For years and years Mum has been to her hairdresser Des on the Mesoghi Avenue on a Friday morning so why change the habit of a lifetime - today is Friday and today I was taking Mum down to Paphos so she could have her hair done and we could go and do a little retail therapy and have some lunch together and this would give John some time to sort out a few bits and pieces at home.
If you are a regular reader you will know that December has been disappointing in the weather stakes. Very wet and now very cold at night - colder than the UK which is why so many ex-pats living over here are pissed off that they no longer qualify for the winter fuel allowance. The houses here are built poorly with little to no insulation, double glazing or central heating (unless you are very lucky). Today in the kitchen it was 14 degrees indoors and 5.3 degrees outdoors with the humidity off the scale (showing HH which I guess means high humidity).
I dropped mum off for her appointment and went in to Cycleband or rather Ikoagora as it is now known to do a bit of shopping. You can get a coffee there - they have an area set up with tables and chairs and often a magazine or newspaper but I am not sure that people realise this is what it is for because I have never seen anyone having a cuppa! Understandably the drawers are a little empty although they were having a delivery at the time. I was in search of a bottle of marble and granite cleaner for the worksurfaces in the kitchen but sadly there was none although I still managed to part with 20 euros at the till for things I didn't realise I needed!!!
Having subsequently spoken to Di and Rob about their visit to the Mall today Mum and I must have been lucky because although the carpark was busy we found a spot tucked away in the depths of the lower lower ground floor and our journey through Jumbos was relatively stress-free and there was only one person in front of us at the tills. In fact at that time (which was approaching mid-day) there was quite a nice atmosphere around as by then parking rage had not consumed the shoppers!!
I know that Christmas is over but Mum was rather taken by our orange/red 'tree' which we have in the corner of the lounge - it is nothing more than a cone with lights inside but is rather effective and she thought one of those would look nice in her lounge so that was one of the things we were looking for and fortunately we managed to find them - there were only 3 left so she was lucky. To go underneath I found some pretty boxes and when we called in to the bungalow to check everything was ok I plugged it in to make sure it worked and put the boxes and some existing Santas around the bottom.
Prior to that Mum and I had gone for a light lunch at the Mall - again we had timed it right as we managed to get a table straight away and then ordered our food and got that pretty quickly. A little helping of Mum's only weakness - KFC goes down a treat after all the rich food we have been eating!!!
We made our way back to the car - happy to find it relatively easily as we were parked in an area I don't think I have ever been to before and we got out of the car park with ease. It was a warm and bright day in Paphos - holidaymakers were wandering around in shorts and t-shirts and, to be fair, if you were in a sheltered spot it was very nice. We used to do exactly the same when we came over for Christmas on holiday. I distinctly remember walking around the old town on Christmas Eve in t-shirt and shorts with little Christmas trees twinkling away and tinny Christmas Carols being piped through loud speakers - that was probably about 25 years ago!!!
We had a couple of attempts at leaving Mum's bungalow but the first time Mum had forgotten her petticoat and the second time she realised that the laptop was on so it was third time lucky. We drove along Banana Bay where the sun was slipping down through the clouds. I stopped to take some photographs - it was getting very windy but it was a warm wind. Taking a photograph into the sun makes it look like it is evening but it was mid-afternoon.
It was pretty spectacularly rough although you wouldn't have thought so from this photograph!!! Anyway we stopped for petrol on our way home - using the Echo garage at the bottom of Peyia where the price was 1.11 per litre which is cheaper than when we came here 8 years ago. In fact we did see it at 1.10 in one garage and apparently it is set to drop even further which is good news.
Back home John is struggling with Lakis' car which has a flat battery again - unfortunately this time it is the new one which John bought for him at the end of November so there is something draining the battery it would seem. John plans to get up early and nip it back down to Polis to where he bought it and then take it from there.
We are now on cold cuts for supper until we finish the meat from Christmas Day! This is not helping with cheese consumption - I bought a selection but after meat no-one seems to have room for the cheese.
