Friday March 15th - the lull before the storm...

As I am writing this post retrospectively I can quite rightly say that Friday was the calm before the storm that erupted all over Cyprus and filtered out across Europe and the rest of the World with the bail out announcement that was to come tomorrow morning.  As I write this we are holding our breaths as to what the Cypriot parliament will decide and hopefully by the time you read this some calm will be restored.

Today was, even by Cypriot standards, remarkably warm for this time of year and we were contemplating clearing out the wood burner and just relying on the gas fire from now on.  Looking back on the blog I know that we continued to light fires until the end of March so this is a really positive thing and we have burned nowhere near as much wood this winter as we did the last.  

Bright sunny and warm mornings make you feel so much more like doing things and so we have decided that next week we will start some of the spring DIY tasks that we have been putting off.  Chivers did not join in with that conversation - preferring to settle on our bed in a spot where the sun was shining through and John wrapped him up in a pair of bed shorts calling him our 'caped crusader'.  Chivers was not phased by this at all and remained in that position snoozing for the whole of the morning.

We were off down into Polis this morning to check out the C&A apartments for a second time, for John to play badders, for me to do the shopping and return Helen and Al's keys but before we set off I took a turn round the garden as everyday something else seems to have sprung into life.  Although a lot of people consider the wild garlic to be a horrible and smelly weed you cannot deny that the flowering head is pretty and  I only have a little in the front garden which I am able to keep under control.  The little bits of orange flowering succulent that I pinched from Helen and Al's seems to have taken and is in the trough in front of the mirror under the pergola.  Apparently it doesn't flower for long so I will make the most of it.

We had a visitor in the garden this morning - Buster.  This is the cat that Irene is hoping will settle up here along with the other cats she feeds on a regular basis.  We think he must have belonged to someone previously as he is relatively approachable and having been done doesn't seem to pose a threat to either Chivers or Minnie.  He is a bit of a gentle giant as he is a huge and solid cat - I know because I had him sitting on my lap at one point!

During the day he stayed around the garden but was quite desperate to come indoors and would stare through the glass looking longingly at us.  Unfortunately we were later to find out that once there was no-one at home he set off and managed to find his way back to Irene's - we have told her to try him back here again because with Sharon and Sean here on holiday there will be more than one house with someone around who will make a fuss of him and speak to him.  She can but try - unless anyone reading this would like to give a home to him in which case please let me know.

We went off down to Polis and managed to have another look around the C&A apartments and the studio which is available for the time when John's mum and step father want to visit.  Because of the bathroom requirements this really is their best option as the whole place has been designed with a wheelchair user in mind.  It is functional because it has to be and so there are no frills - having said that the family which run it could not be nicer.

We have reported back to John's Mum and they have decided to go for it and so they are off to book their flights over the weekend.  We have provisionally made a booking and once the flights are confirmed will be able to go and pay the deposit.  They are excited and so are we.

Whilst John was playing badminton I did the bit of shopping I wanted - looking back I probably should have done a mega shop as I had forgotten that it was a bank holiday on Monday and as it has transpired Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be treated as bank holidays as well while the island sorts itself out.  I called into Helen and Al's to return their key and to catch up with them and hear about their holiday.  They have both come back feeling poorly with dreaded sore throats and coughs.

The beautiful day gave way to a cool evening with a rolling mist coming across the fields.  We were out tonight having been invited to Trevor and Vicki's for our first Trevor Curry.  I was a duffer as I had removed the SD card from the camera to send the photographs of C&A to John's mum and forgot to put it back so was unable to take any shots Chez Hazzell where we enjoyed a very pleasant evening together with their neighbours Phil and Barbara.  There was some loud but good natured banter surrounding the Senior Service there being a representative from the Navy, Army and RAF around the table - as John said - don't make me print it out!  But if you are in any doubt Wikipedia says ...

...The Royal Navy (RN) is the principal naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Tracing its origins to the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service.