Saturday April 20th...

John had arranged to go with Trev, Mark and John down to Emba to remove two trees from outside the house that Mum and Dad used to own and which now belongs to Nicki and Mark.  When Mum and Dad had the house built three spaces were left in the pavement outside where they had to plant trees.  John and I had purchased three little saplings over 20 years ago.  One had long since died but the other two, which are types of fir, are alive and well and growing and growing and growing and beginning to cause a problem.  With someone (John) having to climb the largest tree to take it down in stages wielding a chainsaw the conditions had to be good.  Unfortunately we had an early text from Mark to say it had rained very heavily nearly all night in Paphos and that the trees were soaking.  Lumberjacking had to be put on hold until a dry day.

With these plans on hold and with the sun actually shining in Droushia we got up full of good intentions.  I did a load of washing and had just hung it on the line when the heavens opened.  John was just about to cut and stain wood for the new feature in T&V corner when rain stopped play and we had to race into the conservatory - the weather had obviously come up the hill from Paphos - great.

The weather gradually improved and allowed us to get the shutter feature completed.  This was not without its issues as the original mirrors I had were a different size and different quality than the ones I had got on Thursday - these were bigger and much thinner and as a result prone to cracking.  We managed to get the whole thing done and looking fab and then I hosed down the mirrors to get rid of all the sawdust and one in the bottom broke - we couldn't believe it!  It probably wont be the first or the last but we were gutted.  Still there was nothing we could do so we tidied up and I had a quick shower as I had to get down to the Droushia Heights Hotel before 4.00pm

I had arranged to meet up with Kelly and Irene to organise for the hotel to host our Ladies Lunch in June.  It is lovely to see Kelly back behind the reception desk - this is where we first met her about eight years ago - actually probably longer thinking about it - when the hotel used to administer our house as part of its rental properties and we used to have to go and get our keys from her.  She had suggested the ladies try the hotel and I thought it would be a great idea and, now that Marian (the founder of the lunch club) is back, could be the last lunch I organise before I hand the club back to her.

The hotel is still awaiting its finishing touches but there was more furniture in there this time than the last time I was there - Kelly says the artwork is still to arrive.  It is so different to the old hotel!

Anyway we discussed and agreed upon the lunch which will be the first Wednesday in June and will be a buffet with sweet - we don't usually get a sweet so this will be a nice change.  Irene tells me that everything is home made including the bread.  Mum and Dad are going to the hotel for a lecture on Friday which includes a buffet so I will ask them to report back honestly so that I can feed back any issues before the ladies go to lunch - hopefully there will be nothing bad to report!

Team Losers were having a debrief this evening at Wheelies!  Helen had prepared a really lovely meal and despite a blow-out on the wood burner which meant they couldn't light the fire we were warm and cosy and full of lovely food - we may well dust off the old grey matter and try our luck at the quiz again!