Christmas is coming...

I am very proud of this plant.  This was the Poinsettia which my sister gave me this time last year.  It lived in the Conservatory and was nurtured and nurtured until for some reason all the leaves fell off - I was gutted.  

I cut it right back and chucked it into a sheltered spot in the garden where it was left to its own devices and slowly it began to show signs of life.  Throughout the Summer I kept it in the shade and watered it and now it has rewarded me by looking healthy and producing some iconic red bracts.  Christmas is coming!

I need to get my act together as we are having an early Christmas Day with my sister in the middle of next week but it is a bit early to get the veg in just yet.  We have the turkey and I have sausages and bacon and I made some breadcrumbs in readiness for the stuffing. 

We had a quiet morning after a pretty late night and decided that we would wander down to Paps to do a bit of shopping, get rid of the recycling and just see what was occurring with the Christmas Village.  Apparently it comes to life when the Municipality has an event on and there is not now anything scheduled until Friday which is a bit of a shame as we were going to check it out with Jane and John tomorrow late afternoon.  At least we wont be wasting our time now that we know.  John and I plan to check it out one evening but not sure when we will have the time!

It really was a lovely day.  I dropped some of last night's dips off to Nicky for her to try and then we set off to do the recycling at the junction where you turn off for Latchi to the left and Prodromi to the right.  Lovely blue skies here although above Droushia you could see the clouds beginning to gather.  We got the best of the weather down here and it was pleasant to go and do our shopping - we are still in shorts and flipflops if it isn't actually raining.  Whilst in the store I managed to download the Paps App.  I didn't know they had one but it worked out well because I got a load of the things we wanted at an App reduced price plus they gave 5 euros of the bill for setting up the App - a bit of a bargain if you ask me.

So we did our shopping and returned home only to receive a text from the Akis Express delivery service to say that a parcel had arrived in Polis which is sods law as we had just been past the office.

We turned straight back round, this time taking Lakis's JUUUUUUUK for its regular monthly spin - it was due any day soon anyway and ensures that the car is ticking over during their absence.

I had ordered John some beer for Christmas - using the EDrinks service that we discovered during lockdown.  My order had been for a box of Old Speckled Hen and a box of Bombadier - neither of which have been in evidence in Ikoagora for quite a while.  The Bombadier was about 25 cents a bottle cheaper than the Hen but I had a text from EDrinks after placing my order to say that the Bombadier was out of stock but they would substitute with another beer for the same price.  John settled just to double up on the Hen - he was more than happy with that arrangement although some of the other real ales were a lot more expensive than the Hen.  Anyway two days later and the shipment is in Polis for us - what a great service and now at least he will have some of his favourite for over the festive season.  I have told him that I am wrapping up one box - at least that way I will ensure it doesn't all get drunk before we have even started Christmas!

We had our tea (leftover stifado) and settled down to watch the England v Wales football match.  The first half was pretty boring (the second resulted in three goals for England and therefore a win which meant they topped their table). 

One of the presents from the present game last night was a pack to construct origami paper stars.  The instructions were all in Danish and the photographic step by step was as confusing as hell.  I decided to give it a go and started out pretty confidently - almost nonchalantly you might say keeping one eye on the TV and the other on the slippery paper strips from the pack.

Frustration soon set in both with the footie and the bloody paper strips.  I managed to follow the first half of the instructions and then it all went somewhat pear shaped.  I folded and unfolded and folded and unfolded, waggled my Google translate camera at the instructions and admitted defeat.

YouTube to the rescue I eventually found some instructions which I was able to follow but not before I had ripped two of the strips and had to resort to Sellotape!!!

Eventually I succeeded - one rather crumpled star.  Will I be making all the others?  Probably not!!!  

The trouble was that once I had started I was determined to get it finished.  This endeavour wasn't helped by John saying "It's not like you to give up!!!" So with gritted teeth I smiled and replied "I am not giving up I just need to perfect my Danish that's all!"

So success tonight, both on and off the pitch!  Not sure when the next game is but I am betting it is going to be another late one.

Tomorrow we have Jane and John coming and we are having lunch at the winery.  Hopefully the weather will be like today that way we can get to sit outside.  They were having a Chinese takeaway with Mum tonight - I shall be interested to hear how that went.