Speedy recovery Argy xxx

As of this morning we know that Argy is recovering well from her operation.  She was able to ring from her hospital bed.  She and Lakis will hae to remain in Athens longer than they had planned but she needs to be fit to fly and this could take a while.  She said she was in no pain which is the main thing and hopefully that is not just because she is pumped full of medication.  The more they press her rehabilitation the more tired she will get so we will keep in touch periodically but she knows that our thoughts and prayers are with her.

This is not my photograph but this is what I was preparing this morning in readiness for Jan and Derek coming for supper on Monday.  Stifado is my go-to meal when I can't think of anything better to make.  Hearty, warming and oh so tasty I have yet to find someone who doesn't like it.  I just hope that I can do the Cypriot potatoes correctly, sadly I don't have my roast potato mentor (Argy) across the road to guide me.

We were pleased to learn that this evening Marky-Mark Kirby actually got to use the Farmyard Voucher we had bought him for his 60th birthday.  We saw him afterwards and he said he had been looking forward to it all week and that he had a lovely meal which is great.  It's quite hard to find appropriate birthday gifts now that we are all getting older and generally don't need anything specific so a lovely meal always goes down well.

We had been invited over to Gail and Petes late afternoon for an official viewing of their newly completed kitchen along with some wine and cheese and biscuits.

They have had so much done this year they are just now going to sit back and admire the work and relax in their surroundings.  Their house is lovely and the work has been done to an amazing standard and I really like their style but unlike us they are so very tidy and there is nothing unnecessary on show but their home is still cosy and inviting.

I would so like to be a bit more like that, the only trouble is that John and I never agree on what should be kept and what should not.  Our house is cluttered by comparison but the clutter is made up of a million memories.  It has occurred to me though that every possible storage space is full and often I have no idea what with.  We need to address that at least a little bit - in the meantime I shall have to ask Gail to let me gaze upon her tidy sanctuary to give me inspiration.

We had a lovely evening - they are great company and kindly kept Dot their completely dotty dog away from me as she wanted to love me to death - literally.

I had a small gift for Gail that I had spotted some time ago.  A 'vintage' metal sign.  She is one of the few people I know that I can give something like this too who wont be offended - quite the opposite she thought it was hilarious and it was predominantly blue which meant that it went with the kitchen decor.  Pete said that it would be put up tomorrow!

The clocks were changing overnight - we were promised an extra hour in bed as they were 'falling' back but no-one tells the cats so that falls on deaf ears.  We had thought that we were soon to dispense with this inconvenience but seemingly not.  It will be dark early tomorrow and we get very little evening at the best of times and the weather always seems to change along with the time.

Tomorrow we are going down to pick up Lilian and Mum and meet with Jane and John at The Railway for Sunday lunch.  I also need to try and sort out renewing Mum's passport because it is required for ID purposed even though she has no plans to travel.  John needs to sort out her firestick which she managed to completely bugger up within 10 minutes of me leaving on Thursday!