A Busy Day...

I had a busy day ahead of me today - first and foremost I had to take the Pug to the garage to see exactly what the damage (literally) was.  It all started so well when they replaced the spare wheel with the original wheel complete with new tyre - the wheel had obviously not been damaged which was a bonus but then after it had taken four mechanics nearly an hour to try and reposition the spare back up under the car I was told there was a problem.  Initially it was described in Andreas's best Gringlish that it was a problem with the reservoir and I feared the offending piece of scaffolding had hit the underside of the car (which it had) and done some damage to the sump.  However as it was clear we didn't understand one another he rang Savvas the car parts guy who speaks good English and he explained that there was a problem with the bits that secure the tyre underneath and I would have to go to the main Peugeot dealer in Paphos to get it sorted.  John seems to think that there might always have been an issue with it and this was probably the final straw.  It may be expensive to replace but hey-ho such is life.

Gillian had arranged to catch up with me for a coffee at the Droushia Heights Hotel to see how I was doing - it would appear that her previous career which involved a lot of involvement with recently bereaved people has stood her in good stead - she is a kind a patient listener.  It was a glorious day and we chose to sit outside at the Droushia Heights and partake of a frappe whilst we set the world to rights.

She has asked me to see if I can produce a picture of her granddaughter and provided me with a couple of photographs to give me some ideas.  Ideally she would like it in the form of a pencil drawing which is not my normal medium and actually I have never done a portrait so I am a little worried because it is so difficult to capture the essence of someone that you are not familiar with when the recipient will be.

On my return home I took the photographs out to have a look and got my pencils out to just see how they handled.  I started to scribble a sketch on the paperbag which had contained the photographs - not quite on the back of a fag packet but very nearly!

I don't like this first attempt but it has given me ideas as to how I might tackle it for real.  I am going to try several different sketches and see how they progress before starting for real.  This will definitely be a challenge but it would be nice to do it for her as she is such a nice person.

I enjoyed our hour or so together and was back home in time to get freshened up before going out for the afternoon.

For Sheila's 70th birthday (sorry to reveal your age Sheila) back in December Mum and Dad had given her a voucher for afternoon tea for two at the Elysium and the plan back then was that Mum and Dad would join them.  Sadly this was not to be so today I went as Dad's replacement.  When John and I had been for afternoon tea recently the standard was not quite up to scratch as the service was lacking and the whole thing was slightly disappointing so we had hoped today would be better and we should not have worried as it was back to being as good as normal.

As you know I do not normally feature in photographs preferring to be the other side of the camera but Sheila insisted I had my picture taken and was getting to grips with my phone when a kindly and much younger tourist whipped it out of her hands saying it would be quicker for her to do it - we generally agreed that nowadays it would probably be quicker for a five year old to do it as they approach technology with such an air of confidence!  Anyway the resulting picture was ok so here I am about to tackle my first cuppa.

The afternoon tea is terrific value and that selection was just for me as Mum had a special diabetic selection which would have fed a small army.  We none of us could really do the cake selection justice so the remainder was whipped away and boxed up for us to take home.

We went for a wander around after eating - we probably felt we needed a little exercise to shift some of the calories!  I am warming to some of the changes after the recent refurbishment and whilst I like the colours and look and feel of the 'drawing room' I think I preferred it when it was decorated like an old library - having said that I wouldn't mind a couple of the 1930s inspired armchairs for our house.

We discovered a second quieter more secluded pool on our walk today.  I hadn't come across this before and it is lovely and obviously not used as much as the main pool complex but possibly because at this time of year the pool gets covered in shade pretty early because it is well sunken down below the surrounding walls.

It really is a beautiful hotel complex and on approaching it from the outside you would have no idea just how vast it is and the grounds that it covers.  It was getting near 6.00pm when we finally made our way back home.  The sky was still cloudless and it was exceptionally warm - who would have thought it was April?  There is some rain forecast this weekend - probably up in the hills our way but looking at the sky today that was hard to believe.

I had to do some emergency watering this evening as a couple of plants in the hanging baskets looked decidedly worse for wear and our severely reduced water pressure made that quite difficult.

We had a lovely afternoon, such a shame Dad didn't make it but I am sure he was with us in spirit.