In Paphos...

We had an early start today because we were going down to Universal to catch up with Dip and Dave to see if they had finished with the tools John had lent them so that they could decorate the apartment.

They had gone through the whole place giving it a fresh coat of paint and putting the TV up on the wall and all those sorts of things - Dip says that all it needs now are the final finishing touches by Karen when she is out in March.

Dip is great - he has no worries about finding his way around and apart from asking for the phone number of a dentist has asked us for nothing else!  Yesterday they took a trip out to Limassol and then decided, on a whim, to go and investigate the Troodos and stop off at a very ethnic eatery in town.

On Tuesday they are coming up to us, I have warned Dave to wear a jumper particularly as the weather if forecast to deteriorate tomorrow and then be awful for at least four days which is a bit of a shame as they want to have a wander around Latchi.

We gathered up most of the tools and the ladder and left them with a drill as they still have a couple more things to do and will catch up with them on Tuesday.

Being down in Paphos early on a Sunday morning is fabulous - the roads are empty and it is easy to get around - we needed to nip into Jumbos before arriving at Mum and Dads as we wanted to get a couple of the cheap little weather stations they had for sale so that we could put them in their bedrooms and they could keep track of the temperature and the humidity levels.

This is what the Mall carpark looks like at 10.00am on a Sunday morning in January.  I had thought that Jumbos opened at 10.00am on a Sunday and the other shops later but now it seems that it doesn't open until 10.30 so we had half an hour to kill - this turned out to be an expensive wait as John found Newcastle Brown Ale on offer at Sklavenitis supermarket and then we had two horrible cups of cheap coffee before Jumbos opened, still being able to get in and out of Jumbos and first at the tills was a bonus.

It was good to see that the Mall was displaying artwork by school children on the theme of Love Cyprus Keep it Clean - actually it is good to see that school children are being made aware of the vast problem there is on the island with regard to litter and dumping.  Education is the key but it is the adults from whom the children take their lead that also need educating.

We got to Mum and Dads' good and early so that we could get the dehumidifier set up and check the humidity levels in the rooms and sort out the surface mould which sadly is something which just about all of us have to contend with at this time of year - we didn't manage to get everything done this visit - the Muffy spray was noxious to say the least - don't know about it killing mould I reckon it could take out an elephant!!

Just wanted to finish with a photograph of one of the Cyprus grown strawberries we purchased from Paps yesterday.  Each fruit was ENORMOUS and sometimes when they are early grown and to this size they are tasteless but no no no - they were fabulous - absolutely delicious and as a result we didn't eat just one we ate the whole punnet!!

Since writing this Dip and Dave have returned to the UK and unfortunately Dave was taken ill over the weekend.  We wish him the speediest of recoveries.