Christmas Eve errands

Friday 24 December 2010

So we went back up to Vournikas early the next morning, leaving the boys sleeping off the first of several hangovers.  We arrived at the press to find a bustling crowd, which the son of the owner explained was due to machinery malfunction that morning, so all the pressing was backed up.  A queue of cars was ahead of us, so we offloaded our olives and arranged to come back in a few days for the oil.  This picture shows our olives - not the heap in the red pickup, but the sad little group of three bags to the right. 

Back at the apartment, the boys had woken up and agreed to come out for lunch at the De Vine Bar.  We found Mad Robbie there, trying to persuade Rob to go and pick parsnips with him.  Rob didn't fancy it.  So I volunteered the boys, and we went up to Robbie's allotment, for a very Christmassy activity:

After this we went for the Turkey, which had been ordered weeks earlier, but by arriving at 5pm we discovered that all the good ones had been sold - ours hadn't been reserved - so it was smaller and scraggier than expected.  I went back for a leg of pork, to ensure no-one starved on the day!

Rob and his flatmate, Holi, had invited us for Christmas lunch, so we took the turkey there, and would have left it for Rob to stuff, if we hadn't seen Rob and Robbie's latest short film 'Chickless at Christmas'.  This is well worth watching, and can be found on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VQzgnldcMc

We finished off the day at Mamma Mia restaurant, grateful for Spiros' help with the scaffolding, and enjoying the warm stove, good atmosphere, and unusual Swedish Christmas food.  George, Richie and Rob were there, and we were joined by Lilias and Patrick, and Newcastle Andy. 

Not being good at knowing when to stop, we went on to Byblos for a drink or two to round off the night, while Richie took off to Lefkas with his mates.