This was to be a different sort of Thursday for me.  We always struggle around Christmas and the New Year with pickleball numbers and this year has been no exception - we either seem to have too many players or not enough.  The problem is that we are committed to paying for two sessions a week on a Tuesday and a Thursday irrespective of whether we do or not, our Friday sessions are pay if you play so not so desperate to fill this day.  Tom very kindly pays for any shortfall in the rent and over the course of the year we seem to make that up so that he can be refunded.  I had agreed to go down this afternoon to make up a four.  This enabled me to go to the Mall and get my hair cut and do some shopping, call in and see Mum for an extra visit and then play before returning home and then going out in the evening to Di and Rob's for supper.

It is the last day of January and this year barely a day has gone by this month without some rain - it has been grim and doesn't look like it is getting better any time soon.  I set off for Paphos having failed to pay our water bill as Marianna was not in the office.

I went down the Egyptian's road - I don't really know why we call it the Egyptian's road - we haven't seen an Egyptian there but it is the road where the shack is where a goat herder lives periodically.  It is a river - the water is coming off the fields and streaming down towards the main road.  There is a partially built house at the bottom of this road which has been ravaged by successive winters of wet.  We have never seen anyone there save for a couple of afternoons when there appeared to be a workman doing 'something' but not sure what.  This house will fall down soon and someone somewhere must have asked for it to be built.  We did hear that it was a local doctor but that could just have been rumour.

It was a grey and soggy journey down towards Paphos.  I opted to go Coral Bay way as I think it is a much nicer route.

As I took the road along Banana Bay the sea was so rough that I decided to stop and take a bit of video - you cannot really tell just how stormy it was and it started to spit with rain so I didn't hang around too long!

I did a quick run round Jumbos and then got my hair cut at the Mall - Lumi has recently been back to Romania to see her parents and she is hoping that they might come to visit her here in Cyprus in the summer if they are both well enough.  As time was going on I decided to grab something to eat before heading to Mum's and for a change I decided to have a bargain meal from Taco Bell where the chicken is moulded to make the taco casing.

I really should have learned that anything that is that shape and size probably doesn't taste anything much like chicken and I was right it was somewhat rubbery and tasteless - the salad was nice - it had a bit of a kick to it with some chili salsa hiding inside and the chips were good - we don't have chips very often so it is a bit of a treat.

It filled a gap - I can't say more than that - it certainly isn't something I will have again - actually I really like the chinese there but it is far to big a meal to run around on when you are playing pickleball.  So all sorted with what I wanted from the Mall I shot off to Lemba Bazaar for a couple of things and then went and saw Mum before playing pickleball.

I quite enjoyed my pickleball session - Tom was so glad I had made the effort to make up the numbers he fair rugby tackled me in order to give me a kiss in gratitude.  Carol's game is coming on leaps and bounds now that she is playing twice and week and newbie Mike will make a decent player given time - he has some cracking ground strokes but just lacks a little confidence and mobility but I am not entirely sure he has some sort of minor disability.  Anyway the weather was brighter as I made my way back to Droushia where John had not seen the sun all day.

Rob came and picked us up early doors to go down to theirs for a meal.  It was dry when we got there and I have to say their front garden looked lovely all lit up - you can't see the lights of Polis in the distance but they were there.  Their next door neighbour Nick died recently and was buried on Monday next door but one from Dad.  Sadly Nick was a difficult man to live next door to so his passing was kept from Di and Rob and us by association.  As John says - there's nowt so queer as folk and cutting of noses to spite faces also springs to mind.  Nick leaves a widow who is now, through his behaviour and her behaviour and her brother in laws behaviour, isolated from people who could and would have provided her with support.

Anyway back to this evening and we had a lovely time.  It was good to sit round the table and chat and eat lovely food and then listen to some great music.  It was the end of the transfer window so there was a great deal of interest in the incoming and outgoing players for Charlton and the Mighty Blades.  Big thanks to Di and Rob for their tremendous hospitality.  I managed to negotiate cardiac hill with only one stop and we managed to make it all the way home in the dry - bloody good job as shortly afterwards the rain came down in torrents and I mean torrents!