Boxing Day 2022

It has been our family tradition for many, many years to have a walk on Boxing Day and follow that with Cornish Pasties.  As I said previously Dad used to make the pasties and now I have taken on that job.  I still cannot get the pastry to be anything like my Gran or my Dad used to make - this year was no exception!

Anyway today we were going to be joined by Lilian and we picked her up on our way through Peyia along with Mum's car and we then picked up Mum and we drove down to near where Wendy and Bill stayed at the Akti Beach.  It was a glorious day if not a little windy.  Mum actually walked farther than we had anticipated.  We headed for what we refer to as Dad's bench but she was happy to continue further.

Dad's bench overlooks the lovely little natural cove that my sister and I were swimming in only a couple of weeks' ago as this walk goes along past the King Evelthon which is where she was staying.  It was just lovely today and there were people going into the sea.  I would have done had I had the right clothes and somewhere to change!

Lilian took a photo of the three of us.  I can see just how much Mum now looks like her older brother Ivor who is now in his 90s and has an ambition to come and visit next year if he is well enough.  

As always I was boiling in the sun and Mum was freezing.  It must be awful to always be so cold.  The only trouble is that her house is so vast and lacking in cosiness that she sits in the 'sun room' which was originally an outside space with a small heater to keep herself warm even though she has central heating and has just had her oil tank filled.  She and Dad never had central heating so she struggles with the concept.  

We were hopeful that she had thought about having it on whilst we were out so that we might go home to a warm house but sadly not.  Good job Lilian, John and I had come armed with layers.

So we walked back to the car and made our way back to Emba to have a warm drink and get the pasties on the go.  We had concerns that Mum's two elderly combi-microwaves don't actually reach the heat that you set them for but we have no way of telling.  John wasn't sure we should cook from frozen but that is what everything was telling me to do on the tintyweb.

We did get our pasties eventually but they took way longer to cook than they should have done so we think our concerns about the microwaves are correct plus she has ceramic turntables which didn't seem to allow for the pastry to cook.  We had to turn them over midway and they were completely uncooked on one side.  Anyway they were ok when we had them but the pastry still not as it should be.  I will try again with a different recipe next year.  Sorry The Great Cornish Pasty Company your recipe is not a patch on what my Gran or Dad used to make.

John watched the Mighty Blades this afternoon - a win thank goodness and then we sat down and watched Mrs Harris goes to Paris - what a lovely little film that was.