Celebrations!

For a country whose major religious celebration is Easter it has, over the years, come to embrace the tackier side of Christmas - guess it is for the kids!!!! (We also now see Halloween and, bizarrely, Bonfire Night being celebrated).

I had to pick up a parcel from ACS in Polis on our way down to our postponed meal with Mum and in the reception area there was (on 27th November) a Christmas Tree!!!!

Anyone not familiar with ACS it is an island wide delivery/courier service and it, along with AKIS Express and Kronos and any of the other courier services available, is bloody marvelous.

I had ordered some tat from TEMU as I am making gift bags rather than crackers for our Christmas Day dining table.  The bags will contain the obligatory head gear, naff joke, Christmas trivia, chocolate and a small gift specifically chosen with the recipient in mind.  

My order went in about 10 days ago to China and arrived on Friday to ACS in Paphos, I received a text message to tell me it was there, I could have had it forwarded up to Polis but knew we would be passing so left it there and I got another text reminding me it needed picking up this morning.  I showed the girlie my text, she gave me my package, I signed for it and JOB DONE!!!

We called into Sklavenitis because Mum wanted some cat litter and it is generally cheaper in there.  I nipped upstairs because I am looking for a suction holder for the shower head and was greeted by an homage to Santa, Santa's soldiers and weirdly Santa's gonks!!!  Still all very jolly and festive and actually it seems to lift everyone's moods.

Dinner at Mum's was a huge success.  She really enjoyed the food and the company on a day when she wouldn't normally see anyone and she admitted that she would have worried had we been travelling in the monsoon conditions facing us.  Today was dry but not overly warm but she has had her central heating serviced and had put it on for our arrival so we were toasty warm.  She was in good spirits and that always makes for a nice visit.

Mum didn't want us to hang around too long after dark (we are 63 and 57 respectively but still children in her eyes!!!) so we set off in good time to get back to feed the starving felines waiting for us!

We had seen some interesting looking wine in Sklavs from a winery in Limassol or near Limassol - Morphes.  I had spotted the white, John the red so when we got home and wacked on the gas fire because it was right chilly we cracked open the red to taste it.  It was, in my opinion, a wine to go with Cheese as it was very full flavoured and quite dry, made from just Maratheftiko grapes it grew on us as we supped!  I am hoping the white, which is Xinisteri, my favourite grape is a goodie too.

We finished the evening off by watching another episode of the rather bizarre series Boat Story - it is weird but we will see it to the end and will need to do so before my sister arrives on Wednesday.  

Fortunately the weather forecast for her looks to be good during the day but cold at night so I picked up a fleece covered hot water bottle in Lidl because I know she likes one and it could be useful for Mum.  I decided I needed to try it out for leakages as I very nearly scarred Mum for life with one of ours.