Monday Monday...

I cocked up yesterday with the blog posting so if you haven't already read about Sunday then you need to for today's to make sense.  Sunday's post will be below this one...

Those of you who follow the blog regularly will know that we had a bit of a bugger of a day yesterday in that the car gave up the ghost when we arrived at Mum and Dad's yesterday for Rosie and Dave's party.  It was all something to do with the immobiliser and key and battery.  

There is a bit of background to this in that when we purchased the car from Timark the previous owner did not know where the master key was.  Apparently the master key is important (it is not a shoe so I am not interested!!).  We have been down on numerous occasions to see if the master key has been found or failing that, that the man with the machine who can clone master keys will come and provide us with one - he needs our existing key and the car in order to do so but on every occasion we have made the journey from Droushia to Paphos there has been no key and no man.  Mr Stavros is not the easiest man to communicate with or pin down so it has been one of those things we have kept meaning to do - in fact we mentioned it as we drove past yesterday en route to Mums - how ironic.  We had a real sinking feeling that without the master key we might be totally buggered - fortunately we hadn't parked on the drive blocking in Mum and Dad's two cars so we were able to get home last night using their CRV and we really cant thank them enough for making it available to us.  

We got home ok but the weather deteriorated and once again last night we were treated to a massive thunderstorm (directly overhead) and white-over of hail.  Chivers and Minnie-Mou opted to sleep on our bed  - OMG what a rubbish night's sleep what with the thunder and the hail keeping me awake and John sleeping on his back (guaranteed to make him snore) and unable to move because of the cats pinning him down, Minnie purring as loudly as she could right by my ear and Chivers snoring worse than John!

We got up early and set off for Emba - the battery had charged overnight and when John reinstated it fortunately everything worked and the car started.  What a relief!  John immediately rang Mr Stavros and we have to ring him again Wednesday to organise for the master key to be sorted - let's hope it gets done this time.  

Whilst we were down with Mum and Dad we took the opportunity to go to Lidl to stock up on their fantastic wine (also cheese, cream, chocolate and chorizo - all the C's!!) and visit a small wood burning stove shop that Dad knew about.  We are still very keen to go ahead with a stove and this little shop had quite a nice selection - although the stoves themselves are much pricier over here the flues and bits and pieces and fitting etc appears to be very reasonable.  The one we particularly like is the Plamen Amity and we are seriously contemplating swapping the dining table and chairs with the settees so our lounge is down by the wood burner and dining room up by the gas fire.  We are thinking of trying the room change around tomorrow!

On our way back home we took a little detour to suss out a villa in Kathikas that we thought might be suitable for Kaye and Co.  Kathikas is a lovely village and although inland is equidistant from the North coast (Latchi) and South coast (Coral Bay).  

I didn't have my camera with me so this photograph is from a website (we certainly didn't have sunshine like this today!!).  Having said that even in the windy grey conditions of today the villa (one of three) looked quite nice and is in a good position - not total seclusion but sea views and a south facing pool, walking distance to the village centre and a number of tavernas and shop.  We think this one is a goer and have reported back accordingly.

As we emailed Kaye with our findings we were really excited to receive an email from my former work colleague and good friend Gemma to say that she, husband Mark, baby Archie and in-laws are Paphos-bound in May  - whoop whoop whoop how fantastic - I will get to see them and in particular Archie who was only a broad bean when I last saw Gemma.  John is already planning how we can get them up to us for a BBQ and who might have a carseat (although Cypriots seem to ignore carseats for kids and have them on their laps unbelted in the front - SCAREY).  Anyway Gem, I would like to say that Archie looks like you but there is absolutely no mistaking who his Dad is - Minnie Mark all the way!!

We had visitors today.  Mum and Dad's neighbours Janice and Ray have their friends Liz and Pete staying with them.  They arrived yesterday and it is a shame the weather is so shitty.  We ramped up the heating for them as Janice and Ray were taking them on a coastal drive this afternoon taking in the grounded ship at St Georges before it is broken up and removed and then coming up to Latchi.  Fortunately as they have their own holiday home in Turkey the vagaries of the eastern-Med winter weather is familiar to them!  We shall be seeing them again on Thursday when they will be honorary members of the victorious Spyro's Neighbours quiz team.

We are now snuggled up checking out the Lidl wine on one of our drinking days - apparently it is ok to drink five days a week although the paper did not specify how much!  John is undecided as to which two days he will be taking off!  We have tried the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon - this is purely a fact-finding mission (as you will appreciate) we are then onto the Californian Ruby Cabernet which comes in at a hefty €2.22 a bottle.  We have worked out that we can get a case of six pretty reasonable wines for less than we are charged for an iffy bottle in a restaurant and we are doing our hearts some good into the bargain (Trevor will appreciate this logic I am sure!!).

Final picture for tonight is Minnie Mou who is fascinated by the television and very excited that Masterchef starts again tomorrow - as a fan of John Torode she will be tuning in at ten o'clock or whatever time it is that it is broadcast over here!

Finally, today (16th) is my very good friend Hazel's birthday - thinking of you Haze - hope it was a good one!!!