July 5th...

We are trying a different tack with the kitten integration programme.  We are putting him to bed in the spare room at night so that when the other two come in to eat or sleep they are not terrorised.  Unfortunately when Charlie 'plays' he does so with teeth and claws and he seems to like to 'play' at night.  We are using a water spray to deter him from doing things he shouldn't but he doesn't seem to mind it too much so that maybe isn't working as well as it should.  We are also trying to allow Chivers and MM to eat in peace.  MM is very much keeping her distance but does come in to eat - particularly at night - so we want her to continue to do so and then hopefully she will become more comfortable with Charlie's smell around the house.  When Charlie has been in the other room at night he seems to settle down quite quickly and doesn't whinge at the door which is good although strangely when we get him out in the morning for a bit of love he has taken to suckling my armpit (nice!!) so we are giving him a little bit of kitten milk.  We aren't sure whether he is possibly younger than his size would imply - certainly if you compare his anatomy to that of Tom and Jerry he is lacking in the trouser department!!!  Anyway he is slowly calming down and has found a new toy in my kitchen step - as this is fairly indestructible he is welcome to play with it whenever he wants to.

We had invited Elaine, Paul and Hadeel up for a swim and some lunch today so John wanted to get the pool looking sparkling and to test the water as he would be mortified if anyone got an ear infection or something.  I must say it looked really inviting.  I was busying myself in the kitchen - we were having a frittata (surprise surprise) with a selection of salads - taking into account that Paul can't eat peppers or cucumber!

Charlie was at his most mega-cute - no-one believes us that he is schizophrenic at times.

Elaine is trying to work on Paul to get a cat - she currently has two rabbits Habibe and Nina.  Paul seems unimpressed about getting a moggy but Elaine keeps telling him that it would at least keep the vermin down that are lurking in the field beyond her house!

When we went up to see Tom and Jerry Elaine was even more convinced that they should get a kitten - I am sure that given time she will get her way - we just need to make Paul think it was his idea!!!

I have to admit that John really does keep the pool well and it was really lovely to get into today.  We have now realised why Mum and Dad's pool in Emba always registered much warmer than ours - it was not just because it is cooler up here in Droushia - it is because that their water thermometer reads a good 4-5 degrees more than ours!!!  They have given us their thermometer which is located in the water at the steps near the house - our existing one is at the other end and they register different temperatures!!!

Anyway whatever the actual temperature was it was lovely and Hadeel did eventually go in having adopted the 'slowly slowly ease yourself in' method rather than the 'get in and get on with it' method favoured by Elaine and I!

We all had a swim - the boys went in after us - let's face it our pool isn't really big enough for us all at the same time and then sat around chatting, reading magazines, setting the worlds to rights and drying off before we had a late lunch.

And NOOOOOOO we didn't wash the food down with a bottle of Pantelides London Dry Gin.  This bottle was amongst the contents of the drinks cabinet that Dad's friend Frank had donated to us.  We aren't sure what is in that bottle but it sure as hell isn't GIN - Zivania maybe, thinners possibly! We got the bottle out for Paul to have a sniff to see if he could decide what it was - he agreed - NOT GIN!

Anyway lunch went down a storm - I love it when people come and they eat everything you make for them!

Elaine and I were only saying that salad used to be just lettuce, cucumber and tomato and now there are just so many interesting options.  She asked me whether, when I was a child, we had sugar on our lettuce and I had to say that we did, sugar and vinegar! I am not sure whether it was because lettuce tasted awful years ago or Mum was ahead of her time and had created a salad dressing without knowing it!

I had a table of happy campers who finished their meal with some cherry and nectarine fool and a small glass of the Magners Rhubarb and Spiced Apple Cider as a 'digestif'.  I have to say, it might not be everybody's taste but I rather liked it - crisp and refreshing.

We said goodbye mid afternoon and cleared up, watered and settled down to put ourselves through a Wimbledon men's semi-final match featuring Andy Murray.  Blimey that was a match and a half and I think even Murray would agree that the scoreline was flattering because his opposition was tremendous.

John and Charlie fell asleep watching but I stuck with it - even the 20 minute delay when the roof was shut - thank goodness it didn't affect Murray's play. Would like to think he will win tomorrow but Novak Djokovic will be tough opposition.