Valentine's Day....

Today is Valentine's Day and the Cyprus Electricity Board tried to thwart John's best efforts at a romantic evening as we had a power outage just as John was in the shower getting ready for the meal he had cooked!!!!  Still it wasn't long - we got the generator out for a while which proved it worked but then normal service was resumed!!!

Anyway before all that we had a normal Tuesday with pickleball in the afternoon for Di and I and badminton for John.  There were only five of us for pickleball as Liz's brother is unwell so not too much time to sit down and rest between games which was just as well because it was bloody freezing in the hall today.  The temperatures have really dipped hence you can see the players still in their fleeces!!!

We called into Chocco's for coffee afterwards and then went for a mooch around the Clothing Lounge opposite.  Chocco's is nice for a coffee - friendly, warm, light and reasonably priced and they look after Mum and Dad there.

Diana was impressed with the Clothing Lounge - I think the one in Chloraka is better than the one in Peyia for the full priced items - they have some nice Italian layered clothing like I used to buy from the shopping centre near Kaye in Solihull and I think that they are even cheaper over here when you convert the euros back to pounds.

John didn't stay too long at badminton - he had been up early this morning busy preparing a romantic evening meal for Valentine's - we don't normally celebrate but he was keen to do something and as I am normally the one that does the cooking I was more than happy to let him get on with it but he was rather secretive about the whole thing so I didn't know what we were having to eat - except I had seen him put some jacket potatoes in the remaining embers of the fire this morning.

He was even more secretive when we came to dropping Diana off at home as he insisted she had to remain in the car until after he had been to see Bobby - was there some sort of Bromance going on I wonder?????

No Bromance at all as it turns out - Bobby and John had surprised us both - whilst John was down in Paphos he had picked up flowers for Diana from Rob and flowers for me from him which was a real surprise because normally he gets all Northern and complains that they charge a premium for flowers at Valentines.  Diana's bouquet was stunning - the carnations were such a vibrant shade of red - and what a lovely photograph of the two of them!!

What a lovely surprise - thanks John so much for making me feel special and the roses were absolutely beautiful.  In fact I am hoping they will last as long as that one flower we were given last year when we went to Molos for my birthday and it was international Ladies Day and that one lasted five weeks!!!  I know we don't 'do' all that romantic malarky but it does make it extra special when we do!!!

So as I said earlier when we got back home the electricity board nearly scuppered John's best laid plans and just as he was showering and we were getting the table laid and the wine opened the electricity went off - luckily only for about 20 minutes so that was ok and nothing was spoiled.

Our starter was a pomelo and halloumi stack on a bed of rocket with some sweet chilli sauce and a little balsamic reduction - it was lovely - pomelo is our new favourite citrus fruit - very much like a grapefruit but not so refined and not so tart - a perfect partner to the soft and creamy local halloumi which was just gently grilled to give it a bit of colour.

Main course was a slow cooked casserole of pork with apples and onions in a cider and spice jus.  This was served with carrots and peas and the beautifully baked jacket potatoes which had been in the wood burner all day.  It was delicious and there was loads left over for us to have on another evening.

To go with the main course we had a very special bottle of the new Vasillikon red wine made from the Maratheftiko grape and called Aion - this is a bit more pricey than we would normally go for but is a limited edition and sometimes you need to try something new - was it three times better than Agios Onoufrious as it was three times the price?  Well probably not to our untrained palettes!!  It was nice but one bottle was enough!

Our delicious dinner was completed by a slice of red velvet cake - not made by John because, let's face it when it is as good as it is from Paps and at the price they charge why bother to try and make one yourself?

All in all a lovely way to round off our special evening.  Thank you John - LHKC always xx