Day 76...

It is mid afternoon on Sunday and we have all escaped to the shade and are chilling!

So what has happened over the weekend???

Yesterday didn't start out too well.  We woke to a powercut - nothing new in that - this has been happening now every morning since the explosion - however we also had no water - and I had to check with Alkisti that this was village-wide and not just us.  The electricity tried just momentarily to come back on at 11.00am and went straight back off again and that was enough to trigger the solar panels to blow the flippin' plastic pipe again.  All our hot water spraying from the roof - fortunately into the new guttering and down into the water barrel.

Now when you have visitors due to arrive at any minute you really dont want to be without electricity, water or solar power.  Quick phone call to Savvas and a 'get your arse down here mate' moment and we waited...

...In the middle of all this the paving slabs we had ordered for the front garden had arrived - unbeknown to us and were down the path sitting on a pallet and needed moving in temperatures well into the 30's!!  My job was to get the slabs over to the shower area and John laid out the ones on the path which will need to be bedded down properly with sand and probably cement.  You can see John going up onto the roof to investigate the problem with the solar panels!!

Savvas sent out his gofer and gofer's mate and they came to us early afternoon and must have read John's mind as they announced that they were going to replace all the pipework with copper which is (a) what they should have done in the first place and (b) what John was going to insist on anyway!!

The temperatures on the roof between 1.00 and 2.00 here must have been unbearably hot for gofer who continuously has a tab end hanging from his lips!!! Gofer's mate spent his time with his head in our airing cupboard and must have been equally as hot - give them their due they wouldnt stop for a drink of water until they had completed the task in hand (just as well as we were very low on drinking water anyway!!).

Good news the solar panels and electricity were restored before Nicky and Mark arrived the bad news was that we were still without water and destined to remain so for a while longer.

Our afternoon consisted of some serious relaxation which was accompanied by some rather serious drinking so by the time we were ready to bimble down to the village for our pre-ordered stifado we were all feeling a little the worse for wear!!!  Party animals we are not - we think we can still do it but we are mistaken so Nicky and I were back home by 9.00pm closely followed by the boys.  The stifado at Stathmos was every bit as good as we remembered and I hate to say it even better than the one that I make!

Back at Villa 10b we took advantage of the beautiful balmy evening and sat outside in Vicky and Trev corner.

Nicky and I were taking pictures of the moon and John and Mark checking their eyelids for pinholes!!

Up this morning to the most beautiful day we have had so far - and with people staying we were able to enjoy it rather than look at the list of jobs we have to do and think we should be tackling one or other of them - it is a rare sight to see John either in the pool or on the lounger for most of the day and Mark says it is the same for him - but he has an excuse he works as does Nicky!  So we all decided we were doing one another a favour!

I have a lot to thank Nicky for with regards to my photography as she was very patient with me last year and took me out for a day and night to get to grips with what my camera can and can't do.  I also have to thank Geordie and Ben for their advice when John got my camera, lenses and photoprinter.  As you know I now snap anything in sight and we are so blessed with such diverse wildlife up here that there is always a photo-opportunity waiting to happen.

We had a late morning brunch before John took Nicky and Mark (separately) on a spin on his bike - and Sue we have taken notice of what you said about the helmets not being man enough to save you in a crash - we will have to investigate something more robust in due course.  John promises he went very very carefully as he could see you shaking your head at him!!

By early afternoon we had all had enough of the sun so John and Mark retired indoors to give each other a wooping on the Wii golf - if you closed your eyes you could almost imagine them on a course somewhere!  Nicky and I retreated to the shade and magazine reading - that was when Nicky wasnt playing Angry Birds - I think she is addicted!!

It is now 4.30pm and we have just waved them off - they say they feel like they have been on holiday and that is a really good thing - in fact I think we all feel well relaxed and ready to see what next week brings. 

You will be pleased to know that we have had electricity all day today but the water has been off since early afternoon and remains off at the moment.  I need to water my plants but more importantly I need to shower!!!