D-Day (Dentist Day)...

As Christmas is fast approaching and we may have missed someone either by post or by email - here is our electronic greeting card - hope you enjoy - it takes a while to load but we think it is worth it!!

A slightly better day today weather-wise, no rain but very very windy.

We both had appointments at the Dentist today for a check-up and clean and polish.  John is pleased with the fillings that Elena (dentist) did on his front teeth and we reckon that what she charged is probably about par for the course - the price for the check-up and clean/polish seems to be about the same as I used to pay in Yeovil but of course John never used to have to pay for dental treatment when he was in the Navy and he is a piso tight-arsed northern git anyway!!!  We have checked that our private health care covers us so off we went this morning...

John went first and said it was a clean and polish the like of which he had never had before!!!  I have to agree because it was like having your teeth blasted with a high pressure hose there was water everywhere!!!! We weren't allowed to have a coffee or anything with colour in it for about two hours afterwards and we ended up with Hollywood smiles!!!  We haven't wanted to eat anything all day or fear of ruining the work that has been done!!!  (Photographs courtesy of the Bloody Blackberry).

All the time that we were in the dentists earlier in the week we kept saying that we thought we had seen her before - it transpires that she lives in Giolou and her husband is a cousin of Christos and we think we saw her at Xaroula's wedding.

With fresh zingy teeth we went off down to Orphanides to do a bit of shopping.  Personally, I think that the Orphanides in Polis is a much nicer supermarket - the staff are lovely and the shop is light and bright.

Even a little supermarket in Polis embraces Christmas in a way you wouldn't imagine!!!  It is full of decorations which, this side of the festive season, are reduced by 50% so I guess like everywhere else Cyprus is trying to get consumers to part with their money.  We don't find the cost of shopping too bad but we are prepared to shop around and aren't hung up on brands.  

Tonight is Friday night and so we push to the boat out a bit - we have quite a bit of catch-up TV and we are planning a chilli followed by cheesecake.  We probably paid well through the nose for the cheesecake but it is John's favourite!!

The fruit and veg in Orphanides always looks nice and are well laid out - there are some things that we are not too familiar with but we are trying them out - we also have to get used to the prices being for a Kilo!!  Orphanides also does a good line in fruit and veg that is just slightly passed its best and in the past I have bought bags of lemons for making lemonade (funny that!!) and peppers for making roasted red pepper soup (no kidding!!!) and today we bought a huge bag of merlin oranges for just over a euro.

We returned home via the village so that we could check the post (lots of things today woohoo).  It is official - Winter has arrived - the coffee shop is closed for much of the day.  We went into the community office (above the weaving museum) to check to see if we had a water bill.  Not sure what we paid - we have had an odd €14.20 knocking around for months - so paid that but don't think that was actually the water bill - will have to check.  Marianna from the community office is the lady holding the ex-pat ladies tea tomorrow so I will get the chance to check out her house!!

On returning home we had to sort out the trusty old Gazebo that had finally given up the ghost - poor thing had started out its life in Cyprus, got taken back to the UK where it saw a few parties or two and then returned to Cyprus.  The wind had seen it off and so we had to throw the poles away and decided to utilise the cover and put it over the bike.  John will have to build that carport sooner rather than later!

I spent this afternoon getting the food ready that I had promised to take to Janice and Ray's Christmas party which is being held tomorrow evening.  

Having made some very yummy mustard and honey-roast sausages for Dad's 80th birthday I had promised I would provide these and not bloody sausage rolls.  But there again a party at Christmas isn't complete without sausage rolls is it????  I relented and cooked some sausage rolls (and no, I didn't make them).  They were astronomically priced but hey, Christmas only comes once a year - thank God!!!

Finally apparently I had agreed to make an orange cake - and whilst it came out of the oven looking perfect, once I had soaked it in orange syrup it collapsed!!!  I am going to have to cut it into squares to try and disguise its appearance!!!

Another day done we have had the chilli, cheesecake to come!