Life in a Letter: House of Mather goes picnicing

This morning was a little hazy, mainly due to way to much alcohol last night, although I was doing remarkably well, as opposed to My Beloved who was dying, the living room looked like a hurricane had swept through, I tidied up and left My Beloved nursing his head.

When he eventually did get out of bed I mentioned the picnic and yes was the reply, although his green colour did rather match the salad I was going to prepare. But I set about preparing the food for our adventure, now I had purposefully hidden away a packet of cheese puffs for our picnic, the trouble is I forgot to leave myself a note of their whereabouts, I hunted everywhere and I could not find the pesky little orange puffs, so no cheese puffs for our picnic then. I cut up peppers and carrots, took out the cheese and pate, and two rather brown hoagies I had bought for My Beloved, the cutlery and plates were the new bamboo biodegradable ones I had purchased in Herzliyya, a large bottle of water kept chilled in the wine bag and we were ready.

We left the house, hit the bank, then we were trundling down the hill, destination unknown as yet. My Beloved not being quite himself had us on the wrong road, but that sorted we headed for the beach, and a sun bed, we found both, the beach was heaving with folk enjoying the weather and because it was Shabbat there was lots of families out.

We settled into our sun beds, I applied my sun cream, My Beloved had applied his before we left, and we were rocking, the sun was lovely, and the breeze was enough to stop the smell of burning flesh.

My Beloved ordered a beer as this was his idea of a cure for his still lingering sore head, the cure worked and my cappachino hit the spot. Lunch was lush the cooler bag worked a treat and the picnic was as cool as it should be. We watched the world around us, the children playing in the sand, the adults drinking and eating and the water lapping at the sand. I had an urge for some watermelon so the lovely Russian waitress took our order, I think she must have walked to Tel Aviv for it though as it took an age to come, but it was worth the wait, so tasty, and cool and way to much for two people.

There was a table of people just behind us, so I took the plate of watermelon over and offered them the plate, I got talking to them and they asked where we came from "Haifa", haha, then we chatted about Glenfiddich and the ridiculous price of cars in Israel, 110% import tax on all cars, so next time my fellow Brits go to buy a car, spare a thought for the Israelis who pay twice as much and a bit more for the same car.

We eventually took ourselves back to the car, and My Beloved drove me to downtown to show me the best wine store in Haifa, the best Butchers, grocers and fish shop too, Mickey the welder had taken My Beloved on a tour of the shops, because in these shops we can get the best prices, and the best of meats, fish and vegetables, oh yeah and of course wine. We drove up the street by Wadi Nisnas, and I became very uncomfortable the street is more like an alley and very narrow, I was breathing in, then we came to a stop, the woman in front had just hit a gentleman who was walking up the alley, and he was none to happy, pulled open her car door and raged at her, cant say I blame him.

We then drove home, My Beloved checked his email, and had a couple of phone calls to deal with, and I got myself ready for our evening out.

I was taking My Beloved out for an early birthday surprise and he had no idea where we were going, all I had told him was that he had not been to this restaurant before, many questions had been asked, but I held my ground. When My Beloved eventually stopped listening to his Beloved Newcastle on the computer he took a shower, now the fun started, the silly man couldn't understand why the water was hurting his feet, until he looked down that is, having applied his sun cream at home with his trainers on, he had forgotten to cream them when he arrived at the beach, they were scarlet, I'm sorry but I couldn't stop laughing, 46 tomorrow and still a wally....

We left the house and I took him on a detour around the Carmel Centre so he wouldn't know until the last minute where he was going, Viola we arrived at the door, the restaurant is called Voila and it was lovely, the gentleman I had spoken to the previous day when I made the reservation welcomed us and the waitress took us to our table, the menu was amazing, so much choice, I couldn't decide what to order, the waitress told us about the special of scallops so that was me sorted, My Beloved chose a Beef fillet with pepper sauce and a rosti, and for a starter we shared a phenomenal dish a puff pastry base with thinly sliced apples around the edge with baked camembert in the middle and it was truly delicious.

My Beloved was very happy with the choice I had made, and so was I service, setting, food all 10/10, the only downside was My Beloved's feet, by this stage they were starting to throb from his misuse of the sun cream. We had a lovely evening, and walked home two very happy bunnies.

When we arrived home, My Beloved kicked off his shoes and I had to apply ice, then yoghurt to try and cool the heat in his feet, I gave My Beloved his birthday present a lovely bottle of Double espresso vodka, chilled nicely and tasting even better. He hobbled off to bed and dragged the sheets off the end of the bed so as to alleviate the pain to his torture puppies. And so ended a lovely day spent with My Beloved, pampering his needs.