Tonight we hosted a “soiree” up at our place. We had 7 friends up for drinks and dinner, making us 12 around the table. Pamela and Eddie, Deborah and David and Deborah’s sister, Jacqui, and Heather and Chris. It was blistering hot today, a real step up in the summer stakes. 30C by 9am. The day was spent (for us) getting things prepared for the evening, cooking and swimming to cool off.

Bob had gone to the butcher in Ozankoy to get a very large loin of pork that I had ordered – 5kg – and he also picked up 2 chicken breasts for Pam and Eddie who don’t like pork. They were massive! More like turkey breasts! The butcher always gives you a little present. Today he gave me an extra bag of crackling which meant we had absolutely loads for the dinner.

Lucy and Leon had to work of course, but once they finished they set to with Daisy and were enormous helps – it was a big team effort. We took 2 parts of the kitchen table (it is in 3 sections that dovetail together) and added them to the outside dining table that is already under the pergola and I covered them in white cloths to make a long table with 12 chairs. I was really pleased with the way it looked.

I put the pork in the oven at 230 and it took a good 4.5 hours to roast. The crackling was fantastic. To accompany I did homemade sage and onion stuffing, roast potatoes and green beans. And of course, gravy. Bob did the starter. A retro affair of prawn cocktail. The prawns were absolutely massive and really good. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself.

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Our friends arrived, all together, in an Ozy Taxi minivan at 7. We had drinks around the pool and the terraces for the first hour and then dinner started at 8. With a great deal of team effort, it all went well and we had a really wonderful evening. There was a huge full moon tonight. It was brilliantly silver white. For pudding I had made a lemon boozy cake which I served with blueberries and a shot of iced limoncello. We were still laughing and talking at 1145 when the minivan rolled up again to take everyone home. There is still a midnight to 5am curfew here.

Had such a wonderful evening. Very special.