Thursday - Beauty and the Beast

You will see from the picture above that our recent attempts to rid ourselves of a wasps nest appeared to have worked and then - NO - the buggers have come back again and in ever increasing numbers.  John has been unable to locate good old RAID so I have been taking a look on the internet at alternative measures - it would appear from this Blog: Wasp Removal that we might actually be able to do it without nasty chemicals which is always a worry with the cats around.  Will keep you posted!

Today it was up early and down to Polis as I was going for a Facial with the lovely Kate Fessas at her salon Beauty by Kate in Polis and had arranged for John's mum to have her nails and toenails painted.  The Salon is a little oasis of calm on a very hot summer's day and, whilst the headband does nothing for my hair, the rest of my facial/massage leaves me feeling relaxed and happy.  I was so mortified by the state of my feet when Kate was giving me some reflexology that I decided I would treat myself to a pedicure for my next visit - months in flip-flops just doesn't do the old tootsies any good and I pity any poor soul brave enough to touch them! 

Today, at C&A, Eva celebrates her 74th birthday.  The matriarch of a wonderful, warm and inspiring family who run a truly unique holiday establishment.  It has made the world of difference to John's mum (who hates flying) and Hadge to arrive somewhere where they are made to feel part of the family - a real home from home with everything anyone with a disability needs so that they can holiday the same as any other able bodied person.

I had to quickly make a card last night in the wee small hours and Janet and I got some flowers to go into the wooden trug I had decorated.  Eva was delighted - she so loves her garden and that is evident when you walk around the apartment complex and was reinforced by the fact that everyone gave her plants or flowers to mark the occasion - it is her name day on September 11th and as Cypriots tend to celebrate name-days even more than birthdays I guess she has more flowers to come!

We had arranged to meet mum and dad down at the Mall lunchtime before Janet hit Jumbos once again (get your shares in that shop - you are on a winner!!)  As peak holiday season is now over it was very pleasant wandering round - actually it started off with a very courteous man making sure we could get into a disabled parking space which makes so much difference.  Hadge has also got the hang of the travelators with me and Janet in front and John behind so if he did topple he would get a soft landing either way.   Some overly helpful assistant in Jumbos thought he would be very kind and take Hadge in the lift in Jumbos meaning that he missed out two floors altogether - the assistant thought he wanted out and the language barrier meant that out was where he was headed!!  Anyway I digress,  there is such a choice of eateries and the Food Hall it was easy for us all to find something we wanted and it is so reasonably priced - Dad headed off to the Chinese chuffed that today his meal came with free egg fried rice - Mum succumbed to her 'one weakness' and opted for KFC along with Janet and Hadge and John and I made a bee-line for the Greek Gyros establishment where I just love the vegetarian greek pitta.

We had a good old mooch in Jumbos - Janet completed her gift shopping and I think John must have got bored as he kept appearing at the end of the aisles wearing a variety of different masks!

He had actually gone in search of some Cyprus flags in readiness for this evening when we were meeting up with Lou and H and H's kids Paul and Catherine to watch Cyprus play Wales (EUFA European Championships) down in Polis.  Only problem being the kick-off (thank you SKY and your monopoly over televised football) is not until 9.45pm here in Cyprus which means a very late night for all concerned after a string of other equally late nights!

Needless to say there was no difficulty in finding Cyprus flags because as a nation they love to fly their flag at all possible times - our neighbour alternates between a large Cyprus flag flying from his roof and a large Greek flag when the Cyprus one needs replacing!

So our mixed group of Cyprus and Wales supporters descended on Fry-Days for a fish supper and the match.  I didn't have a fish supper - conscious of my ever expanding waistline - I opted for a chicken Caesar salad which was absolutely delicious but I suspect the amount of salad dressing it contained rendered my meal more heavily laden with calories than if I had plumped for the battered cod!!

 Needless to say a 'scintillating' 0-0 first half brought out severe boredom in the female contingents and so we decided to have a mooch around Polis Square - not sure I have done that on a Summer's evening for years and years!  The men couldn't understand why and said there wouldn't be any shops open at gone 10.00pm but how wrong could they be!!!!!  Three of us all managed to find something to buy - Janet and I found some bargain tops in one of the little boutiques that spring up there in the summer, Catherine found a very pretty handmade bracelet in That Nice Shop where Dooley the Dog was airing her bits on a very warm summers evening!

All that shopping can be thirsty work plus Louise needed cheering up as she was the only one who hadn't managed to find something to buy despite all efforts to the contrary.  We wandered back through the square which was busy - particularly Arsinoe the fish restaurant which seemed to have a million tables out on the pavement.  It was a really lovely atmosphere.

We plumped for a seat outside the Pub and rewarded all our hard work with a cocktail - or in my case a mocktail as I was driving!  Sitting there both Louise and I agreed that we really ought to do this more often - it is something we tend to only do when we have visitors.  Isn't that always the same though wherever you live that becuase things are on your doorstep you don't take advantage of them?  Do you know that just wandering round the square and soaking up the atmosphere and then joining with the holidaymakers makes you feel a bit like you are on holiday yourself!


We returned to Fry-Days where the match was still at 0-0 and Janet and Louise and I declared we couldn't stand the excitement any longer so we decided to go back to C&A and join Eva for a birthday drink - that just had so much more appeal to it!

Final score Cyprus 0 Wales 1
Happy Hywel and Paul - not so happy John!!