Project Poolside...

So it was to be an early start today as 'project pool' was to start today just before the awful weather comes in which means that our timeline is going to go out of the window immediately.  When we have the concrete delivered we cannot afford to have wet weather as it will never go off.  We now have to keep a very watchful eye on the weather forecast and hope that it is accurate.  The photo above was how the pool looked this morning before anything happened.  John and I had been around the periphery and removed any plants that were in the way so there was a free run all round the existing concrete slabs.

The first job is to remove all the existing slabs and shite underneath to get a good bed at the right level with the right water run for the new tiles to get laid on.

This was, to begin with, fairly straight forward (if not backbreaking) as some of the original pebbly tiles were laid some time ago as an afterthought when the hotel shingled the garden.  Some of the existing concrete slabs came up and clearly had concrete below which was set with reinforcing rods some did not.

The upshot was that as much as needed to be removed at this stage was removed and put over the wall in readiness for the skip when it arrives which we think will be Thursday.

Even though we know that the weather is due to be bad for 10 days the fact that there was a solid layer under the concrete slabs meant that we went ahead because even if it rains we are not going to have to face a mud bath just outside the door.

Thursday they will come to build the new steps which will go down the side of the pool and will have a hand made stainless steel handrail.  We had absolutely no idea just how much a bloody handrail would cost but we have decided that this is a once in a lifetime project like the wall and we want it done properly and we want it to enhance the garden in harmony with the wall which we love.

This is John surveying the progress so far - it doesn't look much but 'project pool' is on its way and we are in no rush for it so it really doesn't matter how long it takes and we are likely to have the weather against us now.  As things went so well today both John and I were able to shoot down to Paphos for badminton and pickle-ball.

Just as we were about to leave I got a text message from the main post office telling me I had a parcel to pick up and asking me to bring an invoice.  Bugger - this meant that the item was liable to import duty.  The problem was I wasn't exactly sure what I had ordered that would require this so I had to sift through my recent internet purchases and print off whatever invoices I could find.

As it turned out it was the solar candles I had bought to go in the conservatory. They weren't very expensive so I hadn't thought they would fall into the duty category.

I recognised the man at the customs office - I had sat opposite him at a wedding once and he recognised me - he didn't look overly happy but I gave him a cheery smile and asked him if he remembered me which he did.  Anyway to cut a long story short he decided that my candles were so near the cut-off point where items become liable for duty that he would waive the amount - which was extremely nice of him and I shall make a bee-line for him again should I get a parcel which falls into that category!!!

We had a very good work-out at pickleball as there were only four of us so we don't get much rest.  Being back doing sport and combining that with the belly dancing means I am losing a bit of weight and toning up which is great except it all goes out of the window when Mum and I go out afterwards and find a tea room for a cuppa and a sticky.

Today we ventured into Old Town so that we could have a look at the Next sale and shoot across the road to Boo-Tea-Licious.

We did BTL first because they close at 4.00pm and had a cracking cuppa and shared a piece of sticky lemon and ginger cake.

The Next sale was really good (if you were looking for something) they had some real reductions and I could have spent quite a bit but was a good girl and didn't because Mum and I are having a girlie shopping day in Limassol tomorrow. We used to go on an organised trip to Nicosia each year for Christmas shopping but that has now stopped so we are doing our own thing!

Back at Mum and Dad's I think I saw one of the biggest Preying Mantis I have ever seen which is living in the Asparagus Fern which is on the front porch.

Dad was out doing the watering and I was being very childish trying to get a photograph of him looking like the little boy from Copenhagen having a wee which kept Mum and I amused for a while!!

Mum and I made our plans for tomorrow - I shall try and get down to her quite early so we aren't rushing around and will go in the Peugeot so I can use the Cruise Control as I remember last time we went I thought I had been done for speeding on the motorway and then was actually done driving up past Picki Forest which meant it was an expensive shopping trip!

