Today was Daisy’s birthday and we are so pleased to have her here to celebrate. She wants to do some diving in the UK so we had dug out my drysuit which would fit her and booked a drysuit familiarisation with our local friendly dive shop, Scuba Shack on Escape Beach. We went down after lunch and as part of her familiarisation, we took firm steps back and let her and the instructor get on with it. She has always dived with us since the age of 10 so she now needs to get used to diving with others as frankly we won’t be diving in the UK again anytime soon or indeed in this lifetime!!!!! They disappeared off and then re-appeared 45 minutes later, Daisy having practised using the suit rather more than I suspect she’ll ever have to do again. The other surprise was that the zip leaked and it turned into a wetsuit dive after all. Not that she noticed till she got out. We will have to get that fixed back in the UK. We are all going again on Tuesday, not with the drysuit, so that will be fun and she can dive with someone else again.
We also had a quick run to China Bazaar this morning so that Fran and Janet could buy new cabin bags for their return home. They were successful. Bob and I looked for new white cereal plates – we seem to have lost a few this year – but they didn’t have any. We bumped into Chris and Mick while we were there. Having dinner with them later in the week before they return to the UK.
Tonight we went for Daisy’s birthday dinner at Driftwood restaurant in Lapta. Her special request and definitely no hardship for us. Bob (Janet’s husband) wasnt feeling 100% so he stayed behind and our guests went by taxi and we followed by car. The restaurant was busy as usual – it is justifiably extremely popular. We had booked to eat on the overwater deck but it was just too windy so we ate inside with the big windows open next to us.
Amazing dinner. They bring you a few plates of appetizer meze starters but it is very much a European style restaurant. We just dived into main courses. Daisy and I both had fillet steak with blue cheese sauce – cooked rare. Bob had pepper steak. Fran had kleftiko. Dave had fillet steak in blue cheese pasta, and Janet had surf and turf fillet steak. Honestly, the steaks were outstanding as were the sauces. The mains were served with a variety of side plates of mashed potatoes, chips, salad and vegetable selection. There was just loads and the service was immaculate. After we had finished our mains – all voted amazing by the way – the whole waiting staff turned up with a firework chocolate ganache birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday – or a different version of it to Daisy. It was so amazing. So funny…. so lovely….. the cake was as delicious as it looked and we have come home with some. Would have loved Lucy and Geri to have been with us.
After dinner they served us coffee and tea with the obligatory big old pour of brandy or coffee liquor. Fantastic. Our dear friends treated us to the meal which was a very reasonable £22 per head including drinks and service. Incredible!
A great night and a birthday to remember.