Day 42 catchup...

This blog is a day late because we went down to Emba yesterday as we had been invited to a barbeque at Nikki and Mark's.  Nikki and Mark bought Mum and Dad's old house a few year's ago, John and I saw that house being built from scratch and have very very fond memories of our times there.  John particularly remembers his first dip in the pool when it had been filled with fresh, cold water - it was December 23rd and it was FREEZING - John swam the length in world record time and sang soprano for about a fortnight afterwards!

We took a scenic route down to Emba leaving Droushia from the top road - actually we were being nosey to see how much of the vineyard had been cleared.  Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Nothing in this world can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  but we know there is a third - Cypriots will build anywhere!!

En route to Paphos we found the final resting place for the famous Droushia buses. 

These old Bedford type vehicles were in service until very recently and have now been replaced by the Cypriot equivalent of the 'Nippy' bus!  Probably much more efficient and eco-friendly but not anything like so attractive looking!  It is a shame to just see the old ones parked up and slowly deteriorating.

The drive down to Paphos via Peyia is stunning - we dont normally go that way because it is more direct for us to go through Stroumbi but when we do we still marvel at the view of the coastline that it affords.  We were typical tourists and took a photograph.

Today's job at Mum and Dad's was to measure out and cut the old Pool cover so that it can be bound and used up at our house. 

Mum and Dad have found having a pool cover invaluable for retaining the water temperature overnight when the outside temperature drops.  As it is very much cooler up here we are hoping it will mean that we will be able to use the pool earlier and longer in the future.  We haven't purchased a pool thermometer yet as I have a feeling that psychologically I will feel less likely to brave the water if I know exactly how cold (or otherwise) it is!

We had a really great night at Le Onde.  We were joined at the BBQ by Nikki and Mark's neighbours Heather and Gary who have just retired to Cyprus and who live across the road in the town-house that used to belong to Mum and Dad's friends Wendy and Peter.  We haven't met them before but they were good sports throwing themselves into the game of Cranium that we played (somewhat worse for wear) after the food.

The BBQ consisted of burgers, sausages, ribs and sweetcorn with salad and coleslaw, dips and olives. 

Nikki is rather renowned for her sweet-making so along with the marinaded and barbequed pineapple she had made a very nice lemon tart inspired by the current Waitrose advertisement with Heston Blumenthal!

The beauty of staying over at Mum and Dad's was that we were able to walk so that neither John nor I had to drive and we took with us three litres of carton Rose wine all of which were consumed during the course of the evening together with a couple of pretty hefty brandies with our coffee...

In case you are wondering what is happening in the picture of the three guys, Gary, John and Mark, Mark is modelling a kennel out of play-dough although it looks more like he is showing us the size of something using his hands! 

In the picture of Heather and I, I am trying to get Heather to look like she is snorkelling although she doesnt know that! 

Heather is trying to get Nikki to look like a model but Nikki doesn't know that and Gary is trying to get Mark to be something but for the life of us neither John nor I can remember and it was probably too late in the evening for anything to make sense!

John was apparently trying to be a hump-backed whale in this photograph and not just falling over!!

God only knows what Gary and Mark are doing - they may have just been having a man-hug at this point!!!

Anyway the girls were so far in the lead we were accused of cheating and the boys were whinging so in the end we had to let them win.

John and I managed to stagger home - at 3 Lakoudia Street Mum and Dad were still up - we felt like naughty children!!!  We managed an interesting 'best of one' before John collapsed in bed and drove the pigs home all night!