Saturday 20 February 2016

Clean up Day

So having had to postpone the Village Clean Up last week due to inclement weather today we had nothing to stop us - the weather, in Droushia at least, was dry and warm - even though just up the road our friend John and Susan got wet on their cycle ride and Mum text to say they had rain in Paphos!!!

We were up and kitted out for our clean - as the beginning was taking place on the main road I donned my high viz jacket - which unfortunately got covered in engine oil when I picked up a black bag en route without realising what it contained.

We started at ours and walked down the hill to the Droushia Hills Taverna which was our official starting point at 10.00am

We had been provided with bags by Marianna at the Community Office and we had bought some gynaecological type gloves and our plan was to walk from the Droushia Hills to the Droushia Heights and then up the road at the back of the Church and ending up at Kaponas Grill House for coffee.


We could almost have filled our bags before we left the periphery of our estate!!!  Main culprits were cans, plastic bottles and fag packets!  At the Droushia Hills Taverna we were joined by Klaus, one of our international litter pickers as he hails originally from Germany)  further up the road we were joined by Diana and Rob Veasey - Diana is our second international litter picker as her parents were both Maltese - Rob is from Dan Saf (Down South) so that is foreign in John's book anyway!

Along the main road where the big new house is being built we were joined by Maroula - she is a local character who I last saw when I was making my basket at Palates Hotel before Christmas.  She was keen to show us the error of our ways and direct us towards litter that was well lodged in some brambles alongside her house.  She blames the builders for chucking their rubbish all over rather than putting it in the bin and she was keen to get John to collect the polystyrene to light his fire!!!

At this point Sharon came and joined us although she is still recovering from some horrid bug she and Sean picked up over Christmas and which is still hanging around on her chest so she barks like some of the caged hunting dogs!

We worked along the main road - any of the locals driving past us look incredulous - I am guessing we looked like a load of petty criminals working out our community service!!


By the time we approached the Droushia Heights Hotel we were fast running out of the small black bags that had been provided by the community office so I had to go in and blag some big green ones from them.  We worked methodically through the village and managed to lose Rob Veasey who went off piste and ended up on the Palates road and then ended up on the City Supermarket road but we forgave him as he was continuing to litter pick as he went!


We eventually all met up again by the school and swept along that road looking like a scene out of reservoir dogs!!!  Actually the centre of the village was pretty good except around the many green bins were people seem to be completely unable to put rubbish in them, simply leaving it near them for some inexplicable reason!



We had been invited to take coffee in a number of places but Eleni at Kaponas had asked if she could provide us with coffee at the end of our clean - this was her contribution as she could not come and help out - we had not realised that this meant coffee and freshly made spanakopitta and apple cake - both of which were delicious.

As we were leaving Kaponas I had a call from Marianna to ask if we had finished because Mr Stelios the Mukhtar had wanted to give us drinks on our way round.  I thanked her very much and said that maybe he could do that for us the next time we went out.  Diana, Rob and Klaus made their way back home down the hill and Sharon, John and I made our way back home up the hill.


Things must have got lost in translation because as we stopped at the Cheese Factory to talk to Kelly and explain what we had been up to, turn down coffee but accept some freshly made kefalotiri cheese, Mr Stelios pitched up armed with cartons of fruit juice and a big old plate of cakes for us which we graciously accepted as it seemed churlish not to.  I don't think he has ever spoken to me before and I have lived in the village for five years!

The cats and I had a quiet afternoon as John, John Read, Rob and Rabia did the boy's Saturday afternoon thing and went to watch ENAD play.

I didn't need any shopping so I spent a lovely afternoon sitting in the warm sun-kissed conservatory catching up on the blog and a number of other bits and pieces.

We had been invited out to the Veaseys in the evening along with Susan and John so I had no cooking to do and Mum is doing Valentine's day tomorrow so a nice easy weekend for me!!!

We were lucky that John and Susan had arranged to pick us up and take us down the road - we could have walked and we were going to walk back as it is out of their way but were grateful for the lift plus we got the chance to have a little ride in their lovely new Nissan Qashqai and arrive in style!

We had a really lovely evening courtesy of Rob and Diana - Rob kept us entertained with his vinyl collection.  He is a real lover of his music and he has some absolutely classic albums and singles - John Read is well into his music too so we were well happy!!!


Diana cooked an absolutely cracking meal - we had a yellow pepper soup to start which was delicious - this was followed by lasagne and salad which is one of my favourites and something I haven't eaten for ages - in fact I don't remember the last time I had lasagne and then pudding was a chocolate puddle pudding thingy and/or fresh fruit salad and cream.  Well you know me I can't resist a good fruit salad and I am not a great chocolate pudding person although John tells me he is divorcing me and marrying Diana after eating her pud - she has well and truly set the benchmark!!!

Anyway fabulous evening, great company and food.  Thanks Diana and Rob xxx


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