June 23rd...

It has been getting progressively hotter and hotter.  We think it is even hotter this year than it was at the same time last year.  I know the weather station isn't 100% accurate but even with some adjustment you can see what I mean.  29.7 degrees indoors feels really quite cool - when did that happen?  It doesn't seem two minutes ago that we were basking in the warmth of 19 indoors and feeling hot hot hot!

This morning we had to shift Chivers off of our feet - he has calmed down about having Charlie in the house and come back to sleeping with us - great but not so great when it is so hot.  

Equally not so great is the fact that I got bitten to death last night and woke at 4.00am to ask John to bathe the bites with some Dettol.  Even he was sympathetic when he saw that they had grown to the size of a 50p piece and were raised about 4mm and I had about half a dozen of these on my back and bum.

Charlie was squeaking to be let out of the bedroom - he was obviously feeling better than he had been yesterday and having found him half way up the curtains we felt he needed something else to provide him with some stimulation so we have borrowed an old scratching post from Irene

Keeping him in is proving a challenge as it is too hot to keep the conservatory closed all day.  John came up with a method of getting airflow by opening one of the sliding doors and then installing a piece of wood which blocked Charlie's progress outside but which Chivers and Minnie could scale.  At this stage Charlie hasn't noticed the catflap which is good.  This worked quite well until Charlie wanted to follow Chivers outside and tried to jump up onto the piece of wood - failed miserably and fell down and hurt himself - again!

Even with the wooden board removed Charlie tried to jump up to the top of the panel to look out of the window (even though he can look out of the door) and so we had to put some cushions down to stop him hurting his paws and legs even further.

He seems to be responding to the antibiotics as, although he has had frequent trips to the litter tray, he does not cry when he tries to go - we have to keep investigating what he manages to achieve - colour and quantity - you name it!!

It being Sunday it was our day to meet up with Mum and Dad and we had arranged to go for lunch down at Emba.  As we had been up early we felt we had been able to give Charlie Farley a reasonable run around so didn't feel too guilty about shutting him in the bedroom and, to be fair, it is really quite cool in there - at least by doing that we can ensure that neither Chivers nor Minnie has a real go at him in our absence.

Satisfied that all the cats were sorted we got ourselves ready to go to Mum and Dad's - we had thought we might have a swim at theirs seeing as they wont have a pool much longer and their pool is always much warmer than ours but to be honest the chemicals in the pool water makes my bites itch even worse so I thought I would give it a miss today.

Picture courtesy of Internet

We needed a couple of bits and pieces en route so decided to go Peyia way - which is by far the most scenic and call into one of the shops there to get what we needed.

One of the things we used to be able to get island-wide, and at a pretty reasonable price, was cider and both John and Dad do like a drop of cider in the summer but recently it has become harder to find or at least at a price we are prepared to pay!

We found some special Magners on offer but I have a sneaky feeling it is on offer for a reason!!!  This is Spiced Apple and Rhubarb!!!  It sounds like something they concocted on an Apprentice challenge if you ask me!!!  

I have had a quick look at reviews of the drink on the internet and I think my fears may be realised - it is on offer for a reason!!!  I will let you know what it tastes like when we try them which probably won't be today!

If we thought it was hot up in Droushia it was even hotter and more humid as we made our way to Emba!

We decided to stop very briefly at the Duckpond market so that John could get a new watch strap for his beloved Sheffield United watch which has traveled the world with him and was a gift from Vicki and Trevor for his 40th.  We thought it would be a brief visit but the watch man had a real problem changing the strap and could talk the hind leg off a donkey so we were longer than anticipated - typical!

In the end we were only a few minutes later than we had thought we would be getting to Mum's who had decided to be very Cypriot and cook kebabs for lunch.

Mum has a little electric kebab cooker like the one in the picture and it is very effective.  We had kebabs with orzo pasta and salad and very nice it was too.

Mum and John hit a purple patch in terms of Canasta and absolutely wiped the floor with Dad and I who were never in the lead - I probably drive Dad nuts which my strategy (or lack of it) but I am still learning and every week we seem to discover a rule we didn't know about!  I can tell by his face sometimes that I am being a right old duffer and worse is when he says "I wouldn't have done that if I were you" - I consider myself duly chastised!

On our return home Charlie was beside himself - he clearly does not like being shut in anywhere and seeing our other two outside was desperate to join them.  As he has yet to have his inoculations we were unsure but Irene thought it would be ok if supervised.  Ours are both fit and healthy and Charlie was unlikely to come into contact with any ferals.  I don't know if there is a collective term for ginger moggies - if there is then that is what we had on the fence tonight!

It was full moon tonight and it looked beautiful.  Even with the additional (and somewhat random) street lights that have popped up everywhere there is reasonably little light polution which makes the night skies spectacular.