Day 144 Seneliai See the Seima Off to London

Grandparents see the family off to London

This is late because the dog ate my homework.  I finished the entry, hit publish and everything went caflooey.  A  paragraph was all that was left.  I was too sleepy to start over, so decided to sleep on it.

David, Tracy and Rosa tiptoed out of the Mano Lisa Guesthouse at 3am Friday  morning.  We whispered goodbyes and gave hugs and waved them away in the taxi before heading back up to bed.  Everyone except me slept a few hours before they left, but I take my responsibility to stay awake and will the alarms to go off and the taxi to arrive on time quite seriously.  I personally set a clock and two phones, and I know the kids set at least one phone, but had I gone to sleep, who knows if any of them would have gone off.  The taxi arrived right on time.  It took me a while to get to sleep, because of the leftover fear that the taxi would not arrive.  My paranoia regarding transportation to public transportation is boundless.  I found a store in Rhodes called Paranoia, by the way.  Didn't go in, but assume they sell what I manufacture in my own little head for free.  Don't know if they sell online in case I ever come up short before a big trip.

Del had to get up early to review his notes for his lecture, but I slept in until nearly 8 and went to breakfast with him.  I had a quiet day, window shopping all around and then came back to the hotel for a little nap.  We had a thunder storm, so I didn't want to get back out.

Del called a bit before 8 to suggest we meet at the Belgain restaurant for dinner.  I had mussels served with Belgian fries and he had wonderful salmon with truffle sauce.  We had never tasted truffles before, and I had always wondered what the fuss was about.  From last night's dinner experience, I say keep those little piggies sniffing.  Truffles taste wonderful.  The fries were served in a ceramic cone that stood in a metal base.  It looked like a parchment paper cone.  I had assumed the fries would be served with mayonnaise, but it was really a mayonnaise sauce with mustard seeds.  I don't know that I get the idea of fries with mussels, but apparently it is standard.  You could get the mussels cooked in about 10 different types of broth, but we chose wine, garlic and parsley.  Quite yummy.  They were served in what looked like one of those pasta pots that were popular when Tracy and David got married with a bowl shaped lid that came off and served as the shell saver. The poor servers were overwhelmed and service was terribly slow, so we decided we would pass on dessert.  Poor service is not something we have seen here before this.

Besides, we still had some of Audrone's wonderful cake.  I had emailed to compliment it and ask for the recipe after Joris felt better, and she sent it.  I thought I would put it in Blog so I wouldn't lose it.  She calls it lazy cake,

Cake - "Lazy"
You will need:

• Three and a half packet cookies - 630 g
• 200 g. butter (82% fat)
• 2-3 with a tablespoon cocoa (baker's cocoa) - for me, the best is this “brand” - http://www.prieskoniai.lt/produkcija/riesutai.htm 
• 1 sweetened Condensed milk - about 200 g

First break the biscuits to the large bowl. Then melt butter in another bowl, in it add mixtures 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa and all sweetened condensed milk. Everything is poured onto the biscuits, stir with a tablespoon. Mass placed in a nutrient film and compress. Put cake in to refrigerate at least 3 hours or preferably overnight.  Keep in refrigerator.

I think I will use Lorna Doones or vanilla wafers.  I think from looking at a slice of the cake, some of the cookies are broken in small pieces, almost crumbs, and some in chunks so that the slice looks quite pretty white against chocolate=almosst like macademia nut slices, but some bigger.  It is ideal, I think, because it requires no flour, no oven and is not too sweet.  It will be a good memory of our friends.

Joris did not have the chicken pox.  The syptoms have disappeared, but they took him back to the doctors for some tests to see what he did have.  We will look forward to seeing him when we get back.

From the title of this post, you can see that the word for grandparents is seneilai.  I don't know that I feel all together comfortable with the words it brings to mind - senile, senility.....