Tuesday 11 December 2012

Calendar Girls...


Look at this wonderful weather - can you believe that this time last week we were on the beach and we swam in the sea??  The forecast was for poor weather this week and they were right (unfortunately).  It was cold, barely daylight and bucketing down.

On days like today we are so very grateful to have the conservatory that joins the two buildings so we don't have to do the desperate dash between them - God knows how we managed last year as the conservatory wasn't completed until February!

John was taking me down to Paphos this evening and leaving me at Mum and Dads because Mum had got tickets for her and I to go and see an amateur production of Calendar Girls at Stage One theatre in Emba and so I was going to have my tea there and then stay over afterwards.

We had decided that we would spend the day getting out our Christmas Decorations and decking up the house so that when Mum and Dad come up tomorrow and stay over it will look and feel festive!

We usually have a bit of a difference in opinion as to how many decorations we actually put up so that the house looks more stylish than Santa's Grotto!! 

We got the boxes of decorations down from the loft and started with the fireplace and our trusty old garland which needs a bit of TLC every time we take it out!

John dotted various Father Christmases, snowmen and angels around before digging out his beloved rope light which has graced many a party in its time.

The rope light originally came from Cyprus and we bought it and took it back to the UK with us - it was brilliant for decorating a gazebo for a barbecue when the weather was kind!

We put it up and left it going and it looked fine and then it suddenly went out - never to work again even though John took it all to pieces and found that there was a fuse that had blown.  He is gutted because none of the other lights have quite the same appeal and we never checked them and we are going to need some replacement bulbs.

Christmas fairy lights used to be cheap as chips over here years ago but now they seem to cost an arm and a leg - no idea why!

I carried on with my job which was to decorate our little tree.  We don't have much space so a small tree is ideal and, as we can put it on top of the drinks chiller, it should be out of harm's way as far as the cats are concerned!

We had just completed the decorations and were sitting down admiring our handiwork when we decided to have a coffee and it was at that point that John discovered that my fridge (bought specifically to work out here in Cyprus and which matches the freezer) had given up the ghost.

This was not good news.  Bless John he set to with his electrical tester thingy trying to find out which bit had died.  He managed to identify that the capacitor was duff so he was hopeful that if he could replace it then the fridge might work again.  Fortunately Dad knows a place in Paphos that sells electrical components so we decided to get ready and head on down to Paphos earlier than we had planned.  John had been going anyway to pick up the bits and pieces that the conservatory people had promised to let him have.

We shot into the Euroshop to pick up some bits and pieces (Christmas Toblerone supplies for one) and the One Stop DIY shop next door (door locks and polythene for the wood store) then down to Fitos' Framing Shop to get my latest picture framed, Kolios Butchers for a box of red wine and Nikolaos for the replacement capacitor before making our way to Emba via the glazing people.

I waited in Paps car park whilst John went across the road to get the conservatory bits.  Paps decorations are looking a little worse for wear as the snowman is a grubby shade of grey!!

John was ages across the road - I thought they had decided to sell him into white slavery but he eventually appeared with some aluminium panelling and rubber seals and the door brush thing we need to stop the draft. 

As the panelling was hanging out the back of the car he didn't hang around at Mum and Dad's and set off back to Droushia whilst it was still light.

I had a lovely tea at Mum's - she had done a pork cobbler recipe with fresh veg and it was very tasty and most welcome! 

Dad took Mum, neighbour Janice and I down to the theatre as it was cold and blowing a gale!  and he picked us afterwards - brilliant!!

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Calendar Girls which is apparently (according to the Author Tim Firth) currently holding the record for being the amateur production taking place furthest away from Yorkshire!

It was very well done - very clever use of the scenery and bless the actresses who did, in fact, take their clothes off.  Mum probably learnt a couple of words she wasn't overly familiar with during the course of the performance!

All in all a lovely evening!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.