Monday March 25th...

We woke this morning to the news that a bailout agreement had been signed but at tremendous costs to those with large deposits in the Cyprus banks.  Feelings of relief were tinged with apprehension as this is clearly just the first step in what is going to be a very long journey for this island.  Although we will not be affected by the depositor haircut we may know people that are and the restructuring of the banks and fiscal constraints will touch us all.  We probably all had a fitful night's sleep but for now the immediate crisis had been averted and we could get on with our lives.

Mum and Dad returned to Emba grateful to have spent the weekend with company and some diversion from the news.  Unfortunately Mum had a tumble in the bedroom before she left.  She managed to get the toe of her boot caught in the corner of the bedspread and went flying.  Not badly hurt it obviously shook her up.

I was going off to art at Sheila and Klaus's and it was a lovely day so I decided to walk down through the village.  I currently have Bird of Paradise envy as the plant in Savvas's garden is about to be in full bloom and mine has been ravaged by the wind.  People are kind and say that the plant takes a couple of years to get established but I think mine is just in the wrong place!

The village was its usual hive of activity!!!  As I said before during the events of last week if we hadn't seen the news we would never have known that there was so much turmoil going on.  They say that ignorance is bliss and actually I think in some circumstances they aren't wrong (whoever 'they' are!).

En route I spoke to Panicos at the supermarket and Bambos at O Stathmos who were both out enjoying some early morning sunshine.  I didn't bother to stop at the post office as it is another bank holiday today and we aren't really expecting anything anyway.

The village bank - along with all the other banks on the island remains firmly closed - apparently some are due to reopen again tomorrow but clearly when they do they are going to have to regulate business so that there isn't a 'run' on them.  We are ok for the moment so wont be joining the rush when they open.

At the end of the road going up to the Cemetary there was a sign to say that the Volkswagen Cyprus Cycling Tour 2013 would be passing through the village.  In fact John said that when he left to go down to badminton he saw a support vehicle and one bike which could have been the leader, a straggler or the sum total of the group!!  This is the second year that this tour has been held and information is available here  Volkswagon Cycling Tour

Whilst at the Knips the mystery of the bird in the field next door has been resolved - Sheila got out her Cyprus bird book and we are 99.9% sure that it is a Giant Spotted Cuckoo and further investigation on the internet would back this up - so many thanks Sheila x

Good progress is being made on my picture and this week Sheila insisted on taking a photograph with me in it!  If nothing else it reminds me that my roots need doing!  Thank goodness I am going to have a trim on Thursday!  Sheila has finished her picture of the elephants so I will look forward to see what she is working on next week.

I walked home via the hotel which is supposedly going to open soon - in fact some people think it is this coming weekend.  They have certainly been throwing resources at it and it is looking very smart.  Unfortunately some of the glass panels around the swimming pool were casualties from the stormy weather last week and have shattered.  This begs the question as to how safe and strong they will be should a child run into them?

John returned from badminton and we both agreed that we would have an early night as the trauma of the last week had taken its toll.  We were eating up the remainder of the tarragon chicken and the strawberries from the weekend.  The tarragon chicken was delicious even second time round - I thought John was going to lick the plate clean!!!  I clearly had a mutant strawberry in my punnet - it should have developed into three but remained fused!