We had both the sun and the moon out this evening and both looking glorious - looks like we will get another nice day tomorrow but the temperatures are dipping and there is definitely more cloud about.

Back home to all four cats waiting patiently (not) for their tea and curry and a glass of wine before an early night - I slept through the episode of the series we are watching so will have to watch it all over again.

Sunday at Mum and Dad's

Today's post will start and finish with a photograph of a cat.  I start with an early morning snap of Miss Jazzy-B Peanut who appeared earlier in the year up at Sharon's as a small and very loving kitten and who is still living there - she is beautiful - she is a very little cat even after having been spayed she has never really grown very much and she would so benefit from a loving home but failing that we hope that Sharon and Sean will adopt her and in the meantime John and I go up and give her some love almost every day.   She was not however the cat I was looking for when I executed an SAS style recce of 12B.  I crept up the path and quietly edged around the corner to peer through the slats of the garden fence because I have seen a small ginger kitten in the courtyard - at least I am sure that I have but no-one else has seen it.  So this morning I was determined and armed with the camera and hey presto when I looked through the fence it was there and then within seconds it was disappearing up the steps to the bedrooms.  By the time I managed to get into the courtyard there was no sign of it - anywhere.  If it turned out to be a female ginger kitten (only one in ten are female) I could probably find it a home in the village with Janice who lives over by the rocks but unless I can actually get to handle it I have no chance.

We were off today down to Mum and Dad's for lunch - when we left Droushia it was warm enough but not in the house so we dressed accordingly but by the time we made our way down to Emba it got warmer and warmer and warmer and John was severely regretting his decision to wear jeans.

We sat outside the bungalow for a drink and for me to do a bit of hand sewing for Mum until we decided it was just too hot to remain outside - too hot and we are now more than half way through November!  It really has been lovely during the day but the evenings are getting quite chilly - not so much down in Emba but certainly up in Droushia - we are determined to hang on a bit longer before regularly lighting the wood-burner but John does want to check it out and make sure that since he changed the fire-rope that it draws properly and doesn't smoke the house out and he wants to do it now rather than wait until we need it.

It promises to be another beautiful day tomorrow if the sun going down is anything to go by which is good news.  We need the weather to remain settled now for about another three weeks as the work is due to start on the swimming pool tomorrow and I just know that we aren't going to be that lucky and we are going to be surrounded by a bloody great mess until just before Christmas.  Well we think the work is going to start but we haven't heard anything to confirm the start so John will be giving them a ring tomorrow to make sure.

The cooler nights mean the cats are in more than they are out - even Minnie-Mou who has now discovered that we have turned my craft box into a seat.  When we got back from Mum and Dad's she was reclining there very comfortable indeed thank you very much!

Our cats are obviously too well looked after because I found what I thought might be evidence of rodent activity in the cupboard under the TV - it could be evidence of a lizard but I am unconvinced particularly as one or two of the cats seemed particularly interested in the cupboard a couple of days ago.  We have had to resort to putting a trap down just in case.  We don't like setting traps but there really isn't much alternative unfortunately.  I shall send John to investigate if we have been successful because if we have I feel really guilty.

Saturday - ENAD get-together

So we had the day together at home as there was no ENAD football at home this week.  I cannot believe we are two thirds of the way through November and the weather is still so fine and bright.  It was clearly going to be a good day for doing the washing so I managed to get three loads out and dried which is a bonus.  For me there is nothing nicer than seeing the washing blowing in the breeze - it smells so much better when it has dried outside.

As I was able to get the sheets off of the bed, washed and dried and put back on, it meant that we were going to have John's favourite fresh hay tonight when we got home from going out.  There can be nothing nicer than slipping into freshly laundered sheets which that lovely smell.  It was almost more than we could bear to leave it behind untouched and waiting for us for later.

