Seasons in the Sun...

There are now some subtle signs that Summer as we know it is slowly making way for Autumn, the sun rises much later and the evenings are much cooler making it easier to sleep without feeling stifled (not having aircon in the bedroom) and the cats tend to be in, on one of their favourite chairs, ready and waiting for the breakfast and there can be a tendency to have a little more cloud in the sky.  There are some much more obvious signs however, the bee-eaters are back on their return journey from whence they came earlier in the year.  Their arrival heralds the start of Summer and we are all excited and their return makes me feel a little sad that the Summer is almost over.  Another surefire sign is that pickleball has resumed after our brief break in the hottest month.  The most obvious sign and the most upsetting one is the fact that the Paps bakery on the top of the Mesoghi avenue has cleared out and shut down its ice-cream counter now that the season is over - John is gutted!

Today was Janet and Hadge's last full day - they go home tomorrow.  We had arranged that we would go out this evening with Mum and Dad to Steni and John had ordered four portions of their infamous ribs which they normally only offer at the weekend but which they will do if you give them reasonable notice but this was up in the air as overnight Hadge had been very unwell.  We decided we would see how the day went and make a decision later.

My passport runs out in January and as my nephew is getting married in Dubai in April and I will take Mum and possibly Dad if they are fit enough I need to get it renewed.  The application process is relatively straightforward as you can do it online and print it out - for which they charge a blinking arm and a leg.

They are now so picky about the photographs that I erred on the side of caution and decided that the ones I had in which I was wearing my normal glasses might just be rejected so I entrusted my photo to John.  God I look like someone that stars in Orange is the New Black!!!

When I checked in the mirror I thought I looked ok but once the photographs had been taken I was not so sure - who is that old woman looking back at me?  It is all so depressing when you feel 30-something on the inside.

I packaged up my renewal and have given it to Janet to post in the UK and hopefully it will come winging its way back soon until it does I won't to be booking to go anywhere!

As I said pickleball restarts this week although we have severely reduced numbers for one reason or another.  For the next few weeks we are struggling to fill our three slots each week.

Today we started by relaying the lines for the court - during the summer recess we are asked to remove them although I don't know why as the floor doesn't seem to have been cleaned since the last time I washed it to stop it being too slippery.

We only had four today so we had a gentle easing in to the season.  It was good to be back - I have missed playing but it has been too hot and with visitors it is good to know that I wont be letting people down if I can't make a game.

Mum and I didn't go anywhere after the game - we were both as bit too hot and sticky and I had a number of things I wanted to do like adding some programmes to their box so they have something to watch now the evenings are drawing in and I wanted to speak to Dad about considering coming with Mum and I to Dubai for Matthew's wedding.  We had some success on both counts.  We are going to wait until after Christmas to see how they are both feeling before booking flights (providing my passport has been renewed!!).

Our plans for the evening changed as Hadge did not improve sufficiently to want to go out so we rang the Watermill at Steni to see if we could collect the ribs order as a takeaway because he was unwell and they were more than happy to do so.

We returned from pickleball and badminton and then made our way up to Steni to collect the food and take it back to C&A apartments so that Janet and Hadge could get some enjoyment from their last evening on the island (for this holiday).

Poor Mum and Dad had to make alternative arrangements but we will be seeing them tomorrow so they will get their chance to say their goodbyes then.

We were a little early to collect the takeaway so John was more than happy to sample a bottle of his favourite ESB ale whilst we waited.  Dawn from the Watermill was lovely and so concerned about the illness - we know they would have been ok about us not coming but having ordered specially we didn't want to let them down and were glad we made the effort to go and collect the food.

The ribs were lovely but sadly Hadge didn't really get to enjoy them as he still wasn't feeling good and he only picked at the food.  Eventually we persuaded him that he might benefit from some electrolytes and we managed to find a chemist open at 8.00pm who was happy to oblige.  We left them wandering through to say goodbye to the other holiday makers and the Neofytou family.