Tuesday April 2nd - Happy 58th Anniversary to Mum and Dad...

There was a change of plans for today as Trevor and Vicki had their appointment with immigration so, not knowing whether or not they would be finished in time, Vicki decided she probably couldn’t make pickleball.  With Liz unwell and Tom on his annual pilgrimage to the UK celebrating his 75^th birthday I was needed to make up the numbers – this didn’t make much difference to me – I just swapped what I was doing on Thursday for today.   

We were still without internet and phone.  This is a bit of a buggerance especially as there is a Ladies Lunch on Wednesday and I cant tell if anyone has emailed me about it.  It was probably a good job I was going to PB today as it meant I could use Mum and Dad’s computer to check my mail.

We had also received a text message from John’s sister asking us to Skype ASAP which of course we cannot do – we have ascertained that John’s Mum is poorly and has been suffering pains in her chest.  He is understandably very worried and this is one of the times when the distance between their home and ours becomes noticeable.

We had a number of chores that we needed to complete in Polis this morning so we were up and out reasonably early.  We had a visit to the bank to make sure that our electricity bill was paid.  The island has now become very much a cash society.  This doesn’t particularly bother us as we have got used to having cash rather than relying on a credit or debit card.  The banks are very busy as you would imagine as people seem to be moving the funds they have out of the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki in favour of somewhere marginally less unsafe.  No-one is entirely sure what the future is going to bring for any of the banks so some might argue your money is safer under the mattress but that in itself brings with it another set of problems!   

Our final port of call was the woodyard – John’s favourite place in Polis where it would appear that the litter of kittens from the last time we were there have grown up and look to be about to produce litters of their own.

John likes nothing more than to have a project so along with putting up a shelf for my ‘just outside the kitchen door herbs’ he is going to replace the steps that lead to the decking outside the kitchen with something that is less of a trip hazard and then build some sort of more ‘permanent’ roof to the gazebo whose cover was ravaged by the winter winds.  Hopefully the wood will be delivered tomorrow and then he can get started.

For John the woodyard is his equivalent to my Festival Shoes - so much to look at and swoon over! Given the choice he will always try and build things out of wood which means that I shall, for the rest of my life, have a staining job to do!  Perhaps he was a carpenter in a previous life - maybe his nickname should be Joseph!  I joke but I am eternally grateful that he will try and turn his hand to anything.  Over the past almost 22 years of marriage this has saved us an absolute fortune and I know that sometimes I just take it for granted that John will fix it but he usually does and I love him for it xxx

On our return from Polis and before I set off for Pickleball we made our visit to the Droushia Heights Hotel where Wheelie Helen and Al were taking coffee!!  They were up in the village talking to the Akamas Spa and the Droushia Heights about the cycling services they could offer clients.

The hotel might be open but it is not completely finished.  At the moment it is completely devoid of any ‘dressing’ and unless they are going for a completely sterile and minimalistic ambiance definitely needs some pictures, plants or ornaments to soften the feel.  What is there is very modern and stylish and a million miles removed from the old hotel.  It commands the most stunning views which will obviously be a key selling point.

The swimming pool is very long and skinny and obviously has a major problem as water was gushing from it down the road out of the village.  Being so far from the sea I would have expected more room for a swim but maybe this is a compromise because we had heard rumours that initially it wasn’t going to have a pool at all.

Coffee was lovely and served by a very amiable guy called Panayiotis.  Helen was busy trying to convince him that some sort of loyalty card for locals would be a good idea if they were going to try and encourage them to use the facilities.  It does only have a small number of rooms so it wont take many clients to make it feel full but there is a huge investment there that needs repaying and in the winter they will need to do something to get the punters in otherwise it is going to be another ghost town like the spa.

 

I dropped John off back at home and to an afternoon of staining the garden fences and I went down to Emba for Pickleball calling in at the garden centre next to Paps that Mum likes.  We had decided to stack the plastic containers that had held the geraniums and plant it up with strawberry plants and mint for an instant summer pudding!  This is going to live just outside the back door which in our case is our front door but god only knows why!

With just four of us at PB we had a good old work out with a lot of laughs and a lot of sorry’s and one or two shits!  I called in for a cuppa with Mum and Dad before returning home to find a rather sunburned John who had been out all afternoon with the wood stain and hadn’t realised that even though it was very overcast the sun would still catch him.

I tried to get hold of Vicky and Trevor to see if their trip to immigration had been successful but got no reply  - we were a bit concerned that the ‘computer said no’  for some reason – but that is quite common if the staff are having a bad day and don’t like your paperwork.  We also waited to hear news about John’s Mum who was kept in hospital and whose blood pressure was very low.  No tests had been made to ascertain the reason for the chest pain and they were wanting to discharge her - John’s sister was tearing her hair out trying to get answers and refusing to let them discharge Janet until she got them.  Poor John felt helpless.