It was a day of doing 'stuff' but lots of stuff that had been sitting around needing our attention and not being done.  Yesterday when I was out with mum we went into good old Marks and Sparks foodhall and I found that they sold very reasonably priced crumpets, not just any old crumpets but Marks and Spencer Crumpets which have to be the creme de la creme and we put them to the test this morning for brunch when they were topped with an egg and served with crispy streaky bacon.

Louise had asked me if I could come up with some sort of plaque for a friend of their's upcoming birthday and I didn't really have a clue what to do but eventually came up with the one above because apparently his passions are his dog and beer!!!!  It will need to be varnished a couple more times in order for it to live outside but I am glad I have got something sorted.

After a busy old morning I settled down into the conservatory to do a bit more of my crochet blanket as I am trying to get it finished and onto the spare bed.  Today I had my Quality Control Officer on hand - Charlie - who snuggled up next to me and wrapped himself in the blanket and then went off to sleep snoring his head off.

It is lovely that when we are at home all the cats are close by all the time - generally Mr Boo is on the 'blinkie' that Kaye knitted and which lives on our bed and Charlie likes to be in the conservatory, Minnie Mou resides like the Queen on the birthing chair and Chivvie Pops has taken to the basket in the lounge.  This is a great comfort to us as there are so many dangers here for cats.

Poor Charlie looks like an extra from some sort of Hammer Horror film with his fangs but they don't cause him any problem so we leave well alone.

Bless him he can always tell when we are going out and he desperately tries to come with us so we have to creep out like the SAS under the cover of darkness or he follows us (if we are walking) or tries to get in the car if we are driving.  He seems to know the minute we start getting ready and we have to be vigilant!

This evening we were having our mid-season ENAD Expat Supporters Meal and we were going down to Polis to eat at Finikas before it closes for the Winter.  We were picking up John and Susan en route and we haven't seen them for ages so it will be lovely.   We weren't sure but were hopeful that the star of the team Boogie (bottom right of this picture) and his heavily pregnant wife might come and join us.

As it turned out Boogie and Mrs Boogie did come along - we thought it was really good of them both as he is Bulgarian and she is Cypriot with baby due in about 10 days!  They were good fun and interacted pretty well with us all.  David has organised for someone to crochet a little footie kit in the team's colours with Boogie's number on the back for the baby (which is a boy thankfully) and the assembled supporters paid for their meals.  I know that Finikas are closing for the season which is why I think our plates were piled up to the max - I couldn't do justice to my main course which was absolutely lovely but just too much. It was a good evening and I think everyone enjoyed themselves - we certainly did and have to say thanks to Susan and John for paying for our meal as a thank you for us looking after their lovely cat Millie.

Last day of school

So on our last day of basket making the class of 2015 were treated to a very very freshly baked banana loaf made by Janice in the early hours of this morning - the only problem was we had to wait to be able to sample it so it meant we were working in the room with the smell permeating the air all morning!!!

We had been given homework yesterday which was to make the plaits and attach them around the top of the basket leaving just a short area to complete this morning so then we could be taught how to finish the basket off properly.

We had a lady come in from one of the other classes as she wanted to finish her basket too.  She suddenly looked at me and declared "είκοσι φέτες streaky bacon!!" because she works on the deli counter at Paps and I am always asking her for 20 slices of streaky bacon in my finest Greek!!! Hopefully she will recognise me again the next time I go and maybe I will be able to engage her in a little more conversation - maybe I will try half a kilo of cheese for a change!!!

This is my completed basket.  It is bandaged at the end not to hide the blood from where I kept stabbing my finger with the pokey thing we had to use but to keep the ends bound tightly so that when it is removed they stay in place.

Before embarking on our second basket we all decamped outside to have a cuppa and a slice of that lovely cake and to have our photographs taken once more for the village Facebook page so that people can see what we have managed to achieve.  Boy that cake was good and I was very grateful because I was shooting off and going straight to pickleball and it would have been a very long time since my porridge otherwise.

