Saturday - Ballet...

So when we woke this morning it was clear that we had had rain overnight - it has brought out the snails and, as I understand it, all snails in Cyprus are edible - mmmmm not sure I want to test that theory although if times get hard we may have to.  We have been to tavernas where they have served them as part of a meze (Costa's Taverna Koloni springs to mind) but I am not entirely sure whether they starve them and make sure they are clean in the same way that the French do!  And on the subject of Costa's Taverna Koloni I seem to remember having to pass on the testicles too!!!

I was up and about early this morning because I had arranged to meet up with Elaine before she shoots back to the UK for a short visit.  There is a recurring theme with our friends at the moment - they are all going back to the UK (maybe it is time to change my deodorant???)  I would kind of like to go back and see some of my friends like Hazel and Sally and Catherine and Gemma and Joani but really I would want to go back and see how my sister is doing and that is in a completely different part of the country and it is John's turn to go back if either of us do.

The overnight rain and the early morning sunshine gives the landscape an eerie feel - it looks washed out and silvery.  On the one hand the land desperately needs the rain and on the other everything looks so awful after a downpour because there is nowhere for the rain to go so all the crap is washed down onto the roads and everything looks messy.

On my drive down to Elaine's I pass a small caravan that has been slowly deteriorating in a field that i think used to grow vines (if I look back on previous photographs) but which has now been cleared and ploughed ready to plant anew.  I dearly want to send this picture to someone saying that this is their holiday accommodation!

I stopped before getting to Elaine's to take a photograph from the observation point - this lovely house that looks a little like a Tuscan Villa belongs to Lyn and Mr Al - we are going out with them this week for a meal and to catch up.  Lyn very kindly brought me back some bits and pieces from a recent trip to the UK and I redid Lyn's passport photographs when she didn't like the one's she had done professionally.  Lyn is a Cornish maiden my 'ansome.

It was lovely to catch up with Elaine and Paul - for one reason or another we really haven't seen as much of them as we should have done over the summer.

Elaine took on one of the kittens that we rescued and hand reared - when we found them she (along with the other two) fitted in John's hand and poor little thing she had severe constipation and terrible piles so we had to feed her olive oil and soothe her bottom with vaseline.

She has never grown into a big cat but she had grown into a beautiful one and slowly but surely Elaine has turned into a real cat person.  She currently is helping a colony of feral cats near the Amarakos Inn so that they are healthy and neutered.  Inevitably she is falling in love with them all and would bring them all home if she could.

Elaine is noted for her gardening skills - the outside space around her (beautiful) home is amazing and I take all sorts of ideas, plants, seeds and cuttings with me after I have visited.  I admire her garden but do not envy the work it takes to keep it like it she does - I struggle with ours which would fit into a tiny corner of what she deals with.

I particularly like the bird statues she has added - they used to be situated near the pond with the koi but she says they were lost there so she has moved them and they are beautiful.  We do not have the space or the type of garden to do something like this justice sadly as I think they look majestic.

It is a shame that Elaine will not be here for our Christmas Ladies Lunch as she always adds and element of sparkle to the proceedings and we always have a good laugh when we are together.  We shall just wait till your return Elaine and then catch up.

I was a good girl and turned down a bacon buttie cooked by Paul - I really could have eaten it but John and I were having brunch today before John went off to watch ENAD and I went down to Paphos to meet up with Mum and watch Elena's elder daughter Amoura in a ballet production of the Nutcracker Suite which was happening this evening at the Markedion Theatre.

I took the opportunity to shoot down to Paphos a little bit earlier than I needed so that I could do a bit of shopping before picking mum up and going for our big night out.

When we got to the theatre it was like a big Akamas Night out as there was a whole load of people that I knew in the theatre.  Elena and Bassam, Rabia and Lola were there and Elena's mum had flown over as a surprise to support Amoura.  Then there were the Messengers, the people from the Fly Again, Simon and Jasmine, Andrea Christophi and Jutta from belly dancing and Aunty Friday and Uncle Stravraki!

It was a fun evening - the music was too loud, the Cypriot families did things typically Cypriot-style so there was no reverence to the proceedings, the kids ran wild, the parents waved madly at their kids on stage and they waved back, the little ones danced whatever they wanted and not what was choreographed, the scenery fell down, one dancer inadvertently kicked another in the head but it was magic and Amoura looked beautiful and so grown up - Elena and Bassam must have been so proud and when I checked up on the story of The Nutcracker  (which shamefully I did not know) they really had done very well.





I had a quiet and uneventful ride home but the moon was stunning - it has been so all week - apparently it is what is called a Beaver Moon whatever that means!!!

Tonight it just poked through the clouds every now and again but when it did, even though it is by no means full, it lit the whole area with a silvery light - we have been lucky that the weather has been kinder than forecast - let's hope that it remains so now for a couple of weeks so Project Pool can continue.