Wednesday 20th February...

With Jeannette still in the UK and hopefully getting some real help with her eczema I asked Sheila, Jane, Vicki and Pam if they would like to come round and spend some time crafting, chatting and eating here today.  Unfortunately Sheila had to cry off as her hairdresser needed her to go in earlier than her original appointment.  John, Trevor and Running John were going to see the mighty ENAD in a cup game this afternoon so John didn't have to listen to a load of women wittering on!!  Poor John is quite poorly - he has some sort of throat infection thing a bit like Mum and this morning he was in real danger of losing his voice.

He was not a happy bunny either because he was supposed to take the bike down to Marinos today and he got himself all togged up against the elements jumped on it and nothing, and I mean NOTHING would get it to start - it was the battery apparently.  Then we couldn't find a phone number for Marinos and that was the straw that broke the camel's back - very very unhappy bunny.  Eventually John went down to Polis to speak to Marinos and to do some errands and to cut a long story short Marinos is coming tomorrow to take a look. 

It was a very very very windy day and we had some early sunshine which helped to warm the conservatory but the weather deteriorated as the day went on and it became very grey and miserable outside.  Pam had come ready to make a house number in mosaic, Vicki was completing what looked like a very complicated beaded necklace and Jane wanted to make a chunky bracelet as a 60th Birthday present for her friend Marianne.

After a couple of hours of putting beads together and taking them away and adding new ones and taking them away and then trying it on Jane's wrist and taking it away and asking the others and taking it away and then finally coming up with a design we were all fairly happy with we managed to construct a bracelet - the photograph is NOT the finished article because the dangly spiral cages holding the pink beads were TAKEN AWAY!!!  Anyway one bracelet down Jane got into the swing and managed to make two more and a pair of earrings!

I was providing the girlies with lunch today and decided to keep it simple with a mixed salad which included what remains of the very very expensive avocados which were absolutely beautifully ripe (thanks Galadia for the keeping with apples tip) and had a fantastic creamy flavour, my legendary carrot, halloumi and coriander fritters and two dips - homemade sweet lemon oil dip and homemade sweet chilli sauce dip.  John and I had pinched two of the fritters to go with our tea last night but good job we hadn't pinched any more or Sheila had been able to come for lunch as we might not have had enough because all 21 of them disappeared!!  I must thank Jane for making some homemade cookies and bringing them with her and Pam for bringing some very nice chocolate biscuits even though she has had other things on her mind which are much more important.

Trevor arrived to pick up John to take him down to Polis for the football.  Vicki insisted that I took a photograph because this is one of the very very few occasions that you will ever see Trevor wearing anything other than flip flops and shorts.

On a day like today even Trevor had to concede that it would be sensible to wear long trousers and filled in shoes particularly when he would be sitting for a couple of hours in the elements watching ENAD.

On that subject ENAD managed a 2-0 win but the boys had to contend with the elements so it was umbrellas up and umbrellas down and even though John had a bag to enclose his cushions he must have had a blow out as we had to dry them off on his return.

Anyway Pam left shortly after lunch as she had some shopping to do in Polis and after a stab at some Greek Jane and Vicki made their way back home giving me about half an hour before John returned.  He was probably unwise to have gone out sitting in the cold and wet as his throat had got progressively worse - he must be feeling poorly as he did not want any tea tonight - this is practically unheard of.

I received an email with a link to some photographs from Keith (Akamas Cleanup Team) Watkins today which were taken when we went cleaning up back in January.  I hadn't seen the yellow warning sign above - if I had I might have been a bit more careful with what I was picking up!!!  No decision has been made yet about when and where the next one will be but it is going to mid March time.