comings and goings

A new week begins which is one of comings and goings.  Tomorrow Hilary and Keith return to the UK - we are not sure if we will get the opportunity to see them before they do but we will certainly try.  On Wednesday Dipak and Karen leave but will be returning shortly to collect the keys of their apartment.  On Saturday George and Pam go home and Di and Rob will be making a brief visit to Malta to catch up with Di's Mum and Dad and on the same day my sister, niece Elena and her husband Andy and their son Jack are arriving.  Phew, the following week my Aunt and Uncle arrive and then before we know it Dip and Karen will be back.  No peace for the wicked so they say in which case we must have been very naughty indeed this year as we have had wall to wall visitors.

Both John and I were knackered after our late night/early morning trip back from the airport but we were keen to return to a bit of normality this week and so I went to art this morning as I would normally do on a Monday.  Last week Sheila had an appointment so I didn't go so it was nice to get the pencils out again and continue working on my hyacinth which is hard work as each individual flower takes all morning to create what will all the blending required.  Klaus was busy outside tidying as they have a viewing of their bungalow this week.  I have mixed feelings, I know they want to sell and for that reason I have everything crossed for them and even more crossed that they manage to find somewhere to rent nearby.

I returned home for a snooze before going with Diana and Sally (her neighbour) to our regular belly dancing class in Polis.  Sofi, our teacher, has been busy decorating a bra for Sally to wear at our classes.   Sally is Lebanese and has us in stitches because she fails to follow the choreography choosing to freestyle for the whole hour which makes it very difficult if you are dancing next to her and trying to work out the correct steps.  She doesn't care - she just likes to shake her satellite (for which read cellulite) as much as possible.  She is registering for Greek lessons tomorrow - thata could be interesting if she adopts the same 'off-piste' attitude to that as she does to dancing!

It got quite hot and sticky at the lesson and when we got into Diana's car the temperature said 38 degrees which was a bit hard to believe but as we drove through downtown Polis there was a real summer holiday atmosphere with people in strappy tops and shorts looking at the menus of the various eating establishments.  It was funny then to get home to find John wearing full jeans as we were eating in Finnikas in the village and would probably try and be outside as this was a farewell meal with Di and Rob and George and Pam.

Unbelievably, on a Monday night, towards the end of September Finikas was full!  good job we had booked and as we sat eating more and more people came in - seemingly tourists who are taking a late vacation in the village.  Mainly Brits by the sounds of it too.

I only had my phone so not a brilliant picture and taken before the two tables behind Rob and John also got filled.  We all think we had just about the best meze we have ever had there last night and with all the extra people they coped brilliantly.  Big cheers to Marina, Philippos and Andri for looking after us so well.  We staggered back home absolutely full to the brim but couldn't go home to bed without a nightcap with George - although we were tired we realise that next week George and Pam wont be there to do that with and as they are getting older who knows how many more years they will want to do it - many we hope but as I said who knows?