June 27th...

We were being nice neighbours today.  George and Pam are coming out in August and their house has been shut up since last summer.  George (Tailor to the Stars) is recovering from a double mastectomy which is unusual for a man and is the second time he has fought off cancer - no mean feat for a man in his 70s.  So with this in mind we decided to go into the house and give it a clean and a good airing.

The downside to having a holiday home here that is shut up for most of the year is the problem of bubbling plaster - some caused through damp and some caused by the crystallising fungus that is commonplace.  It looks awful and we wanted to get as much knocked off and cleaned up as we could because George had said last year that he was going to get it sorted this time when he came out.

It is amazing though how a good 'bottoming' makes all the difference and by the time we had finished the villa looked better and smelt better and we are now going to air it every day until they arrive.  We are also going in on the day they arrive to set up the garden furniture and make it look as nice as we can.  They don't ask us to do that for them we just feel that with all that they have gone through so far this year they don't want to open the door and see a mess.  Plus this was a good training exercise before I go and help Mum on Tuesday clean up their new home.  Not that it is anywhere like this inside but Mum wants to know that from now on any dirt she finds is her dirt!

Even though it had been exceptionally hot working in George and Pam's we were fired up and John decided we should tidy the front gardens of 10a (Gregoris and Theodora) and 11a (Paul)  - again they don't ask us to do it but we have to walk past it everyday so it is as much for our benefit as theirs.  It is amazing how things grow here without any help or water at all.

So we have some photographs of the before and after of Paul's front garden.  I have never met him - John has met him once and apparently he is recovering from a triple heart by-pass operation and has more than one house in Droushia but never appears to go to either as he is a solicitor in Nicosia (we think) anyway whatever the story is his house is always neglected and we are fed up with it so we took it upon ourselves to cut it back and it looks all the better for it.  Chivers wasn't overly impressed as he obviously used to sit in amongst the plants leading up to the front door of 11a for some shade.

We filled our green wheelie bin - good job there isn't anyone else around needing to put rubbish in there!!

Now at least the houses along our side of the street are beginning to look a bit more cared for!  If I can summon up the energy when it isn't so hot I will go and do the front garden at George's - we aren't sure if Ollie will do it - he has in the past but since his incident when he fell off a ladder he doesn't seem to have been around so much - I might go and ask him if he would because that would save me a job.

Chivers kept us company for a while and then mooched off somewhere cooler.  Poor Charlie had to be confined to barracks because he is just too inquisitive.

We took him to George and Pam's with us but after John had got him down for the olive tree for about the tenth time we decided we would have to keep him indoors.  He got the hump because he loves to be out and about and loves to be with either Chivers or John and I.  He certainly seems to be well enough to go and get his jabs next week which will be good because once these are done he can go where he pleases and then hopefully he and Minnie will be able to co-exist happily because they should be able to avoid each other more easily.

We had arranged with Elaine and Paul to pop down this afternoon to drop off the wedding album from their village wedding.  Elaine always says that if she had known we were coming she would have baked a cake and today she had made some traditional Welsh cakes!  We also took down our spare laptop so her daughter Hadeel could continue with her studies as all three of their computers have died.

It was supposed to be a quick visit but as we sat around chatting Paul very kindly offered for us to stay and share the Thai meal he was preparing.

It was really kind of them - they don't seem to have had two minutes peace since they got married and we didn't want to outstay our welcome!

The food was lovely - one of the dishes a little bit hotter than I would usually manage but it was delicious so I managed to eat it.  John was fascinated by the way Paul had prepared the prawns which were coated with a crunchy coconut batter.

We are going to return the favour next week and have invited them to come over next week - Paul has hurt his back and Elaine can't manage to clean the pool and Hadeel doesn't really like the sea so we thought they might like to have some lunch and a dip at ours - maybe a little mooch into town for a cocktail???