Just when I thought it was safe last night to slob out on the sofa and chose a bit of crap TV to watch in John's absence I heard the unmistakable co-eeee of Pam from outside our gate who came to tell me that George did not want me to spend the evening on my own and insisted I came for a drink. It is so sweet of them - in fact most of our surrounding Cypriot neighbours are absolutely lovely - but I was actually looking forward to doing nothing - a big fat zero but I relented because who knows how many more years they are going to be able to make it over here?
I could not escape this morning without having coffee with Gregoris and Theodora who had come for what amounted to no more than an overnight stay - we were joined by Galatia who is also here for the weekend with husband Charalambous. They are all such great neighbours what harm does having a coffee do except to expand my waistline as they all eat cake and pastries - actually correction they all serve up cakes and pastries, insist I fill my plate and then eat nothing themselves!! oh and this diversion also puts my cleaning schedule back another couple of hours!
John couldn't believe his luck, or the lack of it, when he found out that the Steel City Derby was taking place this afternoon right when he would be in departures at East Midlands Airport. After TMB's recent promotion back to the Championship this meant the first such derby in six years - such an important game in the football calendar and he was going to struggle to catch any of it. I cannot bear watching these games with John who gets so involved and vocal and moans at the team and moans at the tv and moans at the stream if it falters and moans and moans and moans and questions the parentage of the team, the manager and the referee and then if, by some chance, TMB's manage a win they suddenly go from zero to hero in a nano-second and are then deemed to be the best thing since sliced bread. It is tense during the 90+ minutes - more tense than I can cope with but in John's absence I will still watch the game although without the angst. Whren Sheffield United scored from a free kick within the first 7 minutes and followed it up with another goal and dominated the first half right up until time added on I took down his new birthday present from Mina and Claire and dusted it off in readiness for it to be filled on John's return. When they conceded just before half time I almost put it back again but then there was a flurry of goals in the second half - the majority of which were in TMB's favour - a 4-2 win - RESULT!!
When I pitched up having sorted out the cats George was glued to the TV with the sound at about a million decibels - he was watching his 'most favourite' programme which was what appeared to be a 1970s Greek Soap featuring some woman who couldn't speak - Pam and I tried to carry out some sort of conversation but it was difficult! We had a brief window of opportunity when the TV was swiched off before it was snapped back on again for George's 'most favourite' programme which is the one where a load of Greek/Cypriot celebrities sit round having dinner and then burst into traditional song - a sort of upmarket karaoke supper which again was broadcast at a million decibels and at this point I admitted defeat and made my excuses to go home. I had achieved nothing from my list of 'things to do on Saturday' due to impromptu visitors and invitations!
One of our other sets of neighbours, Savvas and Persephone are here this weekend. Persephone sends me photographs of Charlie on a night out going to one of his favourite restaurants aka Her House! She tells me he is there and that he is starving - I reply telling her that he is most certainly not starving. Yesterday she sent me a photograph of him eating what appeared to be massive king prawns. Little sod, I returned by showing her a photograph of him in an empty food cupboard looking for something more exciting than catfood!
I could not escape this morning without having coffee with Gregoris and Theodora who had come for what amounted to no more than an overnight stay - we were joined by Galatia who is also here for the weekend with husband Charalambous. They are all such great neighbours what harm does having a coffee do except to expand my waistline as they all eat cake and pastries - actually correction they all serve up cakes and pastries, insist I fill my plate and then eat nothing themselves!! oh and this diversion also puts my cleaning schedule back another couple of hours!
So I eventually got everything ready for John's return but as that is likely to be the early hours of tomorrow morning he isn't going to take any notice, just come in, dump his things and relax! I had plenty of time before setting off down to Mum and Dad's prior to going to the airport so what else would I do than a bit of crafting??
When I took the recycling out to the car and cleaned off the back bench I looked at the bit of driftwood that has been there for months, and decided to do something with it before John consigned it to the burning pile!
John couldn't believe his luck, or the lack of it, when he found out that the Steel City Derby was taking place this afternoon right when he would be in departures at East Midlands Airport. After TMB's recent promotion back to the Championship this meant the first such derby in six years - such an important game in the football calendar and he was going to struggle to catch any of it. I cannot bear watching these games with John who gets so involved and vocal and moans at the team and moans at the tv and moans at the stream if it falters and moans and moans and moans and questions the parentage of the team, the manager and the referee and then if, by some chance, TMB's manage a win they suddenly go from zero to hero in a nano-second and are then deemed to be the best thing since sliced bread. It is tense during the 90+ minutes - more tense than I can cope with but in John's absence I will still watch the game although without the angst. Whren Sheffield United scored from a free kick within the first 7 minutes and followed it up with another goal and dominated the first half right up until time added on I took down his new birthday present from Mina and Claire and dusted it off in readiness for it to be filled on John's return. When they conceded just before half time I almost put it back again but then there was a flurry of goals in the second half - the majority of which were in TMB's favour - a 4-2 win - RESULT!!
Once the game had finished I sorted out the last few things I wanted to sort out, put on some lights for our return, fed the cats and made my way down to Mum and Dads to spend a few hours with them before I went off to the Airport - John's flight was due in at 11.00pm along with a fair few others all around the same time which meant that although he only had hand luggage it was unlikely that he would be through in a couple of minutes.
The sun was setting as I got down to Coral Bay - it made me realise that the timings I had put down for this week's clean were too late - we would be picking up rubbish in the dark and it would be dangerous on that main road. Not to Self to change the time and let people know.
I had a cuppa and a chat with Mum and Dad and then made my way to Bonamare Beach Bar to wait for the flight to come in - I thought it remained open until 11.00-11.30 and I arrived there at about 10.30 to find them closing up although the owner said I was happy to sit there until he had tidied up and cashed up which was great because John's flight actually came in a bit early.
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