A pleasant night with friends!



We chat a lot with my younger sister before turning in, but she leaves again in the morning for work . I come to the restaurant alone.

I see familiar faces here and one or two members of the staff remember me from last year. Maria offers to find me a nice seat and she asks where I am going next. The hotel is full and the buffet is busy as always.


The whole day I am at the beach swimming mostly, walking or just sitting under the umbrella for a while before I get in the sea again.



There is a lady in her 30's sitting a metre from me with a little boy not more than 4 years old. What she is doing the whole morning is lying under the burning sun without an umbrella or a hat on and the only moments she is up she steps in the water to splash water on her body and lies again. She seems burnt all over covered in oil and reminds me of roasted meat! The boy is playing quietly all around her but she does not even bother to cast him a glance . From time to time and with closed eyes she calls him to see if he is playing around.

She is Russian and this surprises me because usually Russians spend hours in the sea and not outside. They love the sea and you won’t see them much around swimming pools, something that British do a lot.

 

Twice the plastic toys are dragged in the water away from the boy and I fetch them to him but she isn’t cottoned on what is going on. Russians are the only tourists who have distant manners and they are chillsome. They are so arrogant and haughty….at least this is the majority of them who come to the island. I do have Russian friends who are nice but I am talking of the wealthy mafia ones. You can hardly get a word from them and they have no regard for the others.

Between us I want to get up and punch her on the face!

What kind of mother she is anyway!

 

In the afternoon I have my massage . It is amazing how somebody feels after a good body massage especially if it is given from a specialist.



Dinner is once again interesting. The theme this evening is 'International cuisine’ with live guitar music and singing of international popular songs –a collection of old classics.



There is a wedding reception taking place outside by the beach garden and I am told that the newlyweds come from Larnaca.

I finish with my seafood dish –the buffet again tonight is excellent, and I hurry outside to see if I come across any friend or acquaintance.

I take a few photos. The people are in a queue waiting patiently in line to come to the couple and congratulate them.

I receive a call from my sister to meet her by the entrance in a few minutes . She is on her way she says. I come to the entrance and indeed I come across two friends from Larnaca and a neighbour.



Evro is here after all! She arrives holding a paper bag with all sorts of cheese, ham, and dainty morsel. Yesterday she brought along a bottle of fine wine from Santorini -kind of sweet for me though.

She tells me that some close friends of ours who are also invited in the wedding ceremony will drop by and join us in a while.

Wow! It will be fun I know. So I am having some good company tonight after all.



Last night I asked the chef that it would be a nice idea to have ‘dachtila’ –a very special traditional Cypriot recipe and he told me that he will have some for me this evening. When I checked with the kitchen earlier the lady apologized but assured me that she will prepare some for me and have them sent to the suite .



Our friends come and minutes later a plate of this Cypriot delicacy is brought to the suite. I instantly call and thank the lady.



The night is interesting, my sister reels off what she brought, we have the champagne opened, there is still some wine left from last night and the (party is on). The tap from the champagne launches as a rocket over the roof of the suite –pity though because my sister has a collection of them and she will miss this one! There is much teasing and laughter and our friends leave half an hour after midnight.


*****Dachtila’ the Cypriot delicacy proved to be very delicious and they were just as I expected them to be -in syrup and yet crunchy sprinkled with some cinnamon. The filling is made of coarsely milled dry almonds and custard sugar.