Chefs for the night

We went out with our Eastridge Walking Group this morning and for coffee afterwards.  The café was very busy, but there were two or three little tables dotted around so we gathered them together, along with as many spare chairs as we could find, and somehow managed to fit most of us around the tables.  Everyone had a good chat, but then it was time to say goodbye to the three of us who are leaving - two to Oamaru and one to Australia.  There were hugs and tears all round and it was very emotional.

The next stop was to get my hair cut.  It won’t last until we get back to New Zealand, but hopefully I won’t have to look for a hairdresser until we get to Sweden.  It took some time as I had to wait for my preferred hairdresser.  Afterwards we went to the supermarket to do some shopping, as we were on dinner duty tonight.  Then it was down to St Heliers to have one last pie from the St Heliers Home Cookery.  We sat on a bench by the water, but it was extremely windy and neither of us really enjoyed eating the pies so casually. Usually we sit at a table with the pies on a plate and eat them with a knife and fork - much nicer.

After we’d finished our pies we went to buy some salmon fillets for tonight, then drove home and had an apple and a cup of coffee.  After much trial and tribulation, I managed to purchase an Oyster Visitor Card and was then able to guide MrMacD as he purchased one for himself.  Another task completed thank goodness.

We prepared a load of vegetables for roasting, and while they were in the oven we made Jamie’s One Pan Salmon and Prawn Filo Pie, then it too went into the oven.  Eventually everything was cooked but we couldn’t get the pie out of the pan, so the effect of the crunchy filo was lost a little.  We all enjoyed the meal and a glass of wine.  It wasn’t bad for a first attempt, but we’ll probably make a few adjustments when we try it again.

Top left are our lunch pies, centre is a very colourful pair of boots in a shop window, top right is tonight’s pie and at bottom is a colourfully-decorated car we walked past today.