Good Friday

It is Good Friday here on the Island for those of the Greek Orthodox faith.  Easter is a hugely important religious celebration here, if not the most important, and not that long ago it meant that the whole island closed down for the four day long celebrations.  It is not quite the same nowadays as Good Friday sees many establishments remain open to trade.  That being the case Lakis and Argy had asked John and I to accompany them down to Paphos to help them in their decision making with regards to replacing their car.  They had seen a couple earlier in the week and wanted John's opinion and also John and I to sit in the cars on a test drive so they could see the performance with four adults on board.

Years ago when I worked for Westland Aircraft I was used as ballast on a vibration test flight for the Westland WG30.  I weighed 50kg - sadly it is a few more than that nowadays!  The WG-30 was a new departure for Westland who previously concentrated on designing and building military aircraft - the WG-30 was a foray into the commercial world but only 41 of these helicopters were ever made.  I must be one of the few people to have had a chance to ride in one!!!  I have been lucky enough to have at least four helicopter rides in my lifetime.  The first was in a Bell 47 in 1976 when I was lucky enough to travel to visit family in Canada and my cousin and I took a trip over Niagara falls.  The Bell 47 was like a mobile goldfish bowl.  It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once but I was so glad to have done it and collected my certificate.  My next flight was in the EG-30 and then in a Westland Wasp and I can't remember how that came about but I think I was at a show where the Wasp Flight was carrying out a display and I got a ride in one for some reason.  

My most recent flight was at a families day for the Royal Navy just before John retired and that time I got a flight in a Merlin - rather aptly circumnavigating St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor (this is a stock photograph from the internet and not of the flight I went on).  It was all rather exciting because they opened the doors so we could get a good view out.  It felt like I was on some sort of film set! 

Anyway I digress - we went off to Paphos and took a good and long look at the cars available and took two for a test drive.  In the end we all agreed that the Nissan Juke was the preferred option and so a deal was struck and they will get their new vehicle next week.  I am so pleased for them because their trusty old Kia was not quite so trusty anymore and if they are going to be traveling to Limassol and Spilia it is better that they have something more reliable.

We decided to introduce them to the delights of Peggy's in Peyia for lunch.  Happily no accidents crossing the road this time!  They had not been before and we managed to secure the table with the sea view (who would have thought that was possible from the centre of Peyia in a hidden garden) and we had a very nice lunch together.  We were thrilled when they said they would definitely go there again.  We are never sure when we recommend somewhere that our taste and expectations meets others.  The food was very nice, fresh and well presented and reasonably priced.  Not cooked by Das this time - he was enjoying a day off with Belinda.  

We had earmarked our date night steak for tonight - we considered postponing it until tomorrow but decided that as we would then be up quite early on Sunday for a full roast that wasn't such a good idea so we were brave bunnies and ate later and stayed up longer than we normally do because we had a lie-in tomorrow morning.  We had steak from Shuks - it was melt in your mouth and we had a much smaller salad and potato portion than we would do normally but John wouldn't let me skimp on the onion rings!!!  they look weird because they were made with brown breadcrumbs!