We none of us have adjusted to the winter time zone so we wake at our 'normal time' but this is now starting with a 6 (just about) and it is daylight now so we fail to go back to sleep.  Feeding the cats this early is a recipe for disaster because they start demanding more at around 3.00pm and Charlie is so bloody vocal it is easier just to give in and shut him up.

Lovely as our trip to Oniros was the other evening I was bitten to death and I had managed to avoid that pleasure all summer.  These are just three of the many bites around my leg - initially I thought they were administered by a mosquito but normally when I am bitten by one of those the bite swells up to about the size of a biscuit and then subsides within a day or so.  These bites are large, red, hard and itchy and I am wondering if there is some super bug that seeks refuge in the fir trees that skirt the edge of the restaurant.

Note to self - if you wear trousers with removable legs put the legs back on if you are going to be sitting anywhere where there is the slightest danger of becoming some critters meal.

I am slavering them with gunk and trying hard not to scratch them as they look the sort to turn nasty if given half a chance.  The one on my arm - where I actually witnessed some bug having a go - is minuscule by comparison - I obviously stopped it just in time.

Anyway the point to this is that the thought of our early morning cold bath aka swim was looking rather appealing this morning because the shock of the cold water was bound to take my mind off my legs.

Glad to say that the foul weather of yesterday has subsided.  There is some blue sky in evidence and it is not raining but the pool is full of all the detritus from the garden together with one of the garden mats - John is dispatched off to clean the pool before I go in!

We do it, there is one day left of our personal challenge - tomorrow is D-Day!

I go in first today - I wonder if this is so John can gauge my reaction before he decided to do likewise!  The weather yesterday has reduced the water temperature by another degree - the thermometer is now hovering below 60 degrees Fahrenheit - there are now no more cut off points it is do it or fail the challenge!

There is surprisingly very little difference between the outside air temperature and that of the pool so we both complete the penultimate day of Project Pool and seek the sanctuary of the sun-warmed conservatory and a big bowl of porridge thereafter.  There is something quite satisfying about the whole experience and I have a sneaky feeling that John will continue beyond tomorrow.

As I leave for Art the man from CYTA arrives which is good news and I leave him in John's tender care.  Shortly thereafter I receive a text from John to say our internet is restored and is now giving us 24Mb download (we pay for 20) and the phone line has stopped crackling - result!  This took five minutes and cost us nothing and as John still managed to watch football all over the weekend we really couldn't complain.

I drop Kenny down to Di and Rob and walk up Cardiac Hill and on to Sheila's - looking down to the coast I can see that it is still quite stormy with the wind whipping up white horses on the coastline.  There is a large boat in close, there have been a number of very expensive yachts in Latchi harbour over the last few days.  Oligarch gin palaces apparently.

My picture is nearing completion but it will have to wait a couple of weeks as Sheila has an appointment next Monday so there will be no art.

I am working on the glass bowl which is filled with pebbles, some water and quite a few air bubbles.  This is going to take a while to finish - when I look at my work today from a distance I can see areas which need addressing - you don't see them when you are close up concentrating!

Sheila is working on a sweet little picture of a mouse in a sort of Beatrix Potter style - quite a change from the religious picture she did last time which is now hanging in their hallway.

I shall see Sheila again on Wednesday as it is ladies lunch and we are eating at the hotel.

I walk back through the village which is like a ghost-town or should that be ghost-village?  The post office is empty and the post in the box looks to be stuff which has been delivered, sent back and redelivered, there is nobody sat outside Despina's coffee shop or O Stathmos, the village shop is closed for lunch, Christos's taverna is padlocked and I am not passed by a single car.  The old Monasteriou cafe buildings doors are wide open, either caused by the bad weather over the weekend or encouraged to do so by the local kids.  This was once a sort of cafe/youth club according to Despina's husband but fell into disrepair ages ago.  Shame really as the kids in the village really could do with somewhere to hang out albeit in a supervised fashion. It is amazing to see that in amongst all the carnage inside there is still a perfect lamp still attached to the wall - it looks like this was once gas but converted to electric - I am surprised no-one has had it away or used it as target practice with an air rifle.

There are some hardy tourists staying at Ktima - they have their sunbeds pushed into a corner out of the wind and they are trying to catch the sun as it pokes out from behind a rather threatening looking cloud.  They are in their swimming costumes - I can't call them mad because I bet they haven't tried to swim in the pool this morning - I hope the weather continues to improve for them otherwise Droushia can be quite grim!

As I leave for belly dancing tonight at 5.30pm it is dark, not just dark but pitch black so I am grateful for the solar floodlight above the gate and the little solar ball which, after several years and all sorts of weather conditions, continues to shine from the archway.

Di and I travel down to Polis with Di's Lebanese neighbour Sally in the back - our trip is accompanied by cries of 'Oh My God' from Sally in her distinctive Middle Eastern accent - she does not like travelling in the dark and says she is unsafe to drive in the dark we tell her she should try and overcome this because should anything happen to her husband Norman she would be stuck.  She agrees but doesn't sound convinced!

There is a good number of us at the class tonight, seven of us try hard to follow the choreography that Sofi is putting together whilst Sally goes off piste shaking her satellite (cellulite) and confusing us all.

I return home to a freshly baked pasty-pie courtesy of mum and we took her advice to cook it longer and slower than usual as she had thought the meat would benefit from it.  She was not wrong so and hour and a half at 160 degrees did the trick and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We decide to watch some more of the weird series we started at the weekend.  It is confusing but compelling.  It is even more confusing because John puts on episode one of season two and we were supposed to be watching episode six of season one!