Hot Tub followed by Hot Food...

Today I had been invited to a chill-out at Sheila and Klaus's house with Marian from down the road.  We ladies were going to be relaxing in their hot-tub - how fantastic!!!

I called for Marian at just before 10.00 am and we wandered down the road to Sheila's.  Andreas's horse and foal have been moved - they are steadily munching their way towards the village centre!  The foal looks lovely and is full of play - Mum is, understandably, very protective as John found out. 

Just past the horses poor old Marian got the shock of her life when we passed a house where the old man was sat in the outside toilet with the door wide open - he probably does it all the time!!!  I didn't even see it so it didn't bother me!

It feels as though Summer has well and truly arrived at long last as it was very warm and bright as we walked down through the village en route to the 'dead people'.  Marian stopped to chat to one of the local farmers out on his tractor and had to decline a trip to the coffee shop.

We were given an enthusiastic welcome by Benji and Charlie who were looking resplendent with their new crewcuts.  Benj looks such a different colour now that he has a short back and sides!  I am not normally a dog lover - I need to take some time to get to know them first but these two are so sweet.  Charlie is a big old softy and so gentle and Benj is a bit more reserved and backs off a bit after his initial welcome.  Today though I got the full head on the knee, paw offering treatment.  It is hard to believe that these two are brothers - poor old Benj obviously was at the back of the queue when it came to giving out legs as he is a right old short-ass compared to Charlie!

The Knipps' hot tub is HUGE and includes a facility so that you can swim against waves.  We are contemplating whether we might be better off filling in our pool and replacing with a hot tub as the weather up here means that an unheated pool is only really useable for 5-6 months of the year and needs constant maintenance to look good.

So here we are (does Macbeth spring to mind???) enjoying the hot tub - clearly I have not been wearing this swimming costume previously as I have a right old mismatch of white bits on my shoulders!!  The water temperature was a very comfortable 33 degrees and there was a veritable plethora of jets to massage our limbs.  I am not sure what Sheila and I are laughing about - maybe we had just been taken by surprise by an unexpected shot of water!!

The view from the hot tub down across the garden to the mountains and the sea is lovely - and what better place to spend it!  Here Marian is sampling the strength of the wave element - I have to say I would struggle for much longer than a couple of minutes before it pushed me to the far end and had me pinned to the side!!  We stayed in the tub until we were all completely squeaky clean and wrinkly.  I can imagine that this would be a lovely place to sit at night and look up at all the stars particularly as we have so little urban/light polution up here.

We said our goodbye's and walked back home.  John and I were going down to Paphos, picking up Mum and Dad en route, then meeting up with Kaye and Co at Vienna (I love Steak and Prawns) to take advantage of the £1 = 2€ exchange rate if you pay in sterling.

Next week we are having a sort of secret santa gift exchange when they all pitch up at our house along with Mum and Dad and Aunty Joyce and Uncle David.  We had to go out and buy something for €5 that the recipient would either love or hate.  This involved a trip to the euro shop for John and I and we went our separate ways clutching our money.  We are having to keep what we bought from one another just in case we end up with what we purchased as our gift.

We all assembled at Vienna - I had prebooked the table and it was a lovely evening so sitting by the open windows the air was welcome rather than a nuisance.  In fact as the evening went on it got progressively warmer.  We are all getting slightly eating out jaded so it was great to be going somewhere with a bit of a different menu - steak and prawns.  We had drinks, a bottle of our favourite Agios Onoufrios wine, steaks or prawns/lobster, four had billy big puddings and we all chucked in £15 per person which left a very healthy tip.  Service was great and the staff were friendly - all agreed that it was, a good place to eat.  So peeps if you have any sterling to get rid of or visitors who come with sterling and want to eat out you really could do a lot worse than to eat at Vienna.  Just remember you have to order before 6.30pm to take advantage of the exchange rate offer.

We dropped off Mum and Dad - having a quick game before we left and actually had a relatively (but very welcome) early night.  I can't believe that Kaye and Co are a week in already.