A trip to Paphos

When we woke this morning it was dry and bright but this was not to last unfortunately - I had a little lie-in and was kept company by Minnie Mou who just appeared on the bed and sat on my chest having a good old clean - she is so lovely when she is like that but generally she prefers John's attention to mine!  The sun was still shining when I got up - we are currently on fruit-watch and are hopeful that we will have at least one lemon on our tree that we can use for a very special Christmas gin and tonic and that there will be one clementine of ours that is edible!

We are uncertain as to what will and what will not survive the conditions up here so it is going to be a real learning curve - we have already lost a couple of plants that we did not manage to cover up in time when we had some very very cold nights really early on.  Also there are some plants that look like they should keep their leaves but dont - the frangipani tree is a prime example - I thought it was dying as all the leaves were dropping off but Dad tells me that is what happens.

Before setting off for Paphos we finished the work we were doing on the 'downstairs' toilet - we think more major work will be required once Christmas is over because the wood panelling refuses to remain stuck to the walls in places (much to John's annoyance).  We have also found that the floor in there gets very cold so we bought some of the spongy carpet stuff to take the chill off when you are in there.  This is also the room where the termites have been feasting on the door frame!!  John has excavated out where they were and we have treated it so that there should be no further threat from them (we hope!!).  As we set off for Paphos the weather was still dry so Dumb and Dumber (Chivs and Minnie Mou) resolutely refused to go indoors and could be seen thumbing their noses at us from the top of the tree next door (more fool them as it turned out).  Our first stop was at the local bank where I received my regular Greek lesson from Philippos so that I can now say "I would like €150 please" - I will be buggered if I need any other amount!!!  Just the phone bill in the post office which was a bit disappointing and then it was off down to the big city.  

Our first stop was to the Ministry of Transport in the hopes that we could get our driving licences sorted.  As you know we have already had two abortive trips.  This is a particularly chaotic government department but today we were lucky as we eventually managed to find the man who was in charge of checking the paperwork today, not Mr Thassos but Mr Kleanthas.Although Mr Thassos had looked through the paperwork and so we thought it was all in order Mr Kleanthas had other ideas and went through it all with a fine toothed comb and scrubbed out most of what I had filled in, informing us that for certain classes that are on our UK licence we have to have a medical note from the doctor so neither of us will be driving a minibus in the near future!  We were taken out to the carpark for an eyesight test and I thought I was going to be asked to read our own car's plate but instead he chose a particularly tricky numberplate for me to read without my glasses which was made from stylised letters and numbers - it was a bit touch and go but I got it right thank goodness.

The reception/issuing station closes at 12.45 so we were bundled through with our paperwork at 12.46 and thought we would be told to come back at another time.  There were however a number of people queueing who had been there when we arrived.  We stood firm, elbows sharpened.  Cypriots do not queue - whatever they want is far more important that what we might be doing!  

Fortunately we got served even though it was well past 1.00pm, we relinquished our UK driving licences and took possession of our rather tacky pink Cypriot ones.  One more tick in the box - we dont need to renew these until we are 70!

On leaving the Ministry of Transport the weather was taking a real turn for the worse and you could see that it was coming in from the sea and very unpleasant too.  I rang Mum and she confirmed that pickle-ball was off - probably not a bad thing as John has a bit of a dodgy hip and I woke up with a swelling on my ankle the size of a tangerine!

We decided to call in to see Mum and Dad after we had been down to the Superhome Centre to buy the small patio furniture set we had seen earlier in the week.  We always come back laden with bags of goodies and today was no exception as Dad had been scrumping - well why change the habit of a lifetime???

Today along with the contents of the fridge of friends who have returned to the UK for Christmas we had a bag of freshly dug new potatoes and a carrier bag full of citrus fruit!

We stayed long enough to play a few hands of crib (accompanied by all the usual moanings) before dashing back to Droushia in the pouring rain, and I mean pouring.  We had been expecting Nicky and Mark up for the evening and we were going to try Faros for a meal and the Thursday quiz but gave them the option to cancel as the weather was so horrible - just as well really as Mark as been unwell for a few days and it is a long old way to come if you are not really feeling up to it.

This leaves us with an evening to ourselves.  I shall be sampling the mulled wine...