Day 17...

REMEMBER YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW AND THEY SHOULD OPEN UP IN A BIGGER VIEW...

We all got woken up in the early hours this morning by yet another thunderstorm.  Mum and Dad have said that the weather is very strange for this time of year.  The storm left everything in a right old mess bringing desert sand down with it.  So much for Dad taking Mum's car to have it washed yesterday!

Today is Mum's 76th birthday and she was having friends around for tea and stickies this morning, hence the cake making yesterday.  I think she had a lovely morning with cards (one hastily purchased by Dad because he couldnt find the one he had originally bought and John forgot to pick him one up from the Euro shop yesterday) and gifts and visits and phone-calls.

John and I took the opportunity to shoot out this morning to go to the bank to ask them to let us know when our transfer from England arrives - without it we will be coming home!!  The Bank Manager duly rang later in the day to tell me that it would be arriving tomorrow and that he would promise me a good exchange rate!

We also took a look at some bikes - 125cc type with seating for two people.  They are pretty reasonably priced and we think they would be a good idea for nipping into town or down to the beach rather than take the car but unfortunately with my short legs we havent found one that I really feel comfortable with so we will bide our time until we find exactly what we want.

On our travels we passed by the London Supermarket garden centre and decided to take a look to see if they had a lemon and a lime tree that we can put in our front garden.   OOOO it is SOOOO exciting going into a foreign garden centre because there are just so many different plants and plants that in England which are just indoor I will be able to grow outdoor.  I was like a child in a sweetie shop and cannot wait until I can get round to designing and planting up in Droushia.  We did manage to get a lime tree and a lemon tree - in flower and with some little fruits so that we can be certain that we have purchased what we expected.  We had some fun getting them into the CRV as they are both well over 5ft tall and bushy - not to mention the spiteful thorns that they have.  It was an exciting trip home and the inside of the car is a right old mess (matches the outside) but does at least smell very fragrant!

Whilst at the garden centre we couldnt resist buying one of these geraniums for Mum - I have never in my life seen a geranium with flower heads the size of an hydrangea.  The photograph doesnt do it justice as it is the most vibrant pinky red.  Hopefully it will stop Mum taking crafty little 'cuttings' from houses as we go by.  I shall be expecting her to raise me a little one from this beauty though.

This afternoon as a special treat

we all went off for a birthday coffee to the new Elia Golf Complex which is a Nick Faldo golf course and very nice too.  Fortunately they do allow any old riff-raff in for a coffee.  You can see how happy Dad looks to be there and it would appear that it was his turn to wear Liam Gallagher's hat today!  Not being a golfer I have absolutely no idea what it is like as a course but it did look very nice and very green but then that isnt surprising when you consider how much rain we have had this week!  It was however 'a very good shout' as Dad would say when it came to coffee as we had a couple of large cafetieres and only paid six euros - now we are retired and in Cyprus we measure everything by the cost of a coffee - that's the law!

Mum has the night off tonight as I am chief cook with John as my bottle-washer - we are having steak.  I am just building myself up to it by having a quick G&T.

Hopefully Mum will agree that she has had a lovely day.