Today was our second monthly village clean and despite lots of people saying they might support it, it was the same happy band of ex-pats plus Sean and Jack the Jack Russell who turned out this morning. I will blame the fact that it was Carnival day in Paphos although I suspect this is likely to always be the case. John and I don't mind as we would do it anyway - we don't want to join a walking group so this gives us an opportunity to walk with the advantage to the village that we pick up some rubbish and increase our visibility with the locals.
Once again the bin bags were provided by the Marianna from the Mukhtar's Office and we thought it might be a good idea to start our walk from his coffee shop and end up back there - this is PR at its best as when we pitched up his wife came to make us coffee and supplied us with a plate of biscuits. She may not have ever met any of us before but we were able to tell her that we all lived in the village.
To begin with it was just John and I, Diana and Rob and Klaus but en route we were joined by Sharon, Sean and Jack. We walked from the coffee shop out towards the mast and Lordos 2 and around by the bin-mans house, Palates Hotel and back to our starting point.
This time sadly we encountered a dead cat - last time it had been a dead goat. We managed to fill 25 black bags of rubbish, mainly plastic bottles and tin cans. We could tell that the electricity board had been round to replace light bulbs in the street lights as the faulty ones had been discarded on the ground and none to carefully as we encountered some shattered.
The locals can't quite work out why we are doing what we are doing but give us a cheery wave and in some cases invite us for coffee. It would be nice if one day one or two might join in but we hope that eventually the children might start to get the message and take pride in their beautiful village. We saw children today playing football in the road - it was such a joy not to see kids with their noses pressed against some sort of electronic device and just really enjoying themselves - John couldn't help himself and joined in for a while!!
On our return to the coffee shop the Mukhtar was around and made us coffee himself and joined us for a rather stilted chat - at least until Elena came to join us for a lemonade and help with the translations. Poor Elena had neighbours dogs get into her garden yesterday and destroy 11 of her 13 chickens - she is livid and rightly so as this will probably go unpunished even though she knows whose dogs they were. Sadly they just killed the chickens leaving the bodies untouched - such a waste.
As we walked home we were greeted by Chivers who had obviously heard us talking - he appeared from somewhere around Marian's house and came back home draped over John's shoulders - he likes to be carried like this and often appears when he hears the car and waits to be picked up by John and taken home. The other three were already inside snoozing in the sunshine.
We had a quiet afternoon before going round to Lou and H's for John and H to watch the rugby together. I took the opportunity to make some spicy Lemon pickle from the hand picked lemons my Dad gave me yesterday. It is a particular favourite of Mr Veasey's and apparently he has been eking out what remains from the last lot so it was time to replenish his larder!!!
I bought some nice labels which John brought back with him from his mum's - in fact they are a bit too good quality and didn't bend around the lid that well but at least it looks a bit nicer than some random old jam-jar! I didn't realise that Louise like the pickle as well until I met up with her later so felt it only fair to do a jar for her too.
Louise and I opted to go to the local taverna in Giolou for a catch-up and to order some takeaway kebabs rather than suffer the shouting at the TV which always happens when John and H are watching sport. They started off amicably and ended up amicably. Wales made a bit of a game of it in the end but it was too little too late.
It was a lovely evening and a good opportunity to get together and for Lou and I to have a chat - if you are reading this Lou just remember work/life balance!!!
Once again the bin bags were provided by the Marianna from the Mukhtar's Office and we thought it might be a good idea to start our walk from his coffee shop and end up back there - this is PR at its best as when we pitched up his wife came to make us coffee and supplied us with a plate of biscuits. She may not have ever met any of us before but we were able to tell her that we all lived in the village.
To begin with it was just John and I, Diana and Rob and Klaus but en route we were joined by Sharon, Sean and Jack. We walked from the coffee shop out towards the mast and Lordos 2 and around by the bin-mans house, Palates Hotel and back to our starting point.
This time sadly we encountered a dead cat - last time it had been a dead goat. We managed to fill 25 black bags of rubbish, mainly plastic bottles and tin cans. We could tell that the electricity board had been round to replace light bulbs in the street lights as the faulty ones had been discarded on the ground and none to carefully as we encountered some shattered.
The locals can't quite work out why we are doing what we are doing but give us a cheery wave and in some cases invite us for coffee. It would be nice if one day one or two might join in but we hope that eventually the children might start to get the message and take pride in their beautiful village. We saw children today playing football in the road - it was such a joy not to see kids with their noses pressed against some sort of electronic device and just really enjoying themselves - John couldn't help himself and joined in for a while!!
On our return to the coffee shop the Mukhtar was around and made us coffee himself and joined us for a rather stilted chat - at least until Elena came to join us for a lemonade and help with the translations. Poor Elena had neighbours dogs get into her garden yesterday and destroy 11 of her 13 chickens - she is livid and rightly so as this will probably go unpunished even though she knows whose dogs they were. Sadly they just killed the chickens leaving the bodies untouched - such a waste.
As we walked home we were greeted by Chivers who had obviously heard us talking - he appeared from somewhere around Marian's house and came back home draped over John's shoulders - he likes to be carried like this and often appears when he hears the car and waits to be picked up by John and taken home. The other three were already inside snoozing in the sunshine.
We had a quiet afternoon before going round to Lou and H's for John and H to watch the rugby together. I took the opportunity to make some spicy Lemon pickle from the hand picked lemons my Dad gave me yesterday. It is a particular favourite of Mr Veasey's and apparently he has been eking out what remains from the last lot so it was time to replenish his larder!!!I bought some nice labels which John brought back with him from his mum's - in fact they are a bit too good quality and didn't bend around the lid that well but at least it looks a bit nicer than some random old jam-jar! I didn't realise that Louise like the pickle as well until I met up with her later so felt it only fair to do a jar for her too.
Louise and I opted to go to the local taverna in Giolou for a catch-up and to order some takeaway kebabs rather than suffer the shouting at the TV which always happens when John and H are watching sport. They started off amicably and ended up amicably. Wales made a bit of a game of it in the end but it was too little too late.
It was a lovely evening and a good opportunity to get together and for Lou and I to have a chat - if you are reading this Lou just remember work/life balance!!!
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