Happy Birthday to Me! (and Lakis!)

Bless John, he organised a lovely surprise day for me today when I thought we weren't going to be doing anything save that he was going to cook a special meal.  He knows that I haven't been feeling myself recently so everything is a bit of an effort so he did it all himself.  He told me that we were going on a mystery tour which ended up being a tour of vineyards! 

The morning started with coffee and presents.  The weather forecast for the day had been somewhat iffy so I didn't know what to wear because I didn't know what we were doing but John said just be comfy and warm.

Our first stop was Vasilikon Winery where we were greeted by their lovely resident dog who knows that John keeps a stash of dog chews in the car!!!

I didn't realise that John had been to the winery earlier in the week to book a table by the fire for brunch and to request that there be mushrooms available (they aren't normally served on the breakfast).

The owners and staff there are so lovely, they always make us feel so welcome.  John had hoped to try and recreate the 60th birthday breakfast I had at the Droushia Heights (without Laura and Mark of course because they are in the middle of moving in the UK) but sadly Di and Rob couldn't make it and we had been out with Nicky and Mark on Saturday so it was left to Liselotte and John to make sure I wasn't full-on Billy No Mates so thanks Liselotte for giving up walking in favour of a full English brunch.

We had a lovely leisurely time chatting and eating - it was good to catch up with them particularly because Liselotte is due to go back to Denmark shortly to visit her Dad.

As we left Marina presented me with a bottle of special red wine for my birthday.

After brunch John and I went off on our adventure.  Whilst we still have Kenny I do love to go and do a bit of exploring and off-roading.  We set off heading towards Tsangarides Winery where John had spent his 50th birthday - I was using Google Maps and it showed a short cut which allowed us to cut out a pretty large section of main road.  We managed to negotiate this relatively unscathed and, knowing that it was quite passable decided to return the same way.

We then returned to the main road and looking at the map saw that there was a similar short cut which we decided to take.  That proved to be a bit of a mistake because although there was clearly a road marked it petered out in a field.  Just prior to that we had to negotiate a particularly soggy wet patch which was a bit hairy because although it doesn't show it on the video we actually went through it sideways as the car began to slide.  John was brilliant and calm.  Sadly we had to renegotiate it in the opposite direction when we found we were on the road to nowhere.  

We passed by Tsangarides - we weren't in need of any wine (John had stocked up at Vasilikon when he booked brunch) and it didn't look to be open although the door was open when we passed by - we carried on because we wanted to find Kalamos Winery at Amargetti because John wanted to get some of their zivania - they do several different sorts including an oak-aged one which is particularly nice as is the pomegranate liqueur!

The scenery en route was absolutely outstanding and here we saw probably the biggest bird of prey we have ever seen but it is impossible to capture it on a phone camera but if you zoom in it is to the right of the central fir tree..  We were lucky that we were blessed with some unexpected sunshine too which helped to bring out the colours of the countryside.

We found Kalamos Winery without any difficulty and went in and got some wine, zivania and pomegranate liqueur (which was actually given to us as a free gift) and we consulted the map and decided to take another route home but to avoid any detours save for the one we had traversed previously!

This route took us through Episkopi and the incredibly impressive Rock which stands above the village like a magnificent humungous cathedral.  I haven't seen it before and if you are planning on going be warned that the road that used to pass along the foot of the rock is currently closed.

We made it home without incident - it has been a lovely run out - something we used to do regularly but have not done for a while and we said that whilst we can still afford the petrol (the Cyprus government has reduced the duty so it is back down to €1.37 a litre at the moment) we should continue to explore this fascinating island.  I had some lovely cards and gifts and loads of messages wishing me a Happy Birthday - 62 - how did that happen?

The final part of my lovely birthday was for John to create some culinary magic using some of Naz's superb fillet steak!  He couldn't really go wrong!

We had stir fry teriyaki beef with vegetables and noodles and quite a bit of chilli!!!  It was absolutely delicious.  John had also got strawberries for our pud but we didn't get round to that we were far too full!!!

We decided to watch a film - I had asked that we refrain from watching any of the news today, I have found it so disturbing and sad that I just wanted to park it to one side today.

Our film or rather films of choice were Sing and Sing 2 which we hadn't seen previously and which we really enjoyed - it was just fun and feel good and I think Mum will enjoy watching them so I will put them on her system tomorrow.

One sad bit of news today, I had a phone call from my beloved god-mother Janet who was upset that she had missed my birthday but I know she has had much bigger things on her mind as she was having a biopsy.  She has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgins Lymphoma but she is quiet philosophical about it all - I guess at 87 she realises that she may well get an illness or two bless her.