Felt very lazy today and decided to have a day at Eve’s and not go to the beach.  We slept in till 10 and then had breakfast in the hotel café.

It was then time to go to Chaudhi, our nearby market town, to get a few things.  We needed cash and that is where the nearest ATMs are.  Also I wanted to buy some new glasses while we were here.  Indian opticians are insanely cheap in comparison to the UK and the quality is good.  Our friend John has a very complicated prescription and his glasses cost a shade under £600 in the UK.  He gets the same lens here for about £100.  Basically one pair pays for his airfare.  Mine are just distance lens but still a good saving.  I got one pair of reactalight glasses, one pair of plain glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses for £70 all in;  A crazy value against what I would pay at home.  Really stylish frames too.

We came back and had another lazy afternoon at the hotel, reading.

Tonight we had a drink in the bar and then headed into Palolem to the top rated Cherry Olive restaurant.  This is a multi cuisine restaurant as they all are, but their speciality is a range of truly delicious pies, plus great steaks.  Tonight I had the Fisherman’s Pie which was just delicious.  Others had the steak and onion pie, chicken and mushroom pie, cottage pie and then a range of fillet steaks.  Most enjoyable and an absolute steal in price  Up until now, if you wanted this sort of food you would have to go to a restaurant called Ourem 88 which is expensive and frankly a nightmare to get into, plus the customer service is unfriendly.  I didn’t desire a pie or a steak enough to make it worthwhile.  Cherry Olive makes it worthwhile.  I highly recommend a visit.  Such nice staff too.  Can’t do enough.  We got all manner of little freebie plates: extra mash, mush peas, onion rings, pappadams and homemade chutney.   Our bill tonight for 4 double gins, 2 tonics, 1 fisherman;s pie, 1 steak pie plus all the sides was £12.  We were stuffed full and we’ll definitely go back again.