Thank you Gail

Just when I was getting down to the absolute, absolute scrapings of my beloved Branston Sauce (brought last time by The Bobster I think) my lovely neighbour Gail returned from the UK yesterday with not one, not two but three bottles of that unmistakable Rich and Fruity Sauce in the iconically shaped bottle.

This is about the only food item that I wont compromise on - to me nothing else tastes the same so I was really very grateful to Gail and her mum and her friends who each sought and found this, my holy grail!!!

So by way of thankyou to both her and Jan for being our personal couriers I suggested going out for the morning and then for a spot of lunch because the CODS (Cyclists of Droushia) number has now been swelled by one - Derek brought his bike with him and they were going out today for their first four-piece excursion, John, Derek, Pete and Rich.  They were taking the bikes down to Limni and then cycling in the wilds ending up at the Garden Centre for a bacon bap before heading back.  

The girlies were heading out the garden centre early so that we could have a look round and maybe a coffee without having to witness the men in Lycra - Gail thinks older men in lycra and cycling lycra at that are a crime against humanity and I am inclined to agree with her!  So we got there early and went for a wander round.  Neither Gail nor Jan are in a position to do much with their gardens at the moment but this is a fabulous place to come and look round and get ideas.

We only stopped for a chat and a cuppa - the lycra was on its way and we wanted to be out of there!  So we decided to go to Polis and check out Akakiko the Japanese restaurant because neither Jan nor Gail had been there previously.

Akakiko is an amazing building.  When we first came it was derelict but we always thought it was beautiful and would have been a brilliant project for our lovely friends John and Sue Boulton.  It has been sympathetically renovated into a stylish restaurant which retains the charm and tradition of the original building.

The food is amazing and not overly priced but the drinks are a bit so going lunchtime and being the driver makes it easier to chose and cheaper in the long run.  We decided that we would each chose a main dish and the accompaniments and had a large bottle of water and were stuffed with a carry out that was earmarked to feed Derek later today.  It was absolutely delicious and both Gail and Jan really enjoyed what they had and loved the place.

So this is me in a photograph which is a rare occurrence but Gail insisted.

We made our way back home - John was sitting next door with Derek having a debrief about their ride which they enjoyed and they really enjoyed their butties at the Garden Centre.

When we got indoors we realised that CYTA had tried to send an engineer today and we had missed him.  We managed to get hold of the technical department to arrange for someone to come tomorrow.  There is definitely a problem with our internet because it just isn't stable and we are having so many issues - it drives John nuts and ruins our evenings.

We managed to put that aside and started to watch a new series called of Deceit which is about the 'sting' operation used to secure a conviction for a guy called Colin Stagg who was thought to have murdered Rachel Nickell in 1992 - although as we now know this was incorrect.  We watched two episodes and were intrigued but the approach that had been taken.