Thursday February 7th...

Today was such a different day to yesterday - fine and bright and warm.  Dad is still struggling but at least he allowed me to put his socks on for him this morning!  John was up and out of bed early and we had all three cats around.  Chivvy Pops was very very brave choosing the safety of the kitchen door when Fluffer was out and about asking for food - he doesn't know quite what to do about her so he does nothing - he is such a coward!!

The goats were back in the field today.  They looked desperately in need of milking and I don't know why but I never realised that the nanny goats also had horns and some pretty impressive ones at that - cos I am assuming they don't milk male goats!!!  This one has her "I've Just Seen the Camera" face on - either that or she is saying to the one behind "There's that stupid woman who is always taking our photograph".  Goats are just so yesterday as far as Chivers is concerned as he seems to ignore them now.

I was off to pickleball today so had to leave lunch ready for John and Dad, not that they are incapable of getting their own lunches I just know that left to their own devices they would grab what was convenient rather than what I had earmarked to feed them.  Today they were having Koupes and Salad - Koupes (the non vegetarian version) have a crust which is made of bulgar wheat, flour, oil, salt and egg and stuffed with ground meat, lots of onions, parsley and spices.  We had bought these from Paps earlier in the week and I have to say they were some of the best that I have eaten and at €1.58 each for the main part of your meal are a bit of a bargain to boot.  Probably not a very healthy option as they are a bit on the greasy side when you buy them but I try and get rid of as much of this as possible.

Vicki was coming with me to try out pickleball.  Both Trevor and Vicki had been coming but Cytanet had not arrived early enough so Trevor waited for them at home.  I am thinking that this was not a bad idea because if Trevor is anything like John then the Trevor Vicki combination would be as bad as the John Jill combination where Jill is left feeling a complete duffer because her game is not to John's standard!!!  At the moment with John playing badminton and me playing pickleball we dont rub each other up the wrong way and can both enjoy our respective sports.

Tom, Jeff and Jenny made Vicki very welcome and it was only a matter of time before she had got into the swing of the game.  It was clear that she had played a racquet sport before and she mastered the serve very quickly.  It will only be a matter of time and practice before she times her shots to work with the airball on sprung floor combination which takes a bit of getting used to.

We left armed with oranges and satsumas courtesy of Jenny who had picked them fresh off of her trees that morning - you can't get better than that!!!  As we were down in Paphos we took the opportunity to go to Lidl, GB's and the Euroshop to pick up some bits and pieces that we cannot get in Polis.  

We took a bit longer to get back to our neck of the woods than anticipated so we had to arrange to meet John with Running John and Susan at Trevor and Vicki's.  Whilst Running John was away he had had some keyhole surgery on his knee and had come home armed with a stitch removal kit.  I had asked Vicki if she would be happy to do the honours.  Running John had already managed to remove one of the stitches but there should have been another still needing to come out - it took a pair of spectacles and a torch to locate it but it was located and duly removed.

Job done!