Turnabout Tuesday...

I was useless last night and retired to bed early.  In fact we both did and started watching a film - I ended up watching the inside of my eyelids and John resolutely watched it to the finish.  I think all the nights being woken up by the thunder had taken their toll and I just wanted a good uninterrupted night's sleep which I got!

We both woke up feeling refreshed - at 6.30am it was very still outside when we called the cats over for their morning cuddle.  We didn't lie around for long today and were 'up and at 'em - the mighty Chatham' as John says (you can take the boy out of the navy but not the navy out of the boy!).

We were pleased to learn that our research into a holiday villa had paid off and Kaye and Vanessa have agreed that the Kathikas property looks a good bet for them in May - let's hope they can tie up the rental and the flights.

Today was going to be an admin day - bills, bills, bills - deep joy.  At this time of the year vehicle tax is due and you get no reminders.  We have both the car and the bike to tax and trotted off to the village bank where we have an account for household bills.  Poor Philippos looked horrified at the prospect of having to do tax so asked us to return on Friday when Mira would be there to sort it out!  As we were going down to Polis we decided that we would do it at the bank down there.  The only problem was that I only had the log book for the car so couldn't do the bike today - maybe we will tap up Mira on Friday to get the bike sorted after all!  

Our quarterly water bill was also due and was for the last quarter just €12 which is nothing - at the moment we have had so much rain that the reservoirs up this end of the island are fit to burst and we heard on the radio that there was flooding up around Pomos.  We also read our electricity meter as our bi-monthly bill is also due.  This last period and then next two months are the worst and we are very dependent on electric - we rarely get enough sun at the moment to heat our water so we have to resort to the immersion heater (expensive) - we use electric heating to supplement the gas and now we have the dehumidifier - having said all that we are trying to be sensible and over the last six months our electric has been averaging about €100 a month - it is more than we used to pay in the UK but then we worked full-time, and were rarely in all day at the weekends so it isn't really a fair comparison.

Having done all the admin and picked up a few groceries we returned home to Droushia - today has been much brighter but very cold (hardly into double figures all day).  We are still very keen on the wood-burner idea but in order to accommodate it we need to locate it in the area where we had our dining table and chairs.  This means swapping the furniture round so that the lounge area becomes the dining area and vice versa.  We decided to tackle this immediately after lunch having first agreed not to fall out whilst we were doing it - which is nigh on impossible as John and I have such different ideas about interior design!

It's not a bad idea to have a good old sort out once in a while anyway - moving furniture away from the walls allows you to see what is lurking behind.  We were quite pleasantly surprised that apart from dust there was very little else - a very small amount of bubbling but absolutely nothing like we had previously - our dehumidifier has become our new BFF (best friend forever) and is doing a grand job - money well spent.

The lounge area looks a little bit bare now that we have turned it around because we no longer have the gas fire as the focal point but will have (if we go ahead) the wood burner instead.  John has put some marks on the wall to show me the size and location so I just need a bit of imagination to visualise how it will be .  We are now looking directly at the two little windows which don't have curtains or blinds up at them but are opaque glass and I am thinking that if the room remains this way round we might do something with them just to soften the look if nothing else!  There are several things we think we could do with so it looks like a visit to Jumbo's and/or idea is in order so watch out Mrs Hazzell.

You will see from the picture above that we have had to move the cat bed and toys into the new lounge area by the electric panel heater that is located where the wood burner would go - both cats are heat hoggers so they cannot be too far away from a fire - any fire.  It would appear that they are not fussed that they are no longer enjoying the gas fire as they have snuggled down together and are zonked out.

Minnie had a bit of a trauma today when she came face to face with one of the feral cats - we heard a bit of a barney going on outside and she was right up one of the trees when we found her.  We don't know which cat it was but hope it wasn't Domino as he is still to be done.  Chivers was nowhere to be seen - he is such a wimp for his size - he only ventured out into the field to try and find her after the barney was over.