A quiet day for me, a busier one for Bob. I woke up early – the sun woke me at about 545…. couldn’t get back to sleep with the result that I was really tired by lunchtime! I made a loaf of Turkish village bread. a delicious no-knead recipe that toast well and is also great for dipping with sauces and things like hummous, or eggs……. I started to make a pile of bits of irrigation pipe left over from when the new system went in, ready to go to the dump. And I retrieved some outdoor seat cushions from Bob’s “Man Cave” and put them through the wash, hoping they will come out good enough to use. I had a look around a couple of shops yesterday for new cushions and didn’t see any I liked, so….. maybe…… these will go another year. If not, back to the search……..
The plasterer arrived about 11am and began knocking loose plaster off the kitchen, hallway and stairs walls…. plaster is very poor out here. Very prone to damp penetration. He got all the blown stuff off, and coated it with a damp retardent and has replastered. It always looks much worse before it gets better…..
Bob rubbed down and filled more of the pool loungers and is getting on well with them. Should soon be spiffy again. He fitted the new motion-detecting stair light for the stairs up to the kitchen from the car port. Our old one failed last autumn and Marion was very limited in what she could find to replace it. The replacement was really a small spot light and it stuck out and as expected, the first workmen to come bashed into it. Bob has fitted a masthead light into the wall and we will fit the little spotlight one into the ceiling of the carport so we have a motion detecting one down there. At the moment the light in the carport is switched on and off from the hallway, which is not at all convenient and lends itself to the carport light staying on…….
The pool gulley is all finished now, so the pool is back on overflow filtration and looks great. The new “sealer” the men used is a specialist one from Turkey and seems much better than the old latex type.
Tomorrow all the workmen come back and they hope to finish. That will be going some but they do work incredibly fast, like a well oiled machine. Obviously used to working as a team. We’ve been impressed.
Tonight we are going for dinner at Tervetuloa Restaurant, which is very close to us, at the bottom of the hill in Alsancak. We’ve been going there since we first bought the villa in 2006. The restaurant is part of a small, family owned hotel. When we first started going there, the father of the family was very much in charge. He had a small curtained off living room just off the lobby and when you arrived he would always come out, give you a warm greeting, shaking both your hands and welcoming you to his “house”. Sadly he died, but his daughter continues to run things, having been in charge of the kitchen before. Still comes round to personally welcome you. It’s very Cypriot. You eat in a wonderful garden most of the year, under vines and trees, decorated with gorgeous gourd lanterns. In winter there is an inside room, but really, it’s all about the garden.
You decide on what entree you want from the menu and that decides the price of your meal. Before you get the entree they will bring you about 13 plates of meze – hot and cold – and then after your entree you get a fruit plate and turkish coffee and the offer of a Cyprus brandy or liquer. All for the price of the entree. She buys all the vegetables fresh each day at the market and so the meze dishes change quite a lot although there are old favourites always there. It’s a fab meal and superb value. We generally start and end a stay in Cyprus with a meal at Tervetuloa. With quarantine and catching up with friends, that hasn’t happened this time so we were delighted to go tonight.
And what a lovely greeting we got! The owner and the head waiter were so pleased to see us. They have really made some lovely changes to the garden over the last two years and it looks amazing. Absolutely beautiful. Efid, the lady owner, has made dozens of natural gourd lamps to illuminate the garden, plus there is a new glass walled dining area. I fell in love with the lamps. I’ve seen them before in the Great Han in Nicosia: dried and lacquered gourds with intricate designs of pinprick holes and decoration of jewelled glass. She is opening a shop in the garden – I shall certainly buy some.
Our meal was as delish as usual. 13-15 cold meze and 5 hot meze, then an entree with salad and chips, a fruit and pastry plate, coffee and brandy, bottle of water. All for the princely sum of £10. It’s such good value. The overall price and quality hasn’t lessened in the 15 years we’ve been visiting them. It was £10 then and it’s £10 now. Incredible value. I had lamb chops and there were 5. Bob had the full kebab which was a lamb chop, lamb shish, chicken shish, lamb meatball and a chicken drumstick. It was all succulent and delicious. They were so attentive and we had a good catchup on what has happened over the last two years. I couldn’t get over how lovely the garden looked. And to cap it all there was a raffle for one of the gourd lights. One of the other diners picked the ticket and Bob won!!!!!! So we’ve got a lovely pendant gourd light. As I say I want to get more for the dining terrace. It will look great. Absolutely love Tervetuloa – heartily recommend dinner (or breakfast) there if you are visiting. Such a lovely friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Got back about 10pm and put the loaf into the oven. It had risen quite a bit. errr well in fact it was over-flowing the tin…. I need to buy a bigger tin……
Such a lovely day. Life felt absolutely normal today. The beach road was buzzing. The bars had live music. We ate in a restaurant. Happiness!
You must log in to post a comment.