June 29th...

We were woken by a lot of noise this morning and we weren't quite sure where it was coming from but it sounded close.  My heart sank a little because I thought it might be people in the field next door and that something was going to be happening.  I sent John to look...

...the noise was, in fact, coming from the new road and apparently someone had dumped a whole load of grain on the tarmac which was to be raked out and dried in the sun!  We don't mind that - we don't mind that at all because it has been positioned such that if anyone moves the barriers outside Sharon and Sean's they cannot now drive through without getting entangled in a load of Shredded Wheat!!

As I said to Interior Designer Marion last night John is banning me from going to her house because ever since we went for the barbque I have wanted to do things to Clampettsvilla.  We have the world's tiniest shower-room and it has no natural light or ventilation - NICE!

In an attempt to make it feel a little bigger we replaced the sink and the toilet with more compact versions and we had glass put into the original door.  Although the glass was obscured it wasn't obscure enough for you not to feel rather 'on show' so I got some bubble decals to add a bit more privacy and interest to the door and some wording for the top pane of glass.  It isn't much but I think it looks a bit better. 

Ideally we would love to be able to build a second shower room somewhere and rip out the original one and give it a makeover with some nice modern tiles - doubt it will be anytime soon particularly now that the banks in Cyprus are so restricted and interest rates have plummeted to next to nothing plus the Defence Levy tax on interest has been hiked to 30%! 

We had been invited to a barbeque this afternoon at Running John and Susan's and it was scheduled for 3.00pm which meant that John had just enough time to watch the Lions rugby match whilst I prepared a dish to take with us.

Running John had very kindly given me a load of vegetables from his garden yesterday when I had called in to sort out an issue he had with his PC.  I thought it might be nice to do some roasted veggies to accompany the barbeque.  We wondered if you could roast cucumbers and the answer is - Yes you Can!!!  so a tray of locally grown veggies were tossed in oil, honey, lime juice, garlic and basil and popped in the oven.

John did his usual - shouting at the TV throughout the whole of the rugby match which the Lions managed to throw away at the death - USELESS was the verdict!!

Little Zac seems to be more or less recovered from his nasty incident earlier in the week when he munched his way through some of Susan's gym equipment and ended up critically ill at the vets with his intestines full of foam. 

It would appear that 'foamgate' highlighted an issue with some twisted intestines which would have caused him an issue at some point anyway and it would also appear that he was not infected by the parvovirus which is fantastic news for Zac and for the other dogs at PAWS with whom he would have been in contact before being homed by John and Susan.

He is a very sweet and very gentle little dog who was not at all phased by all the people at John and Susan's last night - in fact his cuteness ensured that everyone gave him a lot of love and at one point I thought that Pafiakos Judy might just hide him in her handbag and take him home with her. 

It was good to talk to Judy about the Pafiakos place in Polis because I didn't realise that the surgery functioned as a normal vet's surgery - I had assumed it was only for strays and ferals.  This is good news because it gives us an option of a location much nearer to home particularly bearing in mind what a mess Charlie get into when we took him the other day!

It was a glorious hot afternoon and we had been invited to go for a swim if we wanted to.  A couple of people took up that invitation but the wind had begun to pick up and was soon quite strong so when one or two of the swimmers looked a bit chilly on exit I decided not to bother!!  I am a wimp I know!!!

The strong wind was the precursor to some very strange weather as the sun went down.  In fact we were treated to the site of a rolling mist coming from Kathikas direction and some very heavy due in the air.

At one point I looked up the hill towards Droushia village and you would have thought it was raining up there!  It wasn't but by the time I got home the moisture in the air meant I didn't have to bother with the watering and the heavy dew meant that when Chivers appeared having come through the field we thought he had fallen into a swimming pool again!

Anyway back at the Read's we had a lovely evening - hats off to them for entertaining 14 people - most of us agreed that 4, 6 or at a push 8 is what most of us feel comfortable with!  I think 16 was my maximum and then I felt like I needed an extended stay at the Priory to recover from the stress levels!!

My John and Big Al were drafted in to keep an eye on Running John and his barbequeing skills - Susan didn't have a huge amount of confidence in him poor chap.  She needn't have worried because the various kebabs were delicious.

We had a ladies/gents split in the seating arrangements although because of numbers my John became an honorary lady for a couple of the courses and then when it became apparent that our table was having much more fun the gents pulled their chairs up to join in.  We couldn't persuade Running John and Geoff to entertain us with their guitar playing nor Darren to croon along!

It was way past Running Susan's normal bedtime by the time guests started to leave.  At this rate she will be able to join us the next time we have a Midnight Feast at Molos!