The Foreign Office

This morning John was on the early morning coffee and cat feeding run but was faced instead with the disemboweled remains of some poor rat who had 'bled out' on my Kilim runner.  We were lucky enough to get said Kilim into the machine and washed and out on the line because for a short period of time we had some sunshine.  Fortunately enough to almost dry the rug before the awful storm which had been forecast arrived.  In fact the island was put on an orange weather alert today up until midday tomorrow.

The cats got fed eventually.  We think we have seen a small improvement in Charlie's eye but if we have it is brief and fleeting so we cannot be sure.  Chivers is poorly - he has been in a fight and the base of his tail has come off worse - he has several puncture wounds which we think are claw inflicted rather than teeth.  We need to keep an eye on him to make sure it doesn't get infected.

Mum rang to say the weather in Emba was appalling.  It was still quite nice here in Droushia at the time so it was coming our way - she was without electricity but we later sussed this was because something had tripped rather than a general outage but she felt the weather was so dreadful that it would be a good idea to cancel pickleball to save people driving unnecessarily and I agreed so I got in contact with everyone in plenty of time.

We were taking a trip down to Polis to try and sort out the conundrum that is Lakis's electricity, the outstanding bills and them being cut off.  As you can see from the photograph John is in shorts and a polo shirt because when we left the weather was still reasonable although we had been prudent enough to bring in any washing and hang it in the conservatory (which I hate but it sometimes a necessity).

It tickles me that you can wander into the back room, sit down and discuss your issue with Mr Lefteris who looks a bit like a stern headmaster but is extremely helpful although he seems to be constantly harassed by staff and customers alike.

John managed to get all the arrears paid up and for future bills to be delivered to Lakis via email and the electricity supply has been reinstated (at a cost though 😕😕).  On our return John managed to video call Lakis to confirm what has happened and he and Argy are happy with the outcome and hopefully now, irrespective of the bank and its apparent inability to pay a standing order, they will be in control of payments so they will not get cut off again in the future.  We were pleased to be able to tick this particular problem off of our list for us and for them!

This was the weather that greeted us as we left the electricity board and was in sharp contrast to what we had experienced when we went in - the storm had arrived - the Met Office had been spot on and we were to expect some considerable rainfall to accompany the thunder and lightning.  We raced home to get in and hunker down for the remainder of the day.

My conservatory resembled a Chinese laundry but that was better than everything being absolutely soaked outside and the rain was so bad that Charlie kept running to the back door to go out for a wee and then looked at the conditions or got a massive droplet on his head and shot back in until he really had to go and then he looked so disgruntled.

We have not, as yet, lit the woodburner but it is coming close - we have to work out whether or not we will need to change the lounge/diner back round so that the sofas are facing the woodburner and the dining table back down the gas fire end but that is a task for tomorrow.

The cats don't really care as long as they are warm.  Boo Boo and Charlie were taking full advantage of the gas fire which has been working beautifully, thanks to the fact that John has practically rebuilt it with new parts.

We had a slob out evening watching all sorts of catch-up tv programmes which were my choice and which included aa really interesting one about the Foreign Office and the help they were giving Brits in trouble abroad.  

I applied to join the Foreign Office forty years ago and was accepted.  Ultimately I did not take up that challenge and I wondered last night what direction my life might have taken had I done so.  My friend Hilary went - she has ended up living in Canada and listening to Celine Dion although she did have connections with Cyprus because her husband worked over here for GCHQ and I think has toyed with the idea of returning at some point.  We also watched a programme about a gun which had been used in multiple crimes - Gun Number 6 was a thought provoking and disturbing insight into the criminal underworld in the UK.