Our Big Night Out in Paphos...

Today was going to be spring cleaning and tidying and then late afternoon we were going down to Paphos with Sharon and Sean to the Vienna Cafe to take advantage of the 2 euros to the pound if you paid in sterling.

My first job this morning was to plant up the Arum Lily that we bought from Agia Marina last weekend when we were out with Mum and Dad.  I decided to put it in the spot where I had put a Gardenia previously.  The Gardenia is looking very poorly so I am hoping that if I pot it up it might survive better in the conservatory where it will be sheltered from the ravages of the wind which is what I think has done the most damage.  It has not been a complete casualty like the Stephanotis but not far off.  On the subject of casualties, I am pleased to report that the plant that we call Mark, and which we thought was dead, has begun to shoot, new fresh green shoots which is great because we very very nearly pulled it out last week!  The garden is really beginning to spring to life now - unfortunately that means that the weeds are on steroids - it is a full time job trying to keep on top of them!

Vix and Trev kindly brought out some seeds for me when they were over last year.  The Californian Poppies have been doing really well and survived the winter so we decided to clear an area at the end of the swimming pool to sew some more in there.  The only trouble was that the minute I started working on it Chivers felt the need to come and give me a hand.  I have a sneaky suspicion that if anything starts to grow there they will be flattened within an inch of their lives by one of other of our little darlings.

John was doing a sterling job cleaning the swimming pool with a bit of help from Chivers who had a thing about licking his toes for some reason!  Poor John has struggled to get the pool looking nice - the sand storms have been a right nightmare - not only has the pool temperature dropped (and it wasn't that high anyway) but there was a layer of silt on the bottom of the pool.  For some reason he can't get the chemical balance right either and so we are going to have to take a sample of the pool water to get it tested.  John doesn't want anyone to swim in it and then become poorly.  It has been a real learning curve having a swimming pool and thank goodness we have Dad to refer to otherwise it would have been even harder work.  John has realised that a pool needs some TLC every day if you want to keep on top of it.

John came into the house and did a double take - he reckoned that his wife had been replaced by a domestic goddess when he saw me armed with a duster and polish and the thing that people call a 'Hoover'.  When John used to go away on board ship he used to ask me if I wanted him to draw me a map so that I could find the Hoover.  I used to tell him not to bother, dust makes me sneeze so I like to leave it undisturbed.  In this respect I am clearly not my Mother's daughter as Mum's house is and has always been spotless - mine looks ok on the surface but doesn't stand up to any real scrutiny.  To my mind there is more to life than cleaning, oh and ironing - not too keen on that either although I do it much more often over here than I used to and John is so much better at it than me.

On a whim John suddenly decided to tile around the wood burning stove - he was sorting out the shed and came across the tiles loafing and the next thing he had the grinder out and was busy cutting what needed to be cut. 

I was obviously deemed capable enough of fixing them to the wall as I was handed the spirit level and as he put the adhesive on the tile I placed it on the wall making sure that it was straight or at least straight in my eyes!  It gave me the opportunity to clean all round the stove and I even washed the companion set - do you know it is black?

We had a quick shower and picked up Sean and Sharon and headed off down for our big night out in Paphos.  We had to be at the restaurant before 6.30pm to take advantage of the offer but that was no problem because we were all starving.  Poor Sean and Sharon seem to spend the whole of their holidays doing work to their house and not chilling out.

I was a bit surprised when we went into the restaurant to be asked whether I wanted smoking or non-smoking - we are, after all, in the EU and so therefore you would expect the whole establishment to be non-smoking however it would appear that most restaurants and tavernas over here consider any room with a window to be 'outside'.   I was even more surprised when I saw a small whippet sitting at the table at the far end where the children's play area is located!

Smoking and whippets aside we all had a fantastic meal - there was a bit of a cock-up on the starter when we thought we had ordered a plate of four pieces of garlic bread to share but ended up having a plate each!  John, Sean and I all went for a steak and Sharon plumped for tempura prawns.  Sean and I shared a sweet - a medley of creme brulee - John chose the cheesecake and Sharon the carrot cake.  With our drinks the bill came to £60 which we thought was excellent value for money - we couldn't buy the meat for that price and cook it ourselves.



We took the opportunity to take a walk back to the car via the harbour - it felt like we were on holiday.  Just occasionally it is lovely to remember that there is some hustle and bustle going on not a million miles away, that there is traffic other than tractors, diggers and motorised rotavators!  We returned to Droushia - a little fog around Kathikas but absolutely nothing like what we had experienced the night before.  It was almost warm enough to sit out - almost - we managed it for about 15 minutes but then retired indoors.  Both John and Sean have projects on tomorrow.  Sean is building a wall and is supposed to have his bricks delivered at around 9.00am.  John is keen to get the carport underway.