Just When I Think I Wont Bother...

Just when I think I wont bother with the blog because I am not sure whether or not my witterings are of interest to anyone else several people have said to me "Don't stop the Blog - We love reading it..." so no pressure then - maybe as time goes on I wont find enough to write something everyday but whilst I can I promise I will.

My first job in the mornings (after poo patrol when I am on it) is to go to the beautiful Jacquie Lawson advent calendar which was kindly sent to us by Joani, Roger and Daisy Dog (Plymouth friends).  Today my task was to decorate a virtual Christmas Tree and this is what I ended up with which I hope meets with Joani's approval!!

Once again the weather has continued to surprise us and as you can see at 11.19 today outside was a very respectable 23.8 degrees.  It is fantastic to be able to get washing out and dried - today I did all the heavy jeans type stuff which dried within about half an hour of being hung out!!  Only problem is that now I have a full load of ironing to tackle which I think might be my job on Sunday.

John was doing some DIY today - still working on the pergola between the buildings.  He has borrowed Rays super duper drill - boy it is a big one!!! - as you can see two very inquisitive kittens follow him around whatever he is doing - they are most definitely HIS cats and I only get true cupboard love from them although they have got it all wrong as John is a much softer touch than I am!

We are still waiting for the prices on the triplex stuff - will probably have to call back in on Saturday when we go down to Paphos again. We aren't in any rush but it would be nice to know how much it is going to cost.

Today was my first Christmas Lunch which was being held by Mum's ladies group called Harmony.  Fortunately for me it was being held in Kathikas which is just up the road from us.  Even more fortunately it was being held at Petradaki which is a lovely taverna.  For the princely sum of €20 we enjoyed a three course meal with wine, received a Christmas gift and left a tip for the taverna - now that cant be bad!!!

Here you can see my lovely Mum (on the left) and our old friend Angela. Angela is the reason why Mum and Dad ended up in Cyprus as many years ago they allowed Mum and Dad to stay in the apartment along the Tomb of the Kings Road.  Dad fell in love with the island and the rest, as they say, is history as he and Mum bought a maisonette off-plan which was quite a maverick thing to do in those days and totally out of character for my Dad!  Angela and her husband Richard and girls Anita, Julie and Lorraine used to live in Keinton Mandeville as did Mum, Dad, Kaye and I and so we have a lot of history - we have to be quite careful sometimes not to bore others when we are reminiscing about Keinton but there is a comfort in spending time with people who have known you for years.  Angela and I used to play in a ladies skittle team together - I use the term 'ladies' in the loosest sense as our happy little band were barred from most of the local pubs (on account of their use of colourful language I believe!!).

It was a very nice lunch held at a very nice venue - the Christmas decorations were stunning and although there was bright sunshine outside we all began to feel rather festive.

Mum, Angela and Janice came back to our house for tea and a chat.  Angela and Richard are coming for lunch on Wednesday before they return to the UK for Christmas.  I have forbidden Angela to tell Richard about the changes that we have made to the house as it is a long time since they were both here together.

Having had a hearty lunch and John having finished the remainder of yesterday's curry we both opted for picky bits for tea and then a massive crapTV-fest - I am sorry I know it isn't cool to admit it but I do like watching I'm a Celebrity although I have rather struggled to understand the popularity of Fatima Whitbread over some of the other contestants - I have nothing against Fatima but I did find Antony Cotton much more entertaining!

We managed to stay up until the wee small hours (unbelievably) although I seriously doubt whether my promised lie-in will materialise as John will want to get up and see to the kids - and by the looks of things it will only be a matter of time before they are filling that new basket!!