Village clean...

John rallied a bit this morning - a better night's sleep and some medication has helped a little and he thought that fresh air would be good for him and we had organised our ninth village clean up and others were joining us.  You can see that it is later in the year by the length of the shadows this morning at 8.00am - however the blue skies could be mistaken for a summer's day.  It was going to be hot today so it was good to be setting off early.

Our starting point was the junction of the Droushia Heights Hotel and the main road and our aim was to walk round in a half circle and end up at the Mukhtar's for breakfast or at least that was the plan but somehow breakfast got lost in translation it would appear - but more of that later.  The hills across from the Hotel were swathed in an early morning mist and looked beautiful.

We were a small but beautifully formed group consisting of John and I, Di and Rob, Klaus and Malcolm.  A small group but an enthusiastic one!!  We worked steadily along the main road until we got to the turning opposite where Di and Rob live and then worked our way up into the village where we were stopped by Georgia who had been in contact with me recently about craft classes in the village - she has asked if we could organise a clean in conjunction with the school - I said we would be delighted but not having children at the school we might have to be careful and so she said she would investigate herself.  It is lovely to think that our monthly outings are slowly beginning to have a positive effect in the village.

We were stopped on a number of occasions and asked to have coffee - which we declined because the danger is if we stop we might not get going again!  We have plenty of waves from passing vehicles and bravos called out of the window and then one Cypriot lady said that the village should be ashamed that we had to do a clean in the first place.  We are always at pains to say that the village cleaner does an excellent job but he is just one man who cannot cover it all and he cannot stop passers by from lobbing their rubbish out of the car.

Although we picked up quite a few bags' full of rubbish we are sure that there is less when we go back and reclean an area we have covered previously - let's hope this is a good sign and that because our village looks clean people are thinking about keeping it that way.  We all say we are more conscious of litter and notice it when we are driving around and I do think our village stands head and shoulders above some.

We finished at the Mukhtar's coffee shop and couldn't smell any bacon cooking which was a shame so we had to make do with some very sweet biscuits, some very dry bread roll type things and a coffee!  Never mind all that unsaturated fat was going to be bad for us!!!

Back home where John collapsed into a snotty heap - literally.  We were due out this evening to Gabors for a final meal with Aunty Joyce and Uncle David so he had to improve.  He dosed himself up and had several quiet hours before deciding to go and use his season ticket and go and watch ENAD with our neighbour Sean.  He does seem to cope better out in the fresh air so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

I am pleased to say we made Gabors and will report on that tomorrow.