Pissouri, Cyprus - road trip with Nikki

Yesterday I received an email from Nikki (owns next door, contacted me after Mick asked her to, introduced me to Kay and Jimmy) asking me if I would like to join her in just driving around and doing some chores. She also wanted to brief me a little on a charity walk I had told her I would do.

Lemon tree, weighed down with fruit, in the village.

Nikki had asked me to meet her at the parking lot in the village as she drives an elderly Miata that she didn't want to try and drive down the eroding road to Sunrise Development.
We drove to a grocery store in Episkopi that she favours as it sells cut flowers. There were, however, no flowers as Green Day (which is a national holiday) had messed up the delivery schedule. It was interesting to explore another supermarket. As it is close to the British base there were even more English products there and Nikki pointed out that all the produce is sourced locally.
Next it was a craft store to get the makings for posters. Nikki is involved in fundraising for a Hospice in Paphos. Her husband died around 8 years ago and there was no Hospice at that point. Since then she has been devoted to its continuation. The 5km walk I will be doing, March 15, will be for the Hospice.
Chores completed we drove to Kyrenia Beach Bar for lunch.

This is the beach that Nicola, Dave and I sunbathed on, still deserted, but the restaurant is now open. The beach is actually Evdimou Beach and the restaurant is named Kyrenia as it is owned by Greek Cypriots who were displaced from Kyrenia (North side of Cyprus) when Turkey invaded.

There was a slight breeze off the sea but the sun was warm enough for us to sit outside and share a Moussaka and salad. Nikki said that now we were in Lent it was actually a good time to ask for vegetarian dishes because they were likely to be freshly made and readily available.

Talk ranged from her life in England, postings in the Middle East as a Navy airmans wife, Chris', her husbands death and her luck in finding John, her desire to move back to Pissouri and her philosophy of living life to the fullest. It is amazing how conversations can be quite intense with near strangers if they and I, are open to it.

I didn't actually drive it - not on the left, manual transmission and after a glass of wine! It was fun just being a passenger.

By the time I got back the sun had sunk behind the Pissouri hill, just picking up the white cliffs over by Kourion so they seem to glow.