A lovely Sunday...

Today we were having Jackie and Costas and Mum for lunch.  J&C were picking up Mum - they are generally late because something always happens with one or other of the businesses which demands Costas's attention but actually today they were reasonably on time!  It was an exceptionally hot day so I had opted for a light lunch and something which Mum could eat.  

We were having Coronation chicken with minted new potatoes, a salad of halloumi, orange, lettuce peas and spring onions (pictured above) a second salad of rocket, walnuts, pomegranate and grated kefalotiri  cheese and a bit of muhammarah for good measure which the only thing Mum could decline (it contains roasted red peppers).

This was to be followed by apple pie or plum crumble or fresh fruit salad.

I have to say it all looked and tasted really lovely BUT I didn't realise that Costas doesn't like fruit!!!! Everything had fruit in it except the potatoes and both he and Jackie are staying off of carbs!!!!  Still it didn't seem to matter too much, Costas just picked out the fruit and gave it to Jackie and bless him he did sample the plum crumble.

It was a lovely afternoon with them both - they seemed relaxed and well after their daughter's wedding and they are both great with Mum and she loves them both even when Costas was peppering his conversation with some colourful expletives!!!!

After they left we settled down for a bit of sport on TV - the Ashes day 4 which saw England victorious over the Australians in a very exciting game - which was then followed by the English Grand Prix from Silverston.  On that subject if any of you went to the Grand Prix and were unlucky enough to be taken ill you might have been lucky enough to have been treated by Dr Jordan Ford (yes really that is his name) and he is the amazing son of my lovely lovely BFF Hazel.  He was there working on call for the masses and taking in some of the race for sure as he is a super crazy F1 fan and has the perfect name for it!

We learned the other day that Jan's son-in-law Neill and her daughter and children are moving back from Florida where he was a football manager so that he could take up a position in the UK.  Neill is to be Head Coach at League One club Barnsley.  This is all very exciting, all very Ted Lasso save for the fact that Neill is Scottish.  Even more exciting is that I learned that he had previously played for Sheffield United.  OMG how excited will John be if Jan's family come over on holiday?  I think he will be looking to erect a flag pole so that he can have his SUFC flag in full view as a conversation starter!!!  

Over the weekend we bit the bullet and got the pool refilled which was a bit of a gamble because we had no idea whether or not we had solved the leak.  So far so good, the water level with or without the pump running has remained constant - we would expect some evaporation over the course of time particularly with it being so hot so that was encouraging.  John decided it was time for a dip before bed this evening.  We were shattered so actually we went to bed really early.   Charlie had come to check that all was well - I think he almost fancied a dip himself as he is feeling the heat.