Thursday and the water is delivered...

Today was a day of great excitement and anticipation - finally after many months of blood, sweat and tears (and believe me there have been many many tears) we were going to fill our pool with water and declare that episode in our lives closed.  As we waited for a phone call from the bowser driver to say he was in or near Droushia I stood on the decking waiting for him and his vehicle to come lumbering along the road following John.  As I did I spotted a hummingbird moth drinking from our fabulous jasmine and took a quick snap - a lucky shot as I managed to get it tongue out and reasonably in focus.

John met up with Bowser-Man and drove slowly up to our house with bowser close behind - clearly not close enough as John managed to lose him when he turned into our estate!!!  After a brief discussion and some chin scratching it was decided that the best route in was via the field next door and so John walked the bowser round.

Fortunately the bowser came equipped with some monumentally large hoses which stretched from the road across the field, over the wall and into the pool.  The man drank the water to prove to us that the water was good and fresh!!!

The cats were mesmerised by the whole proceedings - they have missed the biggest water-bowl in the garden as they always loved to drink from the pool and couldn't wait until the water reached a level that they could reach - even venturing down the newly constructed steps.

Mr Bowser-Man came to the wall and peered over to check on progress and came face to face with Charlie who would normally growl like mad and a stranger but Mr Bowser-Man was very taken by Charlie and gave him lots of love and affection so Charlie responded by being sweetness and light.  Little do people know just how vicious he can be when he wants to - he took his claws to John the other evening just because he rubbed his tummy - little shit.

So eventually Mr Bowser-Man declared that he was satisfied and the pool was filled to the correct level and he wound back the enormous water hose and went on his way - minus Charlie!

I think at this point John and I could have actually cried - there was a point in time when we thought we would never get to this point and that if we did it wouldn't look anything like as good as we think it does.  Interestingly the pool tiles are more green than blue but on a bright day like today it takes on a blue hue.

Having waggled my toes in it I was really surprised that it didn't feel anything like as cold as I had anticipated - probably because the sunshine had been warming it nicely inside the bowser.  When John asked if I was going to go in I thought "sod it! YES".  As the water was fresh and we didn't need to wait for any chemicals to settle down I thought I would give it a go and have to thank my lovely mother-in-law for sending me some nice new swimming costumes.

I managed to convince John that it really was pleasant and so he got in too - April 7th  - this has to be about the earliest we have EVER ventured into the pool but it felt fabulous to have done so and it really was one of those - it's lovely when you get in - moments.

So I make no apology for filling this blog post with lots of photographs of the newly completed pool.  This will now spur us on to get the rest of the garden up to the same standard - John is starting on the barbeque now and is stone cladding the sides and tiling the inside so that it matches in with the wall and the pool.

All this and it was still only 9.30 or so in the morning which was good as I had arranged to take Elena to Polis Hospital to sort out some blood pressure tablets and whilst en route she took a phone call and was asked to go to the Oncology centre in Nicosia to try and get her increasingly debilitating nausea under control.  This meant she had some organising to do.  I was more than happy to take Amoura and Lola to their piano lessons with Rabia keeping me company whilst they tinkled the ivories.  They were no trouble at all except that Lola has left her hairbrush and hair bands in the car so may look a little disheveled at school tomorrow!!!