My dad's sister Aunty Joyce and her husband Uncle David arrive today and John and I are off to the airport later to pick them up. They like to come later in the year because it is 'cooler', they do not like the heat, sadly they are to be disappointed - the temperatures today are in the 30s - the weather this year has been crazy.
Uncle David, John and my dad made up the three amigos, all born on the same day 16th September but in different years - Dad would have been 87 this year, Uncle David celebrated his 86th and John brought up the rear with only 51 years under his belt. They have, on one occasion, all been together to celebrate and that was back in 2011 when we had first arrived over on the island when Dad celebrated his 80th birthday and it was an exceptionally hot day then.
With time on our hands this morning I wanted to get the house clean and ready for our visitors when they come and stay at the weekend. I have got to say our house isn't large by any stretch of the imagination but when it is hot and sticky it is well big enough - there is just so much dust - not helped by continuously moulting cats!
So inside and out got a good 'bottoming' and it always feels very satisfying when it is done until I notice that a cat has had a good scratch somewhere and showered fur everywhere or dust has blown in the front door and my lovely conservatory floor is ruined!!!
We are having to keep an eye on Mr Boo at the moment because he has been in a fight and has a couple of scratches on his right cheek - yesterday it seemed to be quite swollen and he is inclined to get abscesses. It doesn't seem to be bothering him too much but neither did his ear when it began to go necrotic!
So pleased to report that the EasyJet flight from Gatwick was on time and the only flight arriving then - the previous one being half an hour before and the next half an hour afterwards so not too much for the baggage handlers to cope with. They came through quite quickly. Poor Uncle David has had to have some treatment on sun damage/skin cancer - only having stitches out yesterday. He has been left with a circular scar on the top of his head but it has healed well. Sadly this was not the case for Dad who had a similar operation but the wound would not heal and that is probably because his weakened heart was unable to pump the blood round his body sufficiently well to aid the healing process.
Recently my Dad and Joyce's brother Doug had his ashes flown over from Canada along with family member so that they could be scattered in Portholland and a plaque put on our memorial bench which sits looking out to sea. As a result of the family get together which followed Aunty Joyce had some old photographs one of which was of a bus. I always knew that my grandfather was a bus driver - he was in a retained occupation during the war as a result but I never realised that he actually owned the bus and above is a photograph of one of his buses with the fabulous registration of KCV 888. E Tregunna (my grandfather) was Ernle John Tregunna and my dad was Ronald Ernle Tregunna - there is a story behind the unusual name of Ernle which I will have to ask Aunty Joyce about but I have tried to see if that name is still used anywhere but think it may have died with my dad.
On our way home we called into the Smart Shop on the Mesoghi Avenue. It has quite an impressive wine selection and you can generally buy Tsangarides or Vasilikon wines here cheaper than anywhere else.
Today they were promoting a wine that I was not familiar with - it was Cypriot and called Aspelia which doesn't seem to have a translation so just a name and it was a mighty €1.85 a bottle - now that is actually cheaper than Bleach and I bet it works just as well.
We didn't buy any - I haven't as yet adopted Dad's attitude that 'I've had worse!' but looking at it this might just test the theory either that or it was a hidden gem and we dipped out!!!!
John found a hidden gem once - shortly after the fall of Ceausescu - there was an increase in the number of Romanian wines available on the supermarket shelves. John spotted a dreadfully labelled bottle of red called Dragon's Delta which was cheaper than cheap but which turned out to be absolutely fabulous so we went back to the shop to clear the shelves. A couple of day's later this same wine was featured in the Times or Telegraph as the wine of the week and from that point onwards it disappeared never to be seen again. We reckon it was rebranded and repriced in an upwards direction!
Mum has mastered her phone camera and WhatsApp sufficiently to send me a photograph of our happy campers having their first meal sat outside on the round table which we upcycled with the tile stickers from Jumbos!
Uncle David, John and my dad made up the three amigos, all born on the same day 16th September but in different years - Dad would have been 87 this year, Uncle David celebrated his 86th and John brought up the rear with only 51 years under his belt. They have, on one occasion, all been together to celebrate and that was back in 2011 when we had first arrived over on the island when Dad celebrated his 80th birthday and it was an exceptionally hot day then.
With time on our hands this morning I wanted to get the house clean and ready for our visitors when they come and stay at the weekend. I have got to say our house isn't large by any stretch of the imagination but when it is hot and sticky it is well big enough - there is just so much dust - not helped by continuously moulting cats!
So inside and out got a good 'bottoming' and it always feels very satisfying when it is done until I notice that a cat has had a good scratch somewhere and showered fur everywhere or dust has blown in the front door and my lovely conservatory floor is ruined!!!
We are having to keep an eye on Mr Boo at the moment because he has been in a fight and has a couple of scratches on his right cheek - yesterday it seemed to be quite swollen and he is inclined to get abscesses. It doesn't seem to be bothering him too much but neither did his ear when it began to go necrotic!
So pleased to report that the EasyJet flight from Gatwick was on time and the only flight arriving then - the previous one being half an hour before and the next half an hour afterwards so not too much for the baggage handlers to cope with. They came through quite quickly. Poor Uncle David has had to have some treatment on sun damage/skin cancer - only having stitches out yesterday. He has been left with a circular scar on the top of his head but it has healed well. Sadly this was not the case for Dad who had a similar operation but the wound would not heal and that is probably because his weakened heart was unable to pump the blood round his body sufficiently well to aid the healing process.
Recently my Dad and Joyce's brother Doug had his ashes flown over from Canada along with family member so that they could be scattered in Portholland and a plaque put on our memorial bench which sits looking out to sea. As a result of the family get together which followed Aunty Joyce had some old photographs one of which was of a bus. I always knew that my grandfather was a bus driver - he was in a retained occupation during the war as a result but I never realised that he actually owned the bus and above is a photograph of one of his buses with the fabulous registration of KCV 888. E Tregunna (my grandfather) was Ernle John Tregunna and my dad was Ronald Ernle Tregunna - there is a story behind the unusual name of Ernle which I will have to ask Aunty Joyce about but I have tried to see if that name is still used anywhere but think it may have died with my dad.
Today they were promoting a wine that I was not familiar with - it was Cypriot and called Aspelia which doesn't seem to have a translation so just a name and it was a mighty €1.85 a bottle - now that is actually cheaper than Bleach and I bet it works just as well.
We didn't buy any - I haven't as yet adopted Dad's attitude that 'I've had worse!' but looking at it this might just test the theory either that or it was a hidden gem and we dipped out!!!!
John found a hidden gem once - shortly after the fall of Ceausescu - there was an increase in the number of Romanian wines available on the supermarket shelves. John spotted a dreadfully labelled bottle of red called Dragon's Delta which was cheaper than cheap but which turned out to be absolutely fabulous so we went back to the shop to clear the shelves. A couple of day's later this same wine was featured in the Times or Telegraph as the wine of the week and from that point onwards it disappeared never to be seen again. We reckon it was rebranded and repriced in an upwards direction!
Mum has mastered her phone camera and WhatsApp sufficiently to send me a photograph of our happy campers having their first meal sat outside on the round table which we upcycled with the tile stickers from Jumbos!
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