Our Big Fat Greek Weekend

It was still raining when I got up on Friday morning. After my final Wii Fit workout of the week, I did a load of washing, hung it up to dry in the utility room and wrapped my eBay sales. After breakfast, the rain had finally stopped so we headed into Walsall as I wanted to experiment with the tongs I'd found on our charity shopping trip and needed some heat protection spray. Mission accomplished, it would have been rude to walk past the charity shops without having a look and, needless to say, we found a few bits and pieces.

In addition to this Marc Darcy "Eton" waistcoat (current stock and still on the website), an Indian block printed cotton handkerchief hem dress from hip Mumbai fusion brand, Swadesh; a ridiculous yeti cardi and a 1970s pure new wool paisley print midi skirt by Jaeger. We also found a pack of plant labels, a pair of macrame plant holders and a wood-handled bottle brush in the 50p basket.

The postman had left a parcel while we were out. My lovely friend Gill, who I'd passed Earthly Pleasures on to after I'd read it, had managed to track down the sequel and sent it my way.

After our noodles, I applied some of the heat protection spray I'd bought, which smells absolutely gorgeous, is vegan and packaged in 100% recycled materials and experimented with my tongs. They've got 10 heat settings and, as I'm a bit scared of frazzling my hair (I don't even use a hairdryer), I stuck to the lowest setting. 

Considering it was my first attempt, I'm really impressed! There's definitely shades of Medusa (the Greek snake-haired gorgon who lured sailors to their deaths in ancient times). 

As a nod to the weather, I wore my 1970s India Imports of Rhode Island maxi dress, block-printed with a fish design.  

The rest of the afternoon was spent listing a few things on eBay before catching up with Blogland. Tea was a Middle Eastern vegetable pizza with sweet potato chips and a bottle of Lord Jon's birthday Mythos. In addition to his crate of beer, I'd bought him a hamper of Greek treats and a couple of books that were only available on Amazon so I took advantage of the month's free Prime membership to watch something different on the TV. 

We started Clarkson's Farm on Wednesday night and watched the rest after Gardeners' World, accompanied by a few glasses of rum. Whilst neither of us are fans of Jeremy Clarkson, we'd heard good things about the series and it didn't disappoint, a cross between Countryfile and This Country and a really entertaining watch.

Jon was first up on Saturday, saw to the lads and brought tea back to bed where we lay and read until 8.30am. 

After I'd stripped and changed the bed, loaded the machine and pegged the laundry out on the line we ate sausage sandwiches and got stuck into some jobs outside. Jon did some car stuff while I fed the pot plants and swept up the debris from the lime tree. After a dry start, the rain arrived and I hastily grabbed the washing and hung it up in the utility room. I sorted out the bookshelf and my craft cupboard and filled a bag with donations ready to drop off at the charity shop in the morning. 

By mid-afternoon, the rain had stopped & we were able to venture back outside. Jon had looked out this ancient stepladder from the coal house, we filled the macrame plant holders from yesterday's charity shopping trip, hung them from each side and moved a few of the pot plants to the rungs. Despite the gloom, I decided I needed to wear these enormous pink mirrored sunglasses.

It's the first time I've grown patty pan squash. This variety is Pâtisson, also known as "flying saucer", and should be harvested before it gets any larger than 2 -3 inches in diameter. With all the rain we've had they're going crazy so I picked a few for tea. I think we'll be living on them over the next few weeks.

Dawn, a friend we met through trading at vintage fairs years ago, popped round with a couple of books. She's a regular at the clearance charity shop & keeps buying the books we've donated as we've got the same taste. She very kindly dropped off two Philippa Gregory hardbacks and we had a lovely catch-up.  

I'd bought Jon a hamper of Greek treats for his birthday (from THIS wonderful website) and, despite us going out for a Greek meal on Sunday, he was keen to sample them. We accompanied our stuffed vine leaves, baked Gigantes beans, olives, hummus, Harisa spicy meze and aubergine meze with wholemeal sourdough bread and the patty pans which we'd roasted with Cretan olive oil (bought when we visited last year), thyme from the herb bed and home-grown garlic.

