Saturday April 13th...

It's official Spring is most definitely here - it must be as we were embarking on shed cleaning both John's and mine.  We opted to start with John's as it was by far the bigger of the two jobs - with no room to move in his shed we have been piling stuff just inside the door for months.  It was time to be thorough and it was time to be ruthless.  We are brilliant at saving bits and pieces just in case they become useful at some point in the future and are loathe to throw them way because as sure as eggs is eggs whatever it is that we throw away we are bound to want shortly afterwards but we were going to be brave bunnies and what might have had some value to someone else was put in a pile for Irene to sell for her feral cats and everything else was going into the green wheelie bin.  As I have said before cleaning is cathartic and it felt so good to have a place for everything and everything in its place and John could actually see the floor in his shed - woooohooooo - a sweep stake has now been started as to when we have to do this job again! My shed was a much quicker job as we had done this one only recently and it just needed a few things moved and rearranged and we could see the floor in that one too.

Having decided that it was most definitely Spring and with a day of glorious sunshine to reinforce the fact we felt the time had come to pack away the winter rugs which we use to keep our feet warm - the tiles are lovely but they are bloody cold in the winter.  This meant that I had some Cypriot 'washing down' to do as the dust has nowhere to go!  Chivers was very wary of the mop - he didn't actually attack it but followed it around as I was slooshing the floors.

John gave the pool another good clean - we have done the sides where a scum of suntan lotion, chemicals and limescale seems to accumulate.  The only trouble is that with a liner and not tiles the cleaner is a bit strong and on one side has taken off the pattern!  We are going to let the liner limp on for one more year and then look at replacing it next year although with the temperature at only just 56 degrees it needs to go some for me to get into it and at this rate we may only get five months' swimming out of it.

With chores done I decided to go out and about with my camera to see what I could snap in the garden.  I really must try and collar Nicky or someone to give me a bit more instruction on my cameras so that I can get them best out of them - too many of my photographs are 'happy accidents' rather than planned shots.  

The green bug on the right is a weeny little thing measuring no more than about a centimeter in total.  It had been outside the back door but had made its way round to one of the hibiscus plants on the decking at the back.  No idea what it is!  The garden is currently a riot of colour and all the flowers are attracting bees, bugs and butterflies - it is our favourite time of the year with warm days and cool nights that allow us to sleep in comfort.

We had had a call from our friends Nicky and Mark who bought Mum and Dad's old house in Emba, to go down tonight to catch up as they had had to cancel our last get together.  For a while it was a little strange to go back to a house that we had known and loved and seen built and spent many a happy holiday in but Nicky and Mark are stamping their own style on it and this time they had almost finished decorating the sunroom and I love it although I would be hopeless with the white - one glass of something and it would be ruined!   I love the clean lines but we are clutter bunnies and so I would struggle to get rid of the 'things' that surround us in the house and which have so many memories.  John says he would declutter but I am not so sure!

After a quick drink at home we  eventually got to go to Poppadums for a curry.  

This is the first time in two years that John and I have been out for a curry in a curry house.  We have had plenty of curries at people's homes but not had a takeaway or a sit-down so we were quite excited as Nicky and Mark are big fans and had been keen to go with us and we were ready for it having had a weevil and a biscuit for lunch (once again Janet I am sorry for not feeding your son!).  It was a lovely evening as we arrived with the sun going down and warm temperatures down by the coast.

It was good to see that the restaurant was pretty busy with both sit in diners and those calling for takeaway - including Mum's neighbour Raymondo who was able to advise me on the lamb dishes!  I am always a bit reticent to order lamb over here - it could be goat for a start and even if not can be a bit on the chewy side with a much stronger flavour than we are used to.  His recommendations meant that I plumped for the lamb pasanda which was delicious although I probably could have eaten twice as much.  Again we are a bit out of touch with prices so our meal came to €50 per couple - we had poppadums and dips to start followed by our curries then Nicky and John had puddings whilst Mark and I had coffees and we had a drink each with the meal.  Our entertainment was provided by a sitarist!  All in all a very pleasant evening.  We are now keen to grab a takeaway from the Indian in Peyia so we can compare, quality, quantity and cost!