A Difficult Day...

It has been a very difficult day today because having had Chivers sleep with us all evening on the sofa and then all night on our bed he wouldn't eat anything this morning although he ran to his food and then I watched him drink water and then throw up.  He has seemed a bit out of sorts for a couple of days and he looked a bit scraggy so we decided to get him to the vets as quickly as possible which meant that John had to get down to Peyia in just 20 minutes - thank goodness we had got Mum and Dad's cat basket having given Ray and Janice back the one they had lent us.

To cut a long story short Chivers was kept in because he was dehydrated and put on a drip.  When we phoned this afternoon they said that he had ripped the shreds off of one of the cages as he so wanted to be out of it so they had had to move him to a larger one.  He doesn't seem to have eaten and has the runs (which obviously contributes to the dehydration) and they don't seem to know what has caused it.  We thought it would be best if he stayed in overnight for observations and having returned home late tonight Minz cannot understand why she is on her own.

I doubt either of us will sleep much tonight worrying about him so fingers crossed that by the time you read this he will be back with us and fit and well.

Back to today then whilst John was racing off down to the vets I had a visit from what they refer to over here as the Cyprus RAF - this is a very, very large black beetle with a loud buzz (like an aircraft) which seems to fly headlong into windows.  This is a what I think is called an African Black Lawn Beetle.

This duffer was walking across the swimming pool cover so I rescued it with the shrimping net - it got out of the net and flew straight back onto the cover - duh!  I rescued it again but his time it couldn't find its way out of the net so I had to untangle it and left it to dry out on the fence.  These insects are about the size of a small plum - you  wouldn't want on of them to hit you in the face if you were out cycling or on the motor bike - it could do some serious damage.

Our car was supposed to be being looked at by a garage in Paphos so John swung by Mum and Dad's and dropped the car off and borrowed their CRV so that he could come back to Droushia and pick me up.  We were going to take the opportunity to do some shopping whilst we were down town and I had said I would play pickleball today and then we were being very naughty and having Mum and John's favourite takeaway - KFC and then only because Mum and Dad had got a half price voucher put in their letterbox.

I also took the opportunity to take my original Canon camera down to Paphos to see if I could get it cleaned as there is something somewhere that leaves a circular shadow on the pictures.  The shop where Klaus had taken his previously has either moved, closed down, or was not where I thought it was located but we did find a small shop near to the Agipinor Hotel where the guy was extremely helpful and located whatever it was that was causing the problem.  He did not have the necessary cleaner to remove the offending speck but told me that his son (who also has a camera shop) would come over during the lunch closure and sort it out for me.  True to his word the speck has been removed and John went and picked up my camera whilst I was playing pickleball and there was no charge - how good was that?

On the subject of pickleball it was glorious down at the Imperial Beach today as there was just a light wind to cool us on the court.  During one of my sit-out periods I took a walk down to the beach and watched a paraglider being pulled along the coastline.  I have done this once many years ago, the views were spectacular but it was one of the most painful experiences of my life because the harness was pinching me in places I can't even begin to mention - let's just say it is a good job I didn't want children because that harness probably prevented me from ever having the opportunity!  Not only that, it was an extremely windy day so on my own I wasn't heavy enough to counterbalance the affect of the wind filling the 'chute so it took two or three men to drag me down - after that they sent people up in pairs.

I need help again from someone to identify the plant above.  These are flowering everywhere along the coastline.  It is some sort of succulent which we refer to as Ladies Fingers but I know that this is not what they are called.  The vibrant pink flowers are about 5-6 inches across and as you can see are very popular with the bees!  We had a load of it which we ripped out when we made room for the bike.

Mum is going to hate me for this photograph but it is lovely to see her enjoying the KFC.  We sat upstairs on their balcony waiting for the meal to arrive.  We had been told it might take 30-40 minutes and I wasn't entirely sure that they had understood my directions so we were chuffed when it pitched up just about 10 minutes after I had ordered it - pretty good going as it had to come from the Tomb of the Kings Road.

Dad and I were victorious in our Best of Five tonight - but only just.  John took the honours with the Rummikub.  If anyone else can suggest a good simple game for the four of us to play we would recommend your suggestions!