Friday, January 9/2009

Maggi picks us up and we go to suburban Livadia to check out the supermarket there. Nice to pick up the bottled water there (what comes out of the tap being suitable for cooking) as it's heavy to bring back when walking. It's a beautiful day - M has been swimming this morning - so we sit in the sun at the corner where the fivew roads meet and drink Cypriot coffee - always served with a glass of water on the side. Like most Cypriot cafes the tables spil out across the sidewalk and into the road.

Now reading, alternately with the Chaplin autobiography, Ann-Marie McDonald's prizewinning Fall on Your Kneew. Very powerfully written.

I learn never to try to roast garlic in the microwave. We have no oven and it seemed like a good idea. I oil the garlic and put it in a cup copvered with a saucer with water in it. However, the result is not glorious pasty roasted garlic but a microwave filled with smoke which J removes to the balcony. So, open patio doors, scented candles and, fortunately, no fire alarm. And the corn on the cob J has bought at Prinos greengrocers is boiled not microwaved as J prefers it. (It's good enough corn, but not a patch on fresh August corn at home).