Continuing with the Greek theme we watched the entire series of The Trip to Greece with Rob Brydon & Steve Coogan and drank rum.

On Sunday morning I wandered around the garden in the rain before making tea and bringing it back to bed. After a breakfast of coffee and toast, we drove into town, deposited our bag of donations at the charity shop, had a rummage and then headed to Poundland and Wilko for a few bits and pieces. Not much took our interest, a 1960s lace blouse by Halifax-based designer, Elsie Whiteley, for the stockroom, a spy novel and some workout gear for me (not bad, an entire outfit for £4!) 

Apparently, it's supposed to be warming up this week which comes as a huge relief, there's been a distinctly Autumnal nip in the air over the last few days. I gave my lush velvet Masscob "Badin" jacket the first outing, it was for sale in Liberty earlier this year for £420 but I saved myself  £400 and bought a second hand one from eBay.

I painted my nails in Barry M's Ginger and, especially for Lulu, here's my ginger plant, grown from a Wilko bulb.

The gold chappals were bought from a roadside stall in Kala Ghoda, the hip and happening arts district, in Mumbai last year (it feels like a lifetime ago!) On the subject of India, after our noodles, a lovely man called round to collect an embroidered Indian waistcoat he'd bought from our eBay shop to wear to his daughter's wedding. In normal times, British Asian families would fly to India and buy their gear from specialist wedding shops but Covid's stopped all that. It fitted him a treat and he was absolutely delighted. 

After a lazy afternoon spent reading, we walked down to Wetherspoons and met Tony. 

'Spoons!! The first time we've set foot in there for 17 months. We weren't scared to go, we just couldn't be arsed with table service, sitting outside in the rain, apps, perspex screens and complicated bubbles. Pubs are all about being social, having random conversations with strangers, swapping tables when a better one becomes available and taking it in turns to order rounds from the bar....and now we can! Sanjay, the manager we've known from various Walsall pubs for over 30 years, got a humungous hug and a kiss. 

Walsall's branch of Wetherspoons is called St Matthew's Hall. A magnificent Regency building, built in 1820 in the Greco-Roman style, it was the town's first library. By 1845 it had fallen into a state of disrepair and was modernised internally to become the imposing County Court House. It became a pub in 1998. After dark, the library area (pictured above) becomes a dancefloor, the books are illuminated and the bookcase in the middle swings open to reveal a DJ booth.

After a couple of pints, we caught a taxi to take us two miles up the road, to Kouzina, a family-run Greek Cypriot restaurant. A former transport cafe on the busy Wolverhampton Road, near junction 10 of the M6, it's not in the most picturesque of locations but the Trip Advisor reviews say it's a great place to break up a long car journey (and it is a five-minute walk from Tony's house). 

The interior couldn't be more Greek, painted chairs, wicker lampshades, Orthodox icons, bouzouki music and a warm and friendly welcome. We kicked off with the beer of the gods, Mythos.

Jon and Tony shared this huge platter of souvlaki, gyros, Cypriot sausage and kebabs served with Athenian flatbreads, pickled peppers, chips, lemon wedges and pots of tirokafteri (Feta, yoghurt & pepper dip) and tzatziki (cucumber, garlic & yoghurt).

There was lots of choice for vegetarians. I had a mixed meze platter of Gigantes Plaki (giant white beans in tomato sauce), Dolmades (vine leaves stuffed with spiced rice) and Kolokithokeftedes (courgette & Feta balls). We loved that the food was served on authentic tin plates.

 

I only managed a mouthful of the deserts on offer. I don't have a sweet tooth but the boys soon polished them off - Portokalopita (orange cake), Galaktoboureko (custard & filo pastry) and Melopita (honey pie). We finished the night with tin cups filled with Metaxa, fiery Greek brandy. 

What a feast! When the bill arrived we realised we'd spent more on booze than we did food, disgraceful reprobates that we are! We loved Kouzina and will definitely be back and the food really was as good as any we'd tasted in Greece. Check out their website HERE. (They also have a restaurant in Birmingham's posh department store, Selfridges).

No Wii Fit workout for me this morning, I'm still too full!

See you soon.