pizza night

We are happy that the stones in the cladding decided to remain on the wall and not in the pool - this is a great relief!!!  Next job will be to point them - I see split fingers and chipped nails as a result - John already has some splits in his fingers and I know how painful they are for him but he is determined to get this project finished relatively quickly or at least as quickly as possible whilst still doing a good job.  I am pleased with it so far and I think he is too which is good as I know given the chance he prefers to do our DIY jobs himself and then if they don't turn out as planned we only have ourselves to blame and not some numpty workmen who hold themselves up as 'experts'.

I move on to my International Women's Day Rose from Molos which (like the one which Diana received) is proving something of a miracle as it is now nearing a month in the vase - I haven't even changed the water - it clearly likes where it is and has no intention of leaving any time soon!!!  Must ask when next at Molos where they got them from because they must have been super duper fresh.

We did our regular Friday in the gym and then I had a couple of hours to tackle the mountain that was my ironing.  Charlie will be pleased because he likes to sleep in the laundry basket and isn't too fussy about whether there is anything in there but currently it resembled the North Face of the Eiger so he has been a bit put out.

I have a new iron now which is a beast of a thing and produces lots of powerful steam but as a result needs to be filled up every five minutes.  Still it does the job and it does the job well so I was pretty pleased to have got the basket empty - not as pleased as Charlie mind you - and even better the horrid horrid dress shirt of John's which has been sitting there since Christmas got pressed.

It was a glorious day today - real summer weather with clear clear blue skies so we knew it was going to be pretty hot playing pickle-ball - what we didn't bargain for was setting the alarm off in the building because we didn't wait long enough for it to be deactivated and then we did it a second time after it had been reset - not sure Marios was too amused but it is difficult to know how long he will take to deactivate it after we ring him - generally it is only a minute or so but today well who knows what he was doing!!!

It is another one of Cyprus's weird bank holidays today - National Day or something similar and just about everywhere seemed to be shut as we drove down so Mum and I had to forego our afternoon cuppa out and about.

The garden at Mum and Dad's is looking really lovely at the moment - they have a right old suntrap where they live and as a result have to be very careful about what they plant which brought about Hydrangea-Gate later on this afternoon.  Although most things are closed on a bank holiday the garden centres tend to stay open and I wanted to see if I could get something to hang on the wall above the new cladding.  We have a place on the wall where there used to be a catch for the old wooden shutters and John thought a flat backed urn or something similar might look nice hanging there.

I found exactly what I was looking for - I stumbled upon a head of what looks like Bacchus - it was face down on the ground along with a second one which was grey.  I liked the coloured one because the colours would match our stonework and it wasn't too expensive so decided to go for it.

Mum spotted some magnificent hydrangeas with heads the size of footballs.  She really wanted one for the garden and bought it before I reminded her that they like shade and a lot of water and that they had had one before and had had to build a tent around it to keep the sun off.

When we got it back home Dad was less than impressed saying that he wouldn't have bought it because it wont survive - to cut a long story short I joined the United Nations Peace Keeping Force and practically dug a hole with my bare hands under the lemon tree so that it is in shade and moved the irrigation so it was right next to it.  Mum was happy and Dad begrudgingly said it looked quite nice where it was - RESULT - peace at last!!!

It was a spectacularly beautiful evening with a golden sunset and as our cupboards were bare we decided to treat ourselves to a Pizza at the Pizza Box in Kathikas.

We had checked it was going to be open because last year it was a bit hit and miss and on a number of occasions we pitched up already eating a pizza in our heads only to find it closed!

It was open and now manned by two new lads who were really great and helpful.  It is only €6.50 for a standard pizza with a whole load of toppings to chose from and they don't hammer you on the price of drinks either and it is my opportunity to have mushrooms as John can't stand them.