Thursday 14 February 2013

Wednesday 6th February - Happy Birthday Jeff...


After such a beautiful day yesterday today was the complete opposite, grey, dreary, stormy - typical February!  When I got up this morning the skies were threatening and there were clouds sitting right on top of the Troodos and the mountains looked brooding and black.  It was the sign of things to come - rain and shed loads of it accompanied by rolling mists.

Today Dad had aggravated his muscular problem by trying to put on his socks.  Foolishly he did not stop after the first abortive attempt and tried again two or three more times.  He got his socks on but buggered up his back/bum even more so than before.  He is really struggling and looks to be in quite a lot of pain.


Before the heavy rains started we could hear the sound of the motorised rotavator that is normally driven by the tiny, wizened, bent double old man from Inea with his wife sitting on the back.  We religiously wave and he religiously ignores us.  We were concerned today that the rotavator was being driven by a different more robust looking and younger man.  John is worried that the vehicle that he has coveted since we arrived may have been sold and we are both worried about what has happened to bent double man and his wife.


It being a horrible day with squally showers to start we were all confined to barracks - cats included and Minnie Mou was finding it all very very boring.  MM's ears seem to be improving as we managed to wrestle her into submission and shove a cotton bud in and wiggle it around.  Not quite so much black gungy crap as usual.  MM's eczema still seems to be as bad as ever even though we have been able to give her the antibiotics every day.  Chivvy-pops is back to his normal good looking self and eating everything in sight.


After some heavy rain the skies brightened and we decided to go out in Polis and get some fresh air.  John needed to take his chainsaw back to Maria at Glykkis again as the new bar didn't fit and we thought we could combine it with a trip to Tina's art cafe for tea and stickies.

John parked up and shot off to pay the electricity bill so Dad and I walked through the square en route to Tina's and the heavens opened and with Dad struggling with his hip we couldn't make a dash for it!!  We managed to get in and find a seat indoors.  There was nothing for it but to have a good strong cuppa and a piece of cake and wait for the rain to subside.  John and Dad plumped for an apple/almond cake and I went for a banana/chocolate cake.  Dad can be seen sporting his new fleece which arrived today and was a free gift from the National Geographic when I bought his subscription for Christmas - it could not have arrived at a better time!!

John made a dash to get the car and then made a quicker dash back spitting feathers because the keys were in my handbag and he hadn't realised until he got to the carpark and was soaked to the skin!  He was not a happy chappy I can tell you.

We got back home - in the post I had what was either the first Christmas card of this year or the last from last year!!!

This card was sent from Marion and Chris in France and the postmark showed that it had been posted on 6th December - still better late than never!

Once back home we managed to get in contact with Mum via skype.  She is now up with my sister Kaye in Balsall Common and at some point will be going up to stay with my niece Elena and husband Andy in Hull.

She says that she has been having a lovely time and that her feet haven't touched the ground since she arrived.  Apparently she had a bit of todo with her hand luggage on arrival but we don't know whether someone was trying to be helpful and take it down for her and carry it down the plane or whether it was a mistake - we reckon she was probably too busy chatting to the people next to her to really know what went on!!

Dad felt well enough for us to all go down to Paphos and St Paul's Pillar to celebrate Pickleball Jeff's 70th Birthday.  Jeff is such a nice bloke and has been pretty poorly in the past but seems to have recovered well and over the past I don't know how many months lost three stones or so so is looking fit and healthy as is his lovely wife Lyn who joined him in his weight loss endeavour.


Together they had put on a fantastic party - we were not expected to pay for a thing and Jeff did not want any presents but if anyone wanted to give something donations were going to Cancer Support - a charity which is dear to Jeff's heart.  We managed to get Mum on the phone whilst we were there so that she too could wish him well on his special day.

I will be very impressed if Jeff makes it to pickleball tomorrow!!

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