Friday - Christmas Shopping in Limassol...

Today I was taking Mum to Limassol for a little bit of retail therapy so I had arranged to pick her up from Emba after she had come back from having her hair done.  I took the more scenic route down through Peyia which enabled me to get some petrol and to stop at the Alpha bank in Kissonerga to get some cash.  

On arriving at Mum and Dad's dad was sat outside enjoying some early sunshine and reading the newspaper reports regarding the impending agreement with the Troika.  Dad was going into Paphos to pay their house insurance so I asked him to do ours at the same time and also asked him to go into Super Home Centre to pick up a second set of shelves as John is keen to sort out my shed at the weekend and to get things a bit more organised.  

After a bit of a discussion about whether or not we were going to be too hot Mum and I set off at about 10.00 heading for the Mecca which is Jumbos.

We had a very uneventful trip to Limassol (unlike the trip back - more of which later) and found Jumbo's with ease and parked up without any trouble - we had obviously missed the rush.

Jumbo's had just about everything you would want by way of Christmas decoration and Mum was sorely tempted to invest in a Mrs Claus outfit for Christmas Day - if nothing else it would keep her warm and cosy!!!  I did manage to persuade her to put it back!

We adopted a methodical approach to the shop - starting upstairs so that Mum could find something for the two grandchildren which are about to be born to two of the sons of her neighbour across the road.  It was easy as they had a really lovely selection of baby-grows and sleep-suits in blue and pink and as Mum knows that one is a girl and the other a boy it made it simple to make a selection and they were so reasonably priced.

We then snaked our way up and down the aisles and I was such a good girl because I absolutely love Christmas Decorations and could have gone mad!!  

Would you believe it that halfway round we bumped into Curry Rival Chris and her husband from Prodromi who had heard me talking to Mum and thought that they recognised the voice.  I have to keep an eye on Mum as she seems to manage to chat up no end of men on her way round - at one point she was invited to go listen to some bloke singing karaoke!!!  

I don't know whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing if there were a Jumbos in Paphos - it certainly wouldn't be so far to travel but I could just see me spending money I didn't need to spend.  I did keep to the things that I wanted but a little Christmas table runner and nibbles dish managed to find their way into my basket.

We moved on to My Mall so we could have some lunch and indulge Mum's one little weakness that is Kentucky Fried Chicken!  We had a bit of a detour trying to get to the Mall as the road system is constantly being changed but we got there and we got our bargain bucket and thoroughly enjoyed it although we had to take our doggy bucket back to the car as we were stinking shops out!!! 

Mum and I both managed to pick up one or two little gifts for our Christmas stockings and had a good old look round - it is a nice environment and the shops are more like I would have been used to in England although God knows how it survives as I have never been there and seen it busy.  Maybe the crisis is taking its toll and I remembered that last year the Christmas decorations here were stunning but this year they were completely pared down to the point that we nearly missed them.

We had planned to take the old coast road home from My Mall but unfortunately the exit road currently leads nowhere so we had quite a struggle getting onto any sort of road we recognised and eventually ended up back on the motorway.  This is where the problems started.  Mum and I were busy gassing when we realised that the car on the hard shoulder was an unmarked police car and the policeman had a speed gun pointing at me and, as I was driving downhill at the time, I was not keeping to the speed limit - I could have kicked myself because I am very aware that there are always police on the motorway and I try to religiously keep to the 100Km speed limit.

We said a quiet bugger to ourselves and decided that there was nothing we could do about it and continued on our way home getting off of the motorway and stopping at the Rocks of Aphrodite to take a couple of photographs because it looked so beautiful.  We then continued on our way in the hopes of finding the wool shop that Wendy had found in Geroskipou.  This was a challenge in itself but eventually we found it - it is Zakos!  The woman inside is very helpful and has quite a range of the wool that is used for making the fancy scarves.  In fact she had such a range that I didn't feel I could make a choice for Crafty Jane so I shall suggest that we go together and have a look.

I dropped Mum off and decided that I would drive back via Peyia as I find the other way up the Polis Road a bit boring at night.  As I passed along Banana Bay the sun was setting and I stopped off to take a photograph of the sun before heading back home - it was all going so well until I was stopped by the Police as I drove up the hill by the Pikni Forrest and received a speeding fine of €50 and two points on my licence.  Not quite what I had in mind for Christmas and it did make the shopping day rather expensive and if I was caught on the motorway it will have made it really expensive.  I was not impressed but at the end of the day I had no-one but myself to blame.  Years and years of a clean driving licence gone - BUGGER!!