Tuesday March 12th...

The weather today has been very odd - a sand laden coptic storm with overcast skies, warm temperatures (even here in Droushia) and strong winds.  It was in the 20s even up in Droushia until mid afternoon when the wind became stronger and stronger, the skies even more grey and we had a spot or two of rain.

We were up relatively early as we were going out on a villa hunt for John's family and I wanted to get our tax returns completed, sort out my cash card, book my birthday facial and hand in my request to the electricity board to get our bills electronically.

In the garden this morning we had a very very large hairy caterpillar making its way along the path - this one was as long as my index finger and we gave it a wide berth as some of the hairy caterpillars that are around at the moment have very toxic hairs which can cause a nasty rash and can be quite an irritant to pets.  I managed to scoop it up onto a bit of wood and was about to throw it into the field when I dropped the bugger and so I have no idea quite where it is now.

The windy weather seems to unnerve the cats and they act quite peculiarly.  Fluffer was around early this morning and very vocal - she will be so pleased when Sharon and Sean are over as she will have their undivided attention.  She was being very loving today and wanted to play.  We are a little concerned as she has a couple of sore looking scratches on a leg and on her belly but she seemed unaffected by them.

As I was out giving Fluffs a cuddle and John was out having an early morning coffee (complete with newly cropped hair) Chivers, in his jumper Mark 99, came to see what was going on.

Chivers and Fluffs don't seem to take a lot of notice of one another as long as they keep a reasonable distance between them.  MM is a different story as she hides in the house when Fluffer is around.  We are hopeful that given time the three of them will rub along together without any severe scrapping.

Poor John is fast running out of socks as Chivers continues to scratch any newly formed skin on his back if we remove his jumper.  It is going to be along process but both we and Chivers just need to be patient.  

Personally I think he looks one cool feline when he is sporting a new unhitched polo neck - does anyone have a knitting pattern for cat jumpers I wonder??

I managed to get our tax forms completed - not such an onerous task as the forms are only four pages long and most of the sections are not applicable to us - and remembered to get them copied so I can see what I put this year when it comes to next year!

We set off down into Polis to get the admin bits and pieces out of the way and then on to our villa hunt.  It's hard to imagine what other people think is acceptable or what they are expecting for their money.  I have to say that I emailed the ladies lunch group and got lots of positive responses so we are busy checking them all out and will report back to John's sister as soon as possible. 

We decided to take a break for some lunch and made our first trip this year to yia-yia's at To Karabani.  It seems to have been a long time since we had our last beef gyros and frappe and we thought that the prices might have gone up but it was the same €6 as it has always been.  It was great to be able to sit outside even though it was a bit breezy!

Back on the villa hunt we came across some corkers but when we got back home to do some further inspection we found the prices to be astronomical.  We are beginning to wonder just exactly how can afford the prices they are charging for flights and accommodation in the Summer - no wonder parents want to take their children out of school to take advantage of more reasonable prices.

Some of the villas had the most incredible views although as the summer wears on it is not going to look as green and lush as it does now!

All the wild irises are out at the moment adding a vibrant dash of purply-blue to the landscape reflecting the colours in the sea. We hope that John's family will fall in love with the rugged charm as we have done.

On that note we emailed C&A apartments this morning and got an email straight back inviting us to have a look around tomorrow.  I am going to craft so John is going to go and see whether or not he thinks it will be suitable for his mum and step father.  It doesn't look that inviting from the outside but we are hopeful that the glowing reports on the internet will be reflected by what is on the inside.  We know that fundamentally it will be somewhere for them to sleep and take advantage of suitable facilities when it comes to the bathroom but we don't want them to spend all that money and then be disappointed.  If we had bigger and better bathroom facilities then we would not hesitate to have them here with us even for the three weeks they are planning to stay.

As the weather began to deteriorate we made our way home with all the information we had accumulated.  We are waiting for a few emails and then we can contact Janice and Mick with what we have found and I am sure we will all feel better once something has been booked.

 

We are having a night indoors with the wood burner - John wants to try out a log that Running John has given him to see whether it is a good burner and if so we are going to order a load in readiness for next winter.

For tea we are having a curry made from the leftover leg of lamb we had Sunday.  Trevor would be very proud of me because I have made it from scratch using a recipe which I found on the internet.

I was a bit uncertain about making the curry with the meat still on the bone but I reckoned that this would give extra flavour and, if cooked long enough, all the meat would part company from the bone anyway.

It was absolutely delicious and left us both with a warm glowing feeling inside - I shall be putting it on the food page.