Poorly ears...

I woke this morning with a pain in my head that felt like someone was drilling through my eardrum into my brain - the pain spread across my cheek, up my head and down my neck - an ear infection - how on earth had I got an ear infection?  Every time I swallowed the pain shot around my face so I staggered out of bed with Charlie hot on my heels and went for some tablets.

The sky this morning was amazing but looking at the cloud formation it seems fairly certain that the weather is on the change and that we are going to get the rain that has been forecast - this is par for the course as we are embarking on work outside that depends on it being dry.  Don't come on holiday to Cyprus if we are painting the outside of the house - you are bound to be disappointed with the weather!  Fortunately there was only a brief shower this morning so we were able to make a start - whether we will finish is a different matter because if what is forecast is correct we are in for some heavy storms.

I checked the Morning Glory column again today - the wasps are still congregating in there - we are wondering if the queen is being protected inside that rotting leaf.  As of yet there is no sign of a nest being built but periodically we see wasps flying in and out.  We will leave them to their own devices because better we know where they are than they start making another home up in the roof.

After the initial little flurry of raindrops the skies cleared.  I was feeling particularly rotten so left John to it.  The cement mixer was set up across the road out of the way and a path cleared round the house so that the wheelbarrow could be pushed through unhindered - not easy as we are short of space!  It was probably a good thing that the painter had to postpone coming today as it would have been just too much at once.

So the plan is to end up with a beautifully tiled roof terrace and create a surface that will need minimal maintenance over the years unlike what was there previously.  The initial phase involves pouring a cement base for the tiles and leveling it bucket by bucket and to get the buckets up there it involves climbing up a ladder - this will be a good work out for someone!

To help John out I went next door to Gregoris and Theodora's house to ensure that their pool water level was ok - it will be topped up if we do get these storms but beforehand John doesn't want it to drop too far.  Their garden is so much better now that it has all been tiled and apart from the olive trees which shed leaves all the time there is little to make it look untidy.  There is still evidence that the giant caterpillar has been in the Duranta plant in the corner but I took a good look and couldn't find it so maybe it has now completed its reincarnation into a moth.

You have to be careful at this time of year with sleepy giant hornets drinking water - if you get stung by one of these you will know all about it and should get down to A&E as soon as you can because it can prove fatal in some circumstances.  I kept my eye on this one but it wasn't bothered about me as long as I didn't bother him.

Boris pitched up at Gregoris's announcing his arrival and crying like he has been lost and then its like he realises he knows where he is again.

As he followed me through the house he suddenly caught sight of himself in Dora's squiggly mirror and wasn't quite sure what he was looking at.  Do cats recognise themselves in a mirror?  I am assuming not as apparently their eyesight isn't that good.

Anyway as I was beginning to feel really quite rough I decided to call it a day and make John some lunch before retiring to bed with some antibiotics and scarf wrapped round my head.

Bassam and John were working hard and it had turned out to be rather warm after the initial rain.  John seemed to have got the short straw and was the one climbing up and down the ladder with the buckets of cement - he is going to feel that tomorrow!!!

We had tried to make sure that as much of the garden was protected as possible but inevitably some of the cement was going to escape out of the bucket on its way to its final destination and there is a rather lovely hydrangea in a large container underneath the terrace ladder that was in danger of getting covered so I took the opportunity to cut off some of the old blooms.

I have looked up on the internet and apparently you can just air-dry hydrangea blooms but cutting off older flower heads and removing all the leaves and then putting them in a vase of water and allowing the water to evapourate over time - don't know if that really is the case but will give it a go with the ones I have saved.




I retired to my bed leaving John in charge of the camera so that he could take photographs of the progress that was being made - slowly but surely the base started to take shape - it isn't a large area but this is going to be a once in our lifetime exercise and we want to get it right.








The proceedings were being watched by one of the many birds of prey we get over here.  John is fascinated by them and, he says that given the opportunity,  he would have loved to have handled and trained one - maybe there is somewhere on the island where he could go and do just that - now there is a thought for Christmas!



I surfaced later in the afternoon - John will say I managed to stay out of the way whilst all the hard work was done!!!

The cement has been laid and needs to dry out slowly and John needs to keep it watered for a while but having looked at the weather forecast this may well be unnecessary - bad weather is on its way.

It being Wednesday it is normally half day closing for the whole of Polis but there were some DIY bits and pieces that John needed for tomorrow (weather permitting)  I rang Glykkis at 4.25 and was surprised that Maria answered although Bassam seemed to think that they did remain open for some of Wednesday afternoon.  She told me she was just about to close but would remain open for John - how good is that?  I really can't imagine that ever happening at the local B&Q in Yeovil!

Whilst he was off down to town the cats came in for tea all except Boris.  He generally likes regular feeding and can hear the sound of a cat bowl being moved from miles away but there was no sign.  I realised that he had found the warm bit of our recently vacated bed and was doing a star fish impersonation dead to the world.

I had planned to go food shopping today but couldn't face it and John left in such a rush to make Glykkis that I didn't ask him to go for me.  This meant that I missed out on seeing the Mega Yacht 'A' which was sailing just off Latchi.  I was interested to see what could possibly cost $300,000,000 - that amount of money is mind-boggling - how on earth can you have so much money that you can just blow that sort of cash on a boat?

I find the thought of that extravagance quite disturbing and when I read today that some poor Syrian refugees had just about managed to make it to Cyprus having been abandoned in their attempt to flee that war torn hell hole it just reinforced the massive divide between those that have and those that don't and it doesn't seem right to me.

Take a look for yourself Mega Yacht 'A'