Friday after the storm

I really don't know what was worse last night, the sound of the storm and the worry of what damage it might be doing or my bloody ear which woke me in the wee small hours and didn't settle down until about 6.30am when we generally wake up anyway.

I felt like an absolute zombie and sod's law is that I will dose myself up regularly during the day so the pain is under control but I can't last the night so it wakes me.

Anyway we got up to survey the scene.  It was calm outside and very warm and muggy.  From the amount of water nestling in the bottom of the wheelbarrow we could see that we had had quite a deluge.  The flood defences had held but the needed spinning and hanging out in readiness for the next storm - looking at the weather forecast it doesn't seem to settle much now until late next week unfortunately.

Things weren't too bad but the lovely flowering grass had taken a right hammering and was almost horizontal - I wasn't going to cut it back quite yet as it had been looking good and adding height and structure to the border but it is now probably beyond redemption so next time I venture out to do some gardening it will be for the chop.

The column which supports the Morning Glory has been blown to a jaunty angle as well.  This has not deterred the wasps though as they continue to cling to the mouldy leaf inside.  This does not seem to have changed in shape and looks nothing like the honeycomb nest that Rob has got in one of his bushes.  Maybe this is just the beginning - time will tell.

Lots of other plants had taken a bit of a battering and there were loads of leaves and flower heads strewn across the garden but everything else looked to be ok - reading about the carnage wreaked across the island by this storm which coincides with a Coptic we appeared to get off quite lightly.

Elena had asked me to go across for Coffee at Orexi HQ (The Droushia Castle) and dosed up with paracetamol and anti-biotics I ventured over for a chat and a catch up.  Elena, Diana and I had planned a walk today before John and I went down to Paphos but the forecast had been for heavy storms today - I think the storms had come early and that is what we had last night as today was muggy and warm and windy (Coptic).

It is always a hive of activity at Orexi and this morning Bassam was busying away making his famous and secret chicken marinade because he couldn't be with John tiling our roof!

Clearly the National Geographic programme he was watching was far more interesting than the garlic he was pummelling!!!  Elena and I chewed the fat over a cappuccino for me and a very dark skerto frappe for her.  She is planning an olive picking expedition to their fields on Sunday (sadly John and I can't make this one as we will be down at Mum and Dad's having lunch with Sheila and Klaus) and is worried to death that the weather is going to be bad - she has invited people to help and in return they will get a slap up Orexi lunch.  The thing is that here the weather changes quite quickly so even though the forecast may not look brilliant today it could be quite different come tomorrow.  Today is a case in point as the severe storms had passed through earlier than they had anticipated anyway fingers crossed for her that it will be ok and no-one gets hit by lightning!

This afternoon at pickleball it was really lovely to welcome Wendy back - no double booking herself this week!!!  Wendy, Bill and I were joined by Tom and Rosemarie.  We had a good work out because it was blinking warm down in that room today - in fact warm and muggy everywhere in Paphos and I was very glad when they offered me a lift down to Mum and Dads.

Mum and I went out, as we do, for a little mooch this afternoon and as mum had had a successful little shopping trip to Swanky Wags earlier this week we decided that we would head there.

This is an interesting place - a co-operative of sellers with lots of lovely hand made gifts (this will be useful at Christmas) and also some nice second hand items - or, as they like to call it now because there is less stigma attached, pre-loved!  I do love a bargain and I have absolutely no issue with pre-loved or whatever you want to call it - for goodness sake no-one knows how many times an item has been tried on by some hot and sticky individual in a boutique selling new clothes!

So we had a good look in there and I did manage to find myself a little pre-loved item but I am not going to show you otherwise when I wear it people will recognise and know!

Anyway if you are passing through Chloraka do pop in and and have a look at what is on offer - you can get a coffee in there too - I think this doubles as a man-creche!!!

We then drove down to the Athina Frame Shop  where one of my more recent pastel pencil pictures is residing all nicely framed with a dark blue frame.

It is really nice to see my work complete and hanging in a gallery with lots of other works by much more talented people than me anyway the owner seems to think it is a good picture and he sees plenty!

Anyway he is a nice man and clearly likes to give ladies a hug - even ladies who have run around for an hour and a half playing pickleball!  He suffers from MS so maybe he thinks he will grab some pleasure whilst he can!!!

On our drive home the weather started to deteriorate again but there was a strange hole in the cloud formation where the sun valiantly continued to shine through and this was directly over Droushia!  This makes a change because usually there is sunshine all around and any bit of cloud there is stoically sits directly over our house!!!

It was a quick turn round when we got home as we were off out AGAIN tonight - this time to catch up with John and Liselotte who play badminton with John down in Emba.  We have been out with them a couple of times and had a right old laugh so we were looking forward to doing it again.

Liselotte had suggested the Pizza Box in Kathikas and we had phoned to make sure that it was going to be open.  We picked them up as they are en route and, apart from a couple of takeaways, we were the only ones sitting inside although the main restaurant Imogen's looked to be extremely busy.

We all had pizza and really enjoyed it - the wine was flowing, conversation never stopped and before we knew it a couple of hours had passed by very pleasantly indeed.

Sadly my ear started to play up - time for more medication unfortunately so we called it a night and dropped them home on the way.  I left it too long between pain-killers and was plagued all night - it is getting better by too slowly for my liking.