Saturday 11th - Jane and John arrive...

 Two posts again today so read the one below first and then this one

Mum and Dad's great friends Jane and John arrive today for a two week holiday in search of some rest and relaxation and some sun and...

...it has poured with rain ALL day - I blame Sean and Sharon who arrive on Tuesday and who always seem to put the mockers on the weather so note to prospective visitors - check when S&S are coming here and then book a different time!

Kaye and Richard depart for Dubai today - they are going to celebrate their son Matthew's 30th birthday - boy that makes me feel old as Matthew is my nephew and my Godson.

I had to find a recent photograph from his Facebook page - he is a swimming coach in Dubai and a pretty decent swimmer himself.  Looking at his pictures he is obviously having a whale of a time and enjoying everything that Dubai has to offer!  Kaye and Richard may well just cramp his style but I bet he will have lined up some fantastic places for them to visit and some fun times together.  

Happy Birthday Matthew - it would have been lovely to have joined in your celebrations but even though we aren't a million miles away the cost of the flights is just a bit too much for us poor pensioners!

We should have known that it was a wet day today when we opened up the curtains to find a snail sheltering on the underside of one of the shutters!  It has been wet and gloomy all day and very reminiscent of recent summers in the UK.  Tomorrow Vicki and Trevor are off to a dog show in Paphos and if it continues to be wet like it has been today then I said to her it would be just like the dog shows that we used to attend at the Masons Arms in Odcombe when for the last couple of years we were there it absolutely lashed down.  It is such a shame when so much organisation goes into holding these events.  Anyway fingers crossed for NO RAIN tomorrow!

As you know my friend Orexi Elena has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and we had an email today to tell us that it has been confirmed that the cancer is also in the lymph nodes.  We have sent her love and positive thoughts and offered to help out with anything that we can - I may have the pleasure of ferrying her children to football and ballet next week which is no problem and the least I can do.  Like I said - I can do babysitting if the children are straightjacketed and locked in the understairs cupboard. 

We have ALL been confined to barracks today - we didn't even venture down to the supermarket even though my cupboards are pretty bare.   Chivers has been bored all day - this is his bored look - not to be confused with his tired look!  Mi-Mo had been squeaking a lot this morning and I had no idea why - John enlightened me by telling me that she actually wanted to go out to the toilet but it was too wet!  In the end we had to shove her out the backdoor where she did the quickest toilet turnround in history.  They are currently busy wrecking the lounge and John is trying to watch the FA Cup Final so they had better watch out.

The 'indoors' day meant that I had no excuse not to knuckle down and sort out making some birthday cards and gifts.  

Why is it that so many of the people that I love have their birthdays in May?  What on earth happens nine months ago to cause people to celebrate in such an extreme fashion I ask myself?  

After months of apathy on the card-making front I have been galvanized into action - I think I have been motivated and inspired by the beautiful cards that Vicki makes and to be honest I have the gear so I should use it especially as nice personal cards are hard to find here and when you do they cost an arm and a leg.

This 'pebble' picture and my hand drawn and coloured gecko card is for Vicki's birthday and I really hope that she likes them - who would believe that one small picture and one small card could take so much time to create!  

Her birthday is next week just after Mum's and then a few days after that it is Wheelie Helen's so another card and another gift will be in order - I had better get my thinking cap on!  

I said that our food cupboards were looking a bit empty and that we hadn't ventured out to the shops today - things are so bad that I am having to drink black coffee which I rarely do!  Worse than that we are having freezer surprise supper.  The problem with FSS is that I never label the boxes of food that I put away in the freezer and so sometimes we can have a nasty surprise.  It is a bit of a bugger if the dish that you thought looked like chicken curry is stewed apple and you try and serve it with pilau rice and poppadums!

 

Panic ye not - the two boxes on the right contained a pork tagine with preserved lemons and cashew nuts - phew!