Day 52 with Day 51 Catchup...

First of all many thanks to our dear friend Joani and her little anatomy lesson regarding the goat which was, as she pointed out, unable to provide milk to make cheese, as HE didn't have the right equipment!!

So to yesterday then - well we had to get up early because we needed to drop the car off in Paphos to have its over-revving issue looked at again so we packed up and went into the village to do a couple of admin things before going down to Paphos.  First stop was the community office to check with Marianna if we owed anything for services.  This is such a laugh because the community office is located up a rickety flight of stairs inside the Weaving Museum!! 

Then to the post office which as you know is located in Finikas coffee shop and from there to the local Co-Op bank to see Mira and set up a standing order to pay our telephone bills.  In the bank we were given a real once-over by the guy collecting his pension.  Women should obviously never be seen in banks!!

All done and dusted we drove on down to Paphos and stopped off to exchange the golden brown wood stain that turned out to be clear and dropped the car at the garage where Dad was waiting to pick us both up.

John and Dad did their own thing and Mum and I went down to the Imperial Beach to play pickle-ball.  I am not sure how much longer we will be doing that as the temperature on the court was really high and as there were only four of us no-one gets a break during the hour and a half that we play.  I also had a stinker for some reason - I put it down to the fact that we were on a different court and the net was new, tight and higher!

John collected the car late afternoon and pronounced that it was like a new vehicle - which is great as apart from that little hiccup it is a good car.

Our evening out with Costas, Jackie and Jane was a complete disaster.  John and I arrived at the taverna to find that is was hosting a wedding reception to a load of chavvy brits who were all the worse for wear.  I thought they had karaoke going on but John was sure that it was, in fact, the hired entertainment!!!  Poor Andreas the owner kept trying to persuade us that he could squeeze us in but really you couldnt hear yourself think! 

We rang Costas and Jackie to explain and suggested that we try the Taverna that is opposite Kaizon on the old Airport road.  I dont think Costas was keen as he suggested Seven St Georges. 

Well Seven St Georges is like marmite - you either love it or you hate it and John and I fall into the latter camp.  It is a bit pretentious, in a lovely setting though, but they do go on about their home made bread and organic wines.  It must be popular as it was packed.  Unfortunately service was awful, food decidedly mediocre, two brit kids continuously ran round and round and there was a swarm of noxious black bugs to annoy us.  Apart from that we did have a nice evening because we always enjoy Costas and Jackie's company and it was good to catch up with Jane.  Jane is the reason that Jackie originally went to Cyprus on holiday, met Costas, got married and the rest as they say is history.

Three and a half hours of sitting with the bugs on uncomfortable rattan chairs meant that John and I crawled home at 11.45 - way past our bedtime and way past Mum and Dad's.

This morning John and I packed up and set off home.  We called into Timark to enquire about the missing tonneau and head-rest and were assured by Stavros that it would be 'next week'.  We also managed to find the bike place we had seen advertised as we are still searching for a two-seater scooter.  Unfortunately the bike he had was too expensive so we will contiue looking and maybe we may be able to find something second hand.  From there we called into the Citizen's Advice Bureau to register our S1's so that we are entitled to free medical care for a couple of years.  This couldn't have been more simple as all we had to do was pitch up with our yellow resident's forms and our S1s and the girl in the CAB did the rest.  We now have to wait for them to come back from Nicosia and then we can take them up to the hospital in Polis to register there.

Back at 10B and all was well.  John and I are slowly getting round to the culture of eating outside and sat under the gazebo looking out to Chrysochou bay having our lunch. 

Boy oh boy is it ever hot here today - we dont think it will be too long before the weather station is showing the outside temperature as being 40+.  Fortunately the lounge remains reasonably cool as does 'Mum and Dad's' bedroom and I am tempted to sleep in there if ours gets too hot - but it is so lovely in ours it does seem a shame not to sleep in my own bed!

Not able to sit still for too long John decided to check out his new pool equipment and decided to go for a bottom clean and a back wash (sounds painful).  He started with skimming the top of pool of debris and then hooked out things that had met their maker on the bottom - this included a poor little gecko and this thing which was humungous (it is pictured next to John's finger) and looks for all the world like a locust.  John is making good progress with the pool though.

I set to with the new varnish and completed the work on the bit that joins the two buildings.  We were just admiring our handiwork when we had a knock at the gate and it was Philippos who used to deal with the rental of the villa from the Droushia Heights Hotel.  He was very impressed by the work we had done and kept saying we had created a 'little paradise'. 

He is hopeful that the electric will be sorted soon but we are not holding our breath nor too worried whilst he continues to pay for it!!  He made us laugh because he says that he is going with this family for a week's holiday shortly to Rhodes (making use of his company perks he says).  I told him to leave his mobile phone behind - he says he will have it on silent and check it only once a day - REALLY - I think NOT!!!

Anyway he stayed for a drink - said we would see him again soon and left by saying that if we ever wanted to go on a boat trip from Latchi to let him know as he could do us a 'good deal'!!