58 Days to Go...

Thursday - quite an action packed day today for me and John.

For me I had to take my new glasses back to the opticians today to have the lenses remade.  I have struggled on with them but cannot seem to get things in focus unless I am looking directly at them - and being vertically challenged that means that what falls within my range of sight is quite limited!  It also meant that I had to cope this morning without them - not easy as I had to keep relying on Gemma to read the small stuff!!  They have replaced the lenses but I am not convinced that they are any better and so the optician has decided to go for a different Varifocal with a greater field of vision - they are more expensive but I am so dependent on them that I am prepared to try anything.

I had a really lovely lunch today at ASK with Lorna and her daughter Janine (hope that is spelt correctly).  Janine spent some years living in Greece when she was younger and I know that she and her husband would love to move abroad and Cyprus is high on their list.  It was good to be able to share some of our experiences.  She asked me what concerns I have and I know that leaving behind so many good friends from all sorts of walks of life is something that bothers me.  Technology makes contact easier but there is nothing like a good old chin wag over a meal shared with friends, friends who share your history and with whom even silence is comfortable.  Lorna, I know that you will read this, so thanks so much for our shared experiences, particularly those spent as Soroptimists - both good and bad!!  Thanks too for lunch - let's hope that some time in the future I can repay you with a meal in a local Taverna but I promise we will meet up again before John and I go!

This evening Laura and I supported a Swishing Evening organised by Mrs Allan in aid of her netball team.  After a slow start everyone got in the swing and it was a good opportunity for both her and I to offload excess clothes and shoes!  We both won a prize on the raffle (unheard of that I have one on two raffles in the space of a couple of days) but I donated my Body Shop smellies to Laura, she kindly offered me her Shortbread but I turned it down - much to John's disgust as he LOVES shortbread!  We were both amazed at how possessive people became of their chosen items and how at the end of the evening it looked like a swarm of locusts had been there!

John has had what can only be described as a trying day!!  First of all the solar heating people managed to arrive the one time that John had nipped out to the bank.  On his return he found them trying to install the new water tank on the roof which is a big no no and he had to convince them that it was supposed to go into the space where the existing tank currently resides.  Solar heating installation is now put off until next week so will be a job for our site foreman (Dad) to oversee along with the kitchen installation which has also been delayed.  Thanks Dad we really couldn't manage without you.

John also started to drill a hole in one of the walls only to hit reinforcing rods that he hadn't anticipated being there so that has to be filled and it is back to the drawing board for that project.  He also managed to break the pick-axe handle trying to remove some of the root balls in an effort to clear a spaced for the shed and the gas bottle.  He has phoned tonight to say that he did eventually complete that task.  He must be absolutely knackered because those plants could grow without any help at all and have been largely unchecked since the property was built.

He is now back with Mum and Dad so Mum doesn't need to keep supplying him with Meals on Wheels although she isn't entirely redundant as she is going up with John on Saturday to help him clean up.  Thanks Mum because we couldn't manage without you either.  Anyway she knows that she needs to be useful or else I will be checking her into the Laura Beach Hotel (private joke - the Laura Beach may well be a residential care home in the future!!).

I hope that John manages some sort of day of rest tomorrow - although I doubt it because once he has the bit between his teeth there is no stopping him.