Sleepyhead Saturday...

We were so excited when we found the copy of the Western Gazette in one of the parcels from Laura and Mark even though it is now several weeks old.  As a result John purchased a Cyprus Weekly and decided that today, Saturday, we would have a lie-in, with coffee and papers in bed.  What a treat, we haven't done that for ages, well at least eight and a half months because that is how long we have been permanently in Cyprus.

It was really interesting catching up on the news from our old home town and amazing how quickly things change.  The Emporium Princes Street was a case in point - I had to track it down on the internet to see what and where it was - apparently it is located in the old Sheepskin shop and I can see that it is my kind of shop housing all sorts of bits and bobs - I am a bits and bobs person - if it has a heart on it or looks like it was connected to the seaside in some way then I expect I would want it!  

The photograph on the front page shows that our old friends Ken and Brenda narrowly escaped having a tree in their front garden when one came crashing down in Mudford Road due to high winds.  I know that Ken and Brenda had a shitty old 2011 so fingers crossed 2012 will be better for them.

It was only a matter of time before we were joined by Chivers and Minnie Mou (seen here doing her 'bunny-rabbit' impersonation sticking her back feet into the air!).  They don't need much bidding and were attracted by the rustle of the chocolate brownie wrappers which they played with until they wore themselves out and came for a snooze.

John soon exhausted the two papers and moved on to his 'electronic' paper on the trusty tablet - fortunately it connects to our wi-fi in the other building so he is able to bring himself uptodate with the news from the Daily Mail online (great for gossip) and the Sun (great for sport).  I can only assume that Mins was feeling the cold at this point as she had decided to sit on top of Chivers to try and rob him of his body heat.  

I left them to it and decided to do some more paint stripping this morning as before we know it February will be upon us and Vix will be here and an open plan toilet is not a good idea - as she would say 'we are close but not that close'.

As you know Chivers has now mastered getting up onto the roof of the house and exploring a whole new world.  Minnie is gutted as she can hear him calling but cannot get to him - John tried to help her get up the ladder but unfortunately her legs are just too short and the metal was cold and she hates getting her feet cold.  Her body seems to be growing but she has a real little pin-head!  Anyway she decided to ignore Chivers' calls to go and join him and went into the conservatory to investigate a couple of flies.  Unfortunately the last couple of warm days have brought with them flies and some big old blue-bottle ones at that.

We had decided to go out for lunch today (giros at Yaya's) prior to villa hunting for Kaye again.  Blimey we are turning into Derby and Joan as we decided to have the giros as a take-away and eat it sitting in the car looking out to sea at Latchi!  Poor old Latchi is looking a bit bedraggled after the storms and the mud-slide on Sunday which swept through a number of the harbour tavernas (including Faros).  Most of them are cleaned up and reopened but the road, cycle path and carpark still show evidence of the mess that must have occurred.

We decided to drive out past Latchi and the Anassa towards the Baths of Aphrodite to see if we could see any villas being advertised for holiday rental there and also because it is years and years since we went that far up the island. 

We drove as far as we could and you end up in some sort of unofficial looking camp site - it could be official for all we know but it is a bit of a shanty town - it could just be because it is winter but the Nicosian Cypriots have this love of camping for some reason and don't seem to care the conditions that they do it in (check out Polis camp site in the summer if you don't believe me).  They don't seem to mind what they are camping in, how close they are to their neighbours, how they get electric, what the washing or toilet facilities are like or what they do with their rubbish.

John and I had never been here before and were fascinated as the area was absolutely stunning even though the motley assortment of accommodation was not!

We moved on from there and searched high and low for a villa which Vanessa had seen on the internet - it must be very secluded because despite seeing signs for it at a number of road junctions we never actually managed to come across it - we found a number of others but somehow they just didn't float our boat and it is always difficult finding something for someone else.

We took the opportunity to check out another villa in Polis - still not what we think they are looking for and then drove cross country in a big circle through Lyssos and Steni.  This part of the island is looking absolutely stunning at this time of the year.  Everything is so green and fresh looking and tidy particularly as the farmers are getting their fields and trees ready for the season to come.