Bloody Hell it is Cold on the Bike...

This morning I was woken by the sound of hunting dogs being fed and shooting in the distance - this can only mean one thing - it is Sunday (or it is Wednesday but I have lost three days!!!).  

We didn't have too much planned for today but did hope to get out on the bike later to blow away the cobwebs.  It was a beautiful morning and we realise that there is now less than four weeks until Christmas and so we wanted to get Mum and Dad's bed ready by adding the duck down mattress topper that we had purchased - having made the bed it looked like something out of a fairytale - the Princess and the Pea sprung to mind - and Mum will probably need a step to get into it!!  In fact it looked so inviting that we decided to put the other topper on ours - I cant wait to go to bed tonight especially as we have put the electric blanket in as well and set to turn on by timer.  Don't think I am joking when I say it is cold at night.  Today the temperature at its height was about 22 degrees but as I write this at 5.00pm it has dropped to 9 degrees and our bedrooms get very little sun during the day.  We have some electric radiators but with the price of electricity high and getting higher we are holding off using them.  We have also found that up here there is quite a problem with condensation which additional heating seems to exacerbate - having worked hard to try and eradicate as much damp as we can we don't want to introduce anything that might encourage it to return.

We moved the router from the spare bedroom into the lounge (saves traipsing across the courtyard when there is a problem) and John tidied up where the phone sits on the bookcase drilling a new hole and taking the base unit to bits so that the wire could be fed through the hole rather than on view.  We also rehung the brown curtains between the kitchen and the dining room in readiness for hanging the second pair of curtains when I have got some hooks.  I bought some cracking 90 x 90 inch lined curtains off of the tintyweb and had them delivered to Cyprus for a total cost of £30!!! They are cream with a self pattern and a slub in the weave (will show you when they have been hung).  I know that curtains are expensive and particularly so here in Cyprus so these were a bargain and to be honest we have had little or no problem getting items delivered even though they pitch up in a wooden box in the local coffee shop!!

All jobs done we decided to make the most of the remaining sunshine and go off on the bike - we haven't been out on it for a while (probably since Hilary was here) and it needed to have a run.  We hadn't decided where to go - Sunday lunchtimes most tavernas are full with Sunday Lunchers so we just hopped on and decided to head towards Argaka which is to the right of Polis going up the coastline towards Pomos.

Just down the hill from where we live is a house that never ceases to amaze us.  We call it the Egyptian's house even though we don't know who lives there.  There is always washing hanging on the line but fundamentally this is just one room which benefits from a satellite dish and solar panel with toilet located across the garden!! The fridge is propped up outside although with the dropping temperatures that probably isnt even plugged in!

I took this snap from the back of the bike on the way down the hill to Polis hence it is a bit out of focus but this is to show you that we do get some colours of autumn here although nothing like on the scale we used to get back in Somerset with all the lovely trees changing colour - I particularly used to love driving to our Wellington office across the hills through the avenue of copper beech trees in the Autumn with the fantastic colours, low lying mist and weak sunshine adding to the picture.  Still the vibrant blue skies and the Mediterranean Sea in the distance more than makes up for it!

On a detour off the main road somewhere down by the Natura Beach Hotel we came across this old Bedford-type bus.  These buses used to provide a regular service all over the island but have now been replaced by modern air-conditioned vehicles and the only working old style buses are used for weddings or organised tours.  This one seems to have been abandoned which is such a shame.

My arty-farty shot for today was taken on Argaka beach where there was this one plastic chair sitting on the beach.  You can see from the lengthening shadows that it is getting quite late and although bright the temperature was dropping rapidly - my plan to swim on Boxing Day is looking dodgy!!!  

Our plans to find a bar for a drink went out the window as it was bloody cold so we decided we should go home to the kids, the warm and Sunday Dinner.  Neither of us had to think twice about it!!

We had a visible reminder as we left Argaka that Christmas will soon be upon us as we passed the community tableau.  Over the years we have seen huge changes in Cyprus with regard to the celebration of Christmas as Easter was always their big celebration.  With more ex-pats living here Christmas has become a bigger and bigger celebration.

On our return home we were surprised to have a ring at the doorbell - we were being collared by someone doing the official census.  I left John to it as I got ready to cook Sunday Dinner.

Another day done in Droushia!