Saturday a day of contrasts

So this is me, the one who is afraid of hard work up on the roof about to tackle painting under the guttering because we reckoned I was marginally the lightest.

John has constructed a contraption to rest on the aluminium so that no-one has to stand directly on the glass which should take the weight but we really don't want to have to try it out.

I look a right old mess because I still have Brown Hammerite stripes under my armpit from completing the painting of the railings, in fact I have completed painting the railings and the ladder up to the roof terrace which John declared looked much better but he failed to say I had done a good job - he is very sparing with his praise.

The last time we had the outside of the house painted the conservatory wasn't there so there are areas which are almost inaccessible but as we had changed the colour of the outside we needed to try and get to them.

I am most definitely a right handed painter so lying on my right side was difficult but I couldn't turn round so just had to (wo)man up and get on with it.  When I got to do the other side I had to navigate climbing over the roof and shuffled along the tiles - not really something I am awfully keen on doing but needs must and although the skies started out blue we could hear thunder rumbling all around and wanted to get this finished sooner rather than later.

Tony is back with us - unfortunately the news on his health was not so good but he is carrying regardless and wanted to finish our job today and a couple of other jobs before he embarks on his treatment and a little down-time.

His final job was freshening up the kitchen walls and painting the ceiling now that we have sorted out the problem with the expanding re-bars.

Sometimes the kitchen can seem a bit dark so we have opted for plain white with some special anti-mould paint which hopefully will do the trick.

We have a pit of pressure on as we have some friends coming for a meal later in the week and at the moment the whole place is in complete turmoil!  We are saying goodbye to the plain old magnolia wall behind the wood burning stove and saying hello to something called Cherry Jubilee.  Let's just say that once the first few coats went on John questioned whether or not they got the mix right - the colour was dayglo pink!!!  I keep telling John that it will look fine when he gets the second coat on and when we put the swatch up against it then it was going to be what we chose.  I quite like it even as it is but John is not sure.

John also got a chance to lay down on the job and try out the contraption for weight distribution as he got to paint the other side of the conservatory - it is really hard to paint at this angle so good job it was only a small area that needed doing.  John then moved the ladder and had to put it in the (empty) pool to reach a small area out at the front.  As he tried to get out of the pool he jumped onto the pool steps and the middle one gave way and shattered - we knew it was only a matter of time before they went - he was lucky that he only ended up with a grazed shin.

So the roof terrace has been finished except we are deciding whether or not to put back up the wind break stuff that was woven through the railings.  I have washed them just in case and I think I preferred it because it defined the space and it didn't melt into the background.

Tony finished and we managed to get a spot of lunch and a shower before going down to Stroumbi to meet up with Lou and H as John and H were going to watch the Cyprus Rugby team play Latvia down in Paphos (they got thumped 31-3).

We followed a very overly laden truck which was full of vine and as I was taking a photograph it started to rain - and rain - and rain and by the time we got through Kathikas you couldn't see the road - makes a change to have left sunshine in Droushia!  By the time we parked the car it was hoofing down and we had to make a quick dash for it.  John had the foresight to bring an umbrella and it looked like they might need it!

We stopped at Debenhams as the stadium is only across the road and Lou wanted to check out if they had any bargains.

No bargains but the shop was in full-on Christmas mode with all the decorations out and Christmas songs blaring from the public address system.  It suddenly dawned on me that there is only about 6 weeks to go and I have done nothing.  As we made our way to the Mall for a quick coffee the sun made the thought of Christmas being just round the corner even harder.  What a difference in the weather from Stroumbi to Paphos!

We made our way to Nero in the Mall and had a coffee so that we could sit down outside in the beautiful sunshine - November 7th and it is glorious.

It would have been lovely to stay there for the duration but Jumbo's and Tiger's were calling and we only had a short time before the match was over so we drank up and did a quick whip round or at least that was the plan until Lou realised she had forgotten bin bags and by that time we were near the exit so we had to negotiate the escalators going down in Jumbos which was a first for Lou - not for me as I regularly forget something and have to retrace my steps.  People were looking at us as though we were mad!

We got to the boys just as the game was coming to an end.  They had enjoyed the experience but said that the national team were dire and completely out-played.

We had thought about going to Gino's for a pizza but decided we would make our way back and call into the Brewery as we hadn't been for a while and have something to eat there.

We decided to sit outside even though the Outside Inn has now been fully glazed - it was a little chilly but by the time we got our food we forgot about that.  It must have been quite a popular thing to do as we saw several groups where the men had gone to the rugby and the women had been shopping and then retired to the Brewery.

We couldn't believe that by the time we left it was still only 7.00pm but John has to be up early tomorrow so that was good.