infused lychees and a ginger biscuit crumb.  They were so lovely I forgot to take a picture of one so this is the closest I could find!  

We have enough left over for lunch on Sunday with Mum which is great because that means I haven't got to worry about a sweet and I have already taken a gammon joint out the freezer to have Sunday so at least that is all in hand.

Our game of cards was its usual noisy, good natured, hard contested affair that it normally is although it was our house rules tonight which are somewhat different to what we play when we go to theirs.  That took us to gone Midnight I think - where did that time go?  I shall be fit for nothing tomorrow as that is way past my bedtime!