What a lovely day

For most of the morning we had the unmistakable sound of the fire spotter plane buzzing around us - once again I could neither see nor smell smoke so we hope it was just a routine scouting mission and nothing was found.  

Mum rang early.  Her doctor had had the results of her blood tests and she was to go in to the surgery to be put on a drip.  As is normal she had asked no questions so I rang Dr Mala who was with a patient but called me back once she was free.  Mum's tests showed she was lacking in sodium and this could well have caused her dizzy spells.  We are concerned about Mum's diet or rather lack of it.  She appears to eat so little and drink too much water so flushes out any goodness.  Dr Mala said that she would be speaking to her about what she should be doing to try and prevent these episodes.  I have to say I am impressed by how quickly Mum was seen and will be dealt with.  She has to have more tests next week, presumably to see whether she is doing sufficient to raise her levels.  One good thing to come out of this is that she has finally decided to try a taxi and has booked one to take her to Lilian's on Sunday.  I am so pleased because if she feels comfortable using this service it will make it easier if and when she has to give up driving.

Today we took advantage of some lovely local fruit to have a smoothie for brunch, mango, passion fruit and banana with a bit of yoghurt and a smidge of fruit juice and then topped up with water - it was lovely and so nice to have something fresh and tasty to get our tastebuds going!

We had some shopping to do this afternoon which included going down to the tourist shops in Latchi to try and find some noodles with a central hole so that we can turn them into circular floats for Jackie and Janet.  We struggled to find floats full stop and certainly none with the hole in them.  We are guessing that they are victims of the import difficulties the island is experiencing.  In the end we bought a standard noodle which will be better than nothing.  We will widen our search but there were none in Paps and none in Jumbos which is always the go-to shop for anything so that is a tad worrying.

Walking along the shops in Latchi we came across a new coffee house.  As we don't go down that way very often we weren't sure how new it was and were looking at the fabulous macrame umbrellas outside.  We struck up conversation with the girl inside whose name is Bambina and we decided to stop for a coffee.  What we had not realised was that this was a brand new enterprise and this was their 'soft' opening and so the coffees (and some cake) were given to us free of charge.

It was a great place for a coffee, the music and ambiance was nice and the staff very attentive.  They wanted our opinion - there were a couple of things we pointed out - one, there was no bin to put the empties in which is a recipe for dumping and two the beautiful countertop, where it was in full sun, was like a hob on full and could be quite dangerous if anyone touched it with bare skin.

The owner came to speak to us and asked us to put any photographs we took on Instagram, tagging them in.  This place is going to be called Oasis uncovered gem and will serve coffee and cakes and sandwiches initially but I think they have plans to expand once they get a drinks licence to serve cocktails in the evening.

Anyway good luck to them, it is good to see some new ventures opening up along that row of shops which is not the most attractive 'strip' you will ever see, not helped by the empty shells of buildings on the opposite side of the road.  If Latchi is planning on trying to attract bigger cruise ships to the area then those passengers coming ashore will need something to come ashore to.

On our return home John was sorting out the shopping and the car when George (George and Pam) called him over to ask for some help.  George and Pam had been to the Winery and had very kindly bought us a gift of not one but two boxes of our favourite wine.  This was by way of a thank-you for overseeing the works that have been carried out on 11b recently.  John was reluctant to accept such a generous gift.  He doesn't keep an eye on our neighbours houses for any reward save to make sure that if work is being carried out it is to a good standard or that the houses are safe after storms or if an alarm goes off.  That is what good neighbours do, well it is in our book, but George insisted and on the evenings when we meet up for a drink we will share these with them.  It was very kind and we are very grateful.

This evening we were catching up with Melanie, Simon, Jasmine and Frances who are up in the village but going back to their house in Tala tomorrow.  We have not seen them for a year we think so had quite a bit of catching up to do.  We had arranged to go into the village with them for a meal so walked down to their house and sat in the garden for a drink before going off to eat.  The girls are engaging company and Jasmine has really come out of her shell.  They took their Kindles with them in case the adult conversation go a bit too boring and I suggested a favourite childhood book of mine for them to read which was Nurse Matilda by Christianna Brand - they would have known the story better as Nanny McFee as the books have been made into modern films starring Emma Thompson.  It was a good choice - they were hooked!  This was after eating a really good meal - they have completely different tastes in food but enjoyed what they had.  It was a really nice evening together plus John got his own back on George and Pam - they were eating out a couple of tables away from us and John paid their bill!