We had a quiet evening in - we seem to have got quite engrossed with the World Darts and then there was a programme on North Korea done by Michael Palin, Knighted today in the New Year's Honours list, but just plain old Michael Palin last night!! Mum is having the day out tomorrow with Sheila and Klaus - it is Sheila's birthday and Klaus's the next - I have given them Mum by way of celebration!
If you are a regular reader you will know that December has been disappointing in the weather stakes. Very wet and now very cold at night - colder than the UK which is why so many ex-pats living over here are pissed off that they no longer qualify for the winter fuel allowance. The houses here are built poorly with little to no insulation, double glazing or central heating (unless you are very lucky). Today in the kitchen it was 14 degrees indoors and 5.3 degrees outdoors with the humidity off the scale (showing HH which I guess means high humidity).
I dropped mum off for her appointment and went in to Cycleband or rather Ikoagora as it is now known to do a bit of shopping. You can get a coffee there - they have an area set up with tables and chairs and often a magazine or newspaper but I am not sure that people realise this is what it is for because I have never seen anyone having a cuppa! Understandably the drawers are a little empty although they were having a delivery at the time. I was in search of a bottle of marble and granite cleaner for the worksurfaces in the kitchen but sadly there was none although I still managed to part with 20 euros at the till for things I didn't realise I needed!!!
Having subsequently spoken to Di and Rob about their visit to the Mall today Mum and I must have been lucky because although the carpark was busy we found a spot tucked away in the depths of the lower lower ground floor and our journey through Jumbos was relatively stress-free and there was only one person in front of us at the tills. In fact at that time (which was approaching mid-day) there was quite a nice atmosphere around as by then parking rage had not consumed the shoppers!!
I know that Christmas is over but Mum was rather taken by our orange/red 'tree' which we have in the corner of the lounge - it is nothing more than a cone with lights inside but is rather effective and she thought one of those would look nice in her lounge so that was one of the things we were looking for and fortunately we managed to find them - there were only 3 left so she was lucky. To go underneath I found some pretty boxes and when we called in to the bungalow to check everything was ok I plugged it in to make sure it worked and put the boxes and some existing Santas around the bottom.Prior to that Mum and I had gone for a light lunch at the Mall - again we had timed it right as we managed to get a table straight away and then ordered our food and got that pretty quickly. A little helping of Mum's only weakness - KFC goes down a treat after all the rich food we have been eating!!!
We made our way back to the car - happy to find it relatively easily as we were parked in an area I don't think I have ever been to before and we got out of the car park with ease. It was a warm and bright day in Paphos - holidaymakers were wandering around in shorts and t-shirts and, to be fair, if you were in a sheltered spot it was very nice. We used to do exactly the same when we came over for Christmas on holiday. I distinctly remember walking around the old town on Christmas Eve in t-shirt and shorts with little Christmas trees twinkling away and tinny Christmas Carols being piped through loud speakers - that was probably about 25 years ago!!!
We had a couple of attempts at leaving Mum's bungalow but the first time Mum had forgotten her petticoat and the second time she realised that the laptop was on so it was third time lucky. We drove along Banana Bay where the sun was slipping down through the clouds. I stopped to take some photographs - it was getting very windy but it was a warm wind. Taking a photograph into the sun makes it look like it is evening but it was mid-afternoon.
It was pretty spectacularly rough although you wouldn't have thought so from this photograph!!! Anyway we stopped for petrol on our way home - using the Echo garage at the bottom of Peyia where the price was 1.11 per litre which is cheaper than when we came here 8 years ago. In fact we did see it at 1.10 in one garage and apparently it is set to drop even further which is good news.
We are now on cold cuts for supper until we finish the meat from Christmas Day! This is not helping with cheese consumption - I bought a selection but after meat no-one seems to have room for the cheese.
We had a quiet evening in - we seem to have got quite engrossed with the World Darts and then there was a programme on North Korea done by Michael Palin, Knighted today in the New Year's Honours list, but just plain old Michael Palin last night!! Mum is having the day out tomorrow with Sheila and Klaus - it is Sheila's birthday and Klaus's the next - I have given them Mum by way of celebration!
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