A Posh Meal out with the Stalkers

The weather forecast is not good - the island is due to be hit by Storm Eva later today and there is a yellow weather warning for tomorrow.  However today started dry and warm.  Charlie was making the most of it in the conservatory.

We were not seeing Mum today as Wendy and Bill were coming up and staying over and we were going out to Finikas in Polis for a meal together to celebrate all the things which we had missed out on over the last three years.  Mum was going for lunch at Lilian's so she was happy.  We didn't really want to eat a Sunday lunch followed by a special meal at Finikas.

We had a leisurely start to the day until we realised that the T20 cricket match between England and Sri Lanka had started and we wanted to watch it.  England had to win in order to book their place in the semi final.  Bloody hell they made hard work of it.  It came down to the last over and right up till that point we were convinced that England was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory it was edge of your seat stuff!!!

We had booked a table at Finikas for this evening and organised for Tasos to take us in one of his taxi vehicles so because the weather is due to take a massive turn for the worse we told Wendy and Bill to enjoy their day in the sun and then come up when they were ready.  

We had invited Ellen and her friend Joan to come for coffee this morning - Ellen wanted to show Joan what we had done to the house and what the garden looked like.  It was nice enough to be able to sit outside.  Joan loved everything and she could see just why Ellen and Richard had wanted to move up here and place their stamp on their two houses.  They are, as we say, all the same but different!

John had loads of sport he wanted to watch today so I decided that I would do a bit of gardening after Ellen and Joan left and then I decided to start my antique tray project - I have carted it back and forth to Anna's for the last couple of weeks!!!  This is a different kind of decoupage and I have been studying various videos on how to tackle it.

So I had painted the tray with chalk paint and then roughed it up a bit with a sanding block to make it look worn.  Then I stuck the dragonfly paper down using clingfilm to smooth it out and used some coloured powder to try and make it look aged.  Then I stenciled on the word TEA and roughed that up a bit.  I want to varnish this with a yellow tinged varnish to give it a greater appearance of age and to make it waterproof.

Wendy and Bill came up in the afternoon.  Three years ago when we last saw them they were contemplating buying 1a where Sonia now lives.  We would have loved having them as neighbours but now realise that this wasn't the right thing for them to do.  We miss them and have really treasured the last few days when we have laughed and cried together.  I blame the cocktails!!!  

They had not ever eaten at Finikas and were very impressed by the restaurant - decor, service and food.  We had an amazing evening which was topped off by lovely, lovely Tasos not charging us for the Taxi.