A day full of friends and family - perfect!

John was up early this morning to go and have a look at Kenny - it had been worrying me because we are due to lend it to Stan and I had no idea whether or not John would be able to get it down to the garage or whether it was going to be an expensive fix.  As it happens Richard popped round this morning to pay John for the bungees he got him the other day and for which he wanted no payment so between them they managed to locate the problem which was a leak in one of the hoses.  It was in a position that John couldn't really get to or if he got it off he might not be able to put it back on so the decision was made that tomorrow first thing it was to go down to Andreas to see if it could be fixed.  

We had been invited to have lunch at Lilian's with Mum and Mum was trying out a taxi service for the first time.  I wanted her to be familiar with the experience so that if and when she no longer drives she will feel confident that she can use this service if she needs to - that way she wont feel completely cut off and although it seemed a little expensive, when you break down what Mum pays for petrol, tax, insurance, MOT, service, etc etc she will be surprised how many journeys she will be able to make for the same money.   We sat in the cool of Lilian's terrace discussing this and other things whilst lunch was cooking.  We were to eat outside in the lower garden under the gazebo which you can see in the top left of the photograph.

We had a lovely lunch, Lilian is so good with Mum making something that she will eat and making sure she eats a good amount - she is far better at it than me or maybe Mum is less likely to decline food from Lilian!!!

As we now have visitors for several weeks as does Lilian she had brought a present for John for his birthday and wanted him to open it today rather than wait until September 16th.  She had painstakingly knitted him a sailor in a sailor suit together with a knitted seagull and a knitted base.  She said she knows it probably should have had a small bottle of rum with it but knew that John preferred gin!!!  It was really cute and so sweet of her, she even said that she knew it would probably become a 'dust collector' but had so enjoyed doing it.  It will have pride of place on the shelf where we keep our little collection of soft toys and teddies that we do not want to part with.

Lilian was kindly driving Mum back home so we left them and made our way back up the hill to be greeted by three hungry cats!  I took myself off for a snooze as I have been sleeping badly and the car thing hadn't helped last night.  We had also invited George and Pam and Lakis and Argy around for a drink this evening so wanted to be a bit more compos mentis than I had been feeling.

It had been a very hot day followed by one of our cool Droushia evenings.  John and I are glad of them, the others however started to feel the cold so we sat out for as long as was comfortable before retiring into the conservatory where it was considerably warmer.  I have to say that George is already looking much better - it is hard to believe that only a few weeks ago he was at death's door - this man is such a fighter and it is a testament to the care he has received by professionally and from his amazing family.

Our guests left at around 10.00pm - we were just watching to make sure that they all got back safely when Pam and George invited Lakis and Argy to see the work they had had done so we are guessing the party continued on at 11b!!!  if so that is great - we are conscious that we are going to be pretty tied up with our visitors and not so free so at least they have one another for company if they need it.