Year: 2010

More sun, mixed with the cloud and so I made the most of it out in the garden trying to get rid of all the weeds, tha rain had helped along. I did try to speak to Mal in the evening but for some reason Skype was hopeless.

I walked Rosie in the morning and met David walking Jekka. Kenny is in hospital in Istanbul, having his second eye operation this morning. Kenny we all have our fingers crossed for you and wish you a very speedy recovery following the op.

The SUN came out!

I have now added Res’s stray dog’s pictures. If anyone is interested in this very affectionate bitch, please contact me.

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In the morning I went to see Res as she has a stray dog. The dog is lovely about 10 months old. She has been spayed and she is looking for a new home. Res already has enough dogs and can’t keep this one, so I took photos in the hope someone will offer this affectionate dog a new home.

Christa, Robin and I went to Tango to Buddha in the evening. As we arrived, Robin pulled up at the front of the restaurant and a valet opened the drivers door, asked for his keys and said he would park it, obviously his jeep was not smart enough to be left at the front door. Goodness only knows what would have happened had we travelled in my rust bucket!

We entered the restaurant and the waiters took our coats and handed us a cloakroom ticket.  We had booked a table but I don’t know if this is really necessary midweek. We all started with cocktails (16tl each). They were good. I think a glass of wine is 8tl. There is an extensive drinks list and also a wine list, so we took time to choose what we wanted.  We were asked three times for our drinks order and we all got a bit irritated by the waiters hanging around and not giving us time to look. A little over keen.

For the main course Christa had home- made pasta, Robin had the buffalo steak (not quite sure where they get the buffalo in North Cyprus). I chose the chicken fajita. It is a varied menu and something for everyone, vegetarian and children’s meals. My fajita’s were 18tl.  We were also given a basket with a selection of bread and a small dish of dipping oil. Robin asked for his steak ‘blue’ and that was exactly how it was delivered. Following this we all had a sweet but I was dissapointed that the ‘Ginger creme brulee’ was ‘off’. This was followed by 3 Turkish coffees and I was pleased to see that they also brought water with the coffee which many restaurants don’t.

The total bill was 166tl for the three of us. The restaurant has a great ambiance. The prices are, I feel, good value for a restaurant of this quality. Our only negative was the feeling of intrusion by the many waiters. They were hovering all the time and quite frankly a bit too OTT. This is a fairly new restaurant and I guess the waiters will improve! It was a lovely evening with high quality food, both the presentation and taste. The food could not be faulted at all. Excellent! I recommend it highly.

Their telephone number is 0392 815 0701. As we discovered, you have to book in advance for Saturday evenings.

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Where does all this rain come from?! Another wet day with torrential rain in the evening once again. Lunchtime I ran Jill into Girne as her car was being repaired in the garage, roads towards Girne were again resembling lakes.

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Wet, wet, wet. I did all sorts of exciting things like cleaning out kitchen cupboards. I guess Skype played up in the evening, when I tried to speak to Mal, because of the storm!

Talk about living in the clouds!!

I was saddened to learn from the News that John Dankworth has died. We spent many a happy evening at the Stables at Wavendon, in the grounds of his and Cleo Laine’s house. We had also seen them perform many times. A huge loss to jazz music.

I watched the Chelsea v Arsenal game , a predictable result I feel, Chelsea are back at the top of the table.

The photo is Scarlet and Jack on the webcam yesterday.

No surprise that when Rosie and I went out there was frost and frozen puddles! It was so cold during the night and to coin a phrase from one of the bulletin boards, it serves us right for buying ‘concrete tents’.

The sun came out later and so I decided it was far warmer to be outside in the sun and so gave the main gates a coat of Hammerite. The gates haven’t been there that long but are covered in rust. They never seem to paint them properly anyway.

Torin rang in the afternoon and put Scarlet and Jack on the webcam. They are so sweet.

In the evening Robin, Gary, Christa and I went to Buffavento Restaurant in the Besparmak Mountains. It has been extended and much improved and it felt as though we were walking inside a swiss chalet with log fires roaring. Christa and I had brandy sours which were excellent  and Christa and I are very fussy about our brandy sours! Main courses were an average of 25tl but everything else is included, including a large bottle of water! I had kleftico, which I didn’t have to order in advance and the others all had mixed kebab which were huge . In fact Rosie did well as Christa couldn’t eat all of hers, well we did have a lot of mezes first and a huge puffy freshly cooked bread.  Having eaten our main courses and being totally full, there then arrived a bowl of nuts, a plate of fruit AND a plate of popcorn! It was so warm and cosy in there, I think we could have all just fallen asleep at the table. A very enjoyable evening and highly recommended. The service was very good too. Fehran told us that next weekend they are having live music.

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