Celebrating an Anniversary...

Charlie, who we also refer to as Fatty, was being very optimistic this morning when he thought he would be able to get comfy in our little bread basket.  He does like to investigate the inside of my cupboards when he is 'starving'.  I hoofed him out and had to take the liner out of the basket and put it in to the wash.  I was in no mood for his shenanigans because it was Argy and Lakis's 49th wedding anniversary today and we had invited them round to have a curry with us so I was making everything from scratch, dips, curry, naans and pudding.

My new desk got its first use this morning - I was able to sit and make an anniversary card there.  Although I have still to find a suitable chair I just moved the Ikea wooden steps from the kitchen and put some foam on the legs so it didn't scratch the tiles and sat on that.  If I was going to be there for any length of time it wouldn't be comfortable enough but for a small job is was perfectly fine.  I am really glad the woman who was going to buy this desk from Furniture-R-Us decided to change her mind and the woman there rang me to let me know because it is perfect for what I want.

I spent most of the day in the kitchen but sat down mid afternoon to try and sort out my laptop which had had a complete hissy fit earlier and so I had to restore it back to a known good date which took forever - so long in fact that I actually fell asleep waiting and John fell asleep too.  I think that it it was so warm last night we had not slept particularly well. 

Anyway we got everything organised and Argy and Lakis came round at about 5.30pm because they, like us, like to eat early to give their food time to digest.  It was a beautiful evening and we were able to sit outside to have a pre-dinner drink before our starters.  They arrived bearing gifts - surely this was the wrong way round it should have been us giving them a present!!!  They came with a beautiful geranium and beautiful bougainvillea having been to the garden centre yesterday. 

We had a selection of dips, mango chutney, raita and indian tomato salad with home-made onion bhajis and a poppadom which went down exceptionally well.  The bahjis were probably the best I have made in a long time, I find cooking the onion first helps and I made them and then reheated them in the oven on baking parchment to make sure that they were cooked through and not greasy.

We had a chicken chasni curry with plain rice and home made naan breads which we thought were going to be a disaster because the yeast didn't seem to have much life in it and even when I put the dough to prove it didn't do very much but we managed to get them rolled out really thin and they cooked perfectly.  

We had a lovely evening.  The food went down well even though I still haven't quite got the heat right for Lakis - when he says he likes spicy he really does like spicy so next time we either all have blow your head off hot or I do his separately!!!  We even managed to stay outside for the whole meal even though I know that Lakis feels the cold.  It was a pleasure to have them with us and we were so pleased we could entertain them here.

It was not a late night and so John and I managed to get everything washed up and cleared away so we didn't have to get up early tomorrow - I never like to leave it hanging around anyway.