So very hot!

Time is racing by - visitors arrive in three days and I am nowhere near ready but their accommodation is sorted and we will get the keys on Tuesday.  Second lot of visitors arrive in 10 days - they are staying with us.  I will have their room clean and ready but it is oooooooh soooooo very hot at the moment - too hot for housework!!!

Today is Sunday and Mum is coming - we have decided on roast pork (we must have been mad) with roast smashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, leeks, green beans, mangetout, gravy and homemade apple sauce.  This is because we are trying to ensure that Mum gets a more balanced diet because she has had this sodium deficiency.  I don't cook with salt and apparently you shouldn't need to if you are eating the right things in the first place.

We had got everything ready early and so, as is our current habit, we did our early morning swim which involves doing a set number of lengths without touching your feet down.  As our little pool is not very deep this is nigh on impossible for John and pretty hard for me plus you have to negotiate your way around the obstacles, a blue flying saucer shaped float in which John puts chlorine blocks and a yellow duck with a thermometer shoved up its backside.  Duck has perished in the sun and has a tiny hole which means he no longer swims in a perpendicular fashion but face-plants his beak firmly in the water.  I doubt Andy Peaty has to struggle with such unfavourable conditions!!!  The water remains around 30 degrees and should be lovely for our guests to go and cool down if needs be although the weather forecast says that the temperatures are set to cool to something more like normal for this time of year on Wednesday.

Mum made it up safe and sound but somehow managed to lock something on the car so that she could not open the doors when she had parked up.  Not sure what she had done, lent on the door knob I expect but it took us quite a while to get her out before John could do a bit of parallel parking and ensure that the back end of her Nissan Note wasn't going to be taken out by a passer by.  She does keep mentioning about giving up driving and I think this just might come sooner rather than later.

We parked her in the shade under the brolly by the new passion fruit plant with a magazine and a bottle of water whilst we sorted lunch.  John was in charge of getting the crackling crackled which he did but after the requisite amount of time we took the joint out and found that it was less than cooked and could not pass for 'pink' rather 'raw'.  No idea what happened but we had to shove it back in and hold the veggies until we managed to get it a suitable colour.  It was a rolled joint (and I don't mean spliff) which had no label so we were shooting blind with it really.  It was ok, it tasted nice enough but wasn't as tender as we would have hoped.  Never mind the veg were great and the roasted smashed potatoes a bit of a revelation.  You boil little new potatoes until soft then put them on oiled baking paper and smash them down with a glass so they break down a bit - add more oil and season and then roast at the top of a hot oven.  DELICIOUS!!!

I had a long conversation with Mum about her health and persuaded her to try and swap her appointment tomorrow for Wednesday when I will go down and see her.  She doesn't ask any questions or if she does doesn't take note of the answers and just takes whatever is given to her.  I want to know whether her sodium levels are going to be checked on a regular basis and I want to know what we can do to prevent them dropping again and whether her poor diet, medication and water consumption contributed to the recent funny spell and actually if the change in her we have noticed over the last year may have been down to this all along.  It is too much to hope she might want to know the same but if I go with her I will ask the doctor.

John's team were playing this afternoon - they pulled off a 2-0 win against Hull and returned to the top of the table.  We then wandered over to Lakis and Argy's where we had been invited for a drink along with George and Pam.  Both George and Lakis are Manchester United supporters - obviously being both Cypriot and living in London!!!! and Man Utd were playing this evening so the boys set up camp in the lounge whilst the ladies retired to the sun room.  How very typically Mediterranean!!!  The other United also managed a win so there were three happy chappies at the end of the evening.

It was a nice evening and the last one we will have for a while, maybe even the last one before Lakis and Argy return due to us having visitors.  Anyway they will have their friends Sotiroula and George for a few days so will be busy themselves which will be good.