Day 26...

We woke this morning to RAIN -what is that all about????  It was bloody miserable this morning and as you can see it wasn't just a few spits and spots it was raining hard. 

Our furniture was due sometime between 12.00 and 12.30 and we did the very British thing of looking out the door and declaring that 'it's brightening up' - ever the optimists.

Whilst waiting for the furniture to arrive we took the opportunity to get one or two jobs sorted - Dad had picked up our new fan for the lounge/diner from Paphos and John put it up.  He had ordered a 4ft down-pole but that was too long and we would have been in danger of decapitating guests so he put it up with the original pole and will have to cut the other one down to a suitable size.  He also took the opportunity whilst the room was empty to secure down all the sockets.  Take a good look because this is the last time you will see the room with nothing in it.

Because we had to put stuff outside to make room for the men to bring in the boxes we had to keep dodging the storms - at 12.00 when the furniture was due it had stopped raining and the sun began to shine. 

Mum and Dad were ready and waiting for the onslaught - needless to say this is Cyprus and at 12.30 there was no sign - John got rather edgy and there were a number of phone calls going backwards and forwards. 

Dad went off down the road to head the pantechnicon off at the pass - as ours is not the easiest house in the world to find.  1.00 came and went... 1.30 came and went by which time I thought John would have an apoplectic fit. 

1.45 saw two Peter Morton vehicles and five guys arrive with all our wordly goods.  What a relief - the first thing they mentioned was that the kitchen table top and large bookcase that seemed to be missing on our original inventory were on the shipment.  In fact our outgoing paperwork listed 186 items and the incoming had just short of 200! 

We opted to unpack most of it ourselves as we wanted to use the packing as insulation in the roof voids.  I think John underestimated how much there would be as we could probably insulate the whole of Droushia and Inea and Arodes!

You can see Mum deep in thought here trying to work out where to start!!  Fortunately the weather wasnt quite so bad in the afternoon as it had been in the morning and we managed to make sure that the majority of the boxes were able to go inside.

John's first priority was to try and get the shed up.  As you know anything that doesnt have a home is going in the shed so we needed it up sooner rather than later particularly as we couldnt store stuff outside in the rain.  The removal guys gave him a hand and he was chuffed that it arrived safe and sound and went up together again without too much problem.  A wooden shed that size costs and arm and a leg in Cyprus - that is if you can find one.

Mum and Dad helped us out until 4.30pm and then went back to Emba as they were going out this evening to the Elea Golf Course to see an art exhibition.  Our friend Jacky had three items on show and we were hoping to go along as well but couldnt leave the boxes.  We hadnt remembered that it was Jacky and Costas' 20th wedding anniversay today and would have loved to have been there.  We are going to try and catch the exhibition on Wednesday as Jacky should be there then.  We will try and arrange to take them out for a meal and perhaps celebrate our own 20th anniversary at the same time.

John and I ploughed on with the boxes until about 8.30pm and began to get some semblance of order - we could at least see the sofas and have a bed to crawl into! 

When we couldnt manage any more we decided to call it a day and go down into the village for something to eat at our local taverna called Cristos.

On our way out we were honoured to see that David Cameron PM and Samantha had returned and made an appearance at our moving in.  They seem to be enjoying a well earned break from politics and are living on our outside light.  At least they are quiet - the same cannot be said for the tree frogs which have put in an appearance again and are chorusing across the whole of Droushia - it is one of the things you have to put up with where there are a lot of unattended swimming pools!

We had a lovely hour or so down at the Taverna - my new BF Alkisti has taken it upon herself to teach us Greek if we promise to help her improve her English which John says is a no-brainer as we really want to make sure we integrate into the community and speaking the language is a sure fire way of doing that. 

We had a good meal - John had his favourite Pork Chop (one only) and I had Lamb Chops (SIX) and they might well have been goat for all I know but were delicious nontheless.  With freshly cooked home-made chips and a village salad to share, three beers, fresh melon and a coffee it came to 33 Euros which we didnt think was at all bad.  We had a free language lesson thrown in plus a geography and history lesson from Alkisti's very amiable husband Cristos and somewhere in all that we think we may have been invited to the eldest daughter's wedding because we now live in the village (this is the tradition in Cyprus) all in all quite an evening to round off a very eventful day.

More unpacking tomorrow...