Christmas Eve Eve

Christmas Eve Eve.  The weather remains stormy but due to be more settled tomorrow which is good.  We are trying to be organised so that Christmas Day isn't too frantic particularly as John will be missing for about an hour and a half doing his taxi duties.  

We were up relatively early because I had an appointment to see Dr Lykoudis to sign me off after my operation.  I had an appointment last week and forgot so I needed to make sure I went this time.  It was fairly chaotic when I got there - they do have an appointment system in that they can give you a time or you can request a time but actually when you get there it is every man (or woman) for themselves unless the doctor has clocked you coming in in which case he seems to have some sort of order in his head.  Dr Lykoudis signed me off saying that he hoped professionally he wouldn't be seeing me again and I said that those were also my sentiments but that whilst I was there I would just ask about my other shoulder which causes me pain after a fall.  He agreed that the symptoms and the resulting pain would indicate that it was indeed muscular and as a result could take some time to settle down.

Our trip to the electrical shop was a waste of time because it had closed for Winter - not sure why we hadn't seen the sign yesterday - but we weren't the only ones as Stelios who cleans George's pool was also waiting outside hoping to collect his wife's washing machine which had been in for repair.  Not sure he was going to be successful!!

I spent the afternoon doing whatever I could to prepare the food which we are going to eat on Monday, and cleaning and tidying so that there is less to do tomorrow which is Christmas Eve and a Sunday and we have the day to ourselves as Lilian is entertaining Mum.

My reward for all my hard work was that we were having a takeaway from the Farmyard this evening and we had ordered enough to two days which is about the best Christmas present anyone could give me.

The takeaway was absolutely fabulous - the satay sauce which we had with the starter was just on the brink of our pleasure/pain threshold!!!  We did manage to save half of our food for tomorrow but it was almost a struggle.

Tomorrow will be a busy day even with all the preparation we have done.  The 7 P's - Elena wanted them on her headstone - bless her - it was the anniversary of her passing today.  I still miss her dreadfully she was such a wonderful friend and she would have been so proud of the adults her children are turning into.  Bassam called in today to give us a present for Christmas, a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine from Vasilikon.  He is such a lovely man we really must try and spend more time with him next year because I guess that as the children are getting older and spend less time at home he can be a bit lonely.  

The 7 P's for those that don't know - Proper prior preparation prevents piss poor performance!