I took a bit of video of my basket being finished off so I can remember for another time - Kelly you crack me up with your commentary!!!  I shall miss our regular meetings so we are just going to have to sort something else out at the Hotel!

Our Friday evening was very nicely rounded off with a meal at Lou and H's.  Lou has been away for a few days and we have missed her so it was really nice to be sat round the dining table with her and H and periodically Tilly and Middy (Bill is far too sensible to hang around the table) tucking into smoked salmon starter followed by a lamb tagine then ending with a chocolate pudding.  Thank you and welcome home xxxx

Thursday - Raising Money

It was an early start this morning for the basket weavers - we had been given homework from the night before and we had to have started to do the sides of the basket in readiness for the decoration of plaited reeds which go on the top.  It is reeking havoc with our hands as we are dealing with wet material all the time but we are determined to finish and get on to our second basket which we are told will look much better.  Maroulla, class swat has already finished her first basket and is on to her second.  Kelly says she needs to get a life!  She obviously doesn't have a family to feed or a social life or a series to watch on the TV which has stopped her fulfilling her basket making potential unlike the rest of us!

I don't know if it was to make herself more popular but Maroulla came armed with goodies for us to eat during our tenses - we can't last until elevenses.  I jest of course Maroulla is lovely and just better or more committed than the rest of us and the goodies were fab and we were able to sit outside and enjoy them.

I was leaving class a little early today because I had been asked to to and take some photographs down at Beauty by Kate.  She and her friend Nickola (along with others) had been raising awareness for breast cancer culminating with a grand prize draw this afternoon.

Nickola had been raising money so that she would dye her hair pink which as you can see she did and then there was the money from the raffle.  In total they raised nearly €3000 which is no mean feat and to celebrate that fact Kate opened up the room that used to be her salon and put on a fine spread of food and drink for the supporters.

I love Kate - she is a remarkable woman and I was so pleased for her that she had done so well in her endeavours.  Even nicer is that now her husband Demis works on the island he can join her when these things are happening.

They are a great family and later in the afternoon she was joined by her three children who all got into the swing of things desperate to hand out the prizes to the lucky winners - that and eat the cupcakes and toffee apples!!!  It was such a lovely afternoon that people spilled out onto the pavement enjoying a glass of bubbles and some very pleasant late autumn sunshine.

I had made and donated as a prize one of my heart pictures and was thrilled that my friend Pam Fitzgibbons was the lucky recipient.  She looked happy with it anyway!

On leaving Polis I had to shoot up to Orexi HQ where my student Rabia was beside himself thinking I wasn't going to be able to show him how to add songs to his Ipod.  I managed to get there in time to show him and he duly sat down and very seriously watched the proceedings before trying it a couple of times himself and then doing it all on his own!  He then very politely thanked me for my time - I could just eat that boy he is so lovely and he always asks where John is - I think he was disappointed I came on my own because John always has a kick about with him as both John and Rabia are footie mad.

Bassam did his best to try and tempt me with some juicy pomegranate, Lola tried to tempt me with some pickled caper leaves and Elena succeeded with some little fluffy macaroons!  I couldn't eat too much because John and I were going out later for ribs at Steni Water Mill with Janet and John Jinty and knowing that we would probably have to have one of Dawn's delicious puddings as well didn't want to be too full before going!

Wednesday

So this is Chivers and Boris this morning settled down before I had a chance to make the bed and Boris mirroring Chivers - this is quite and unusual state of affairs because Chivers finds Boris rather irritating most of the time but they must have both had a hard night on the tiles and needed the rest.

Basket weaving week two and this morning we arrived to find Maroulla from the village sitting in our room - I teased her in my pigeon Greek that she was to be our new teacher and she thought that was hilarious.  Kelly thinks that she may be a little lonely as she walks all the way up from her house to the hotel and comes and sees what the basket makers and the weavers are upto - joining us for a coffee and a chat and tells us where we are going wrong!  In fact she remained with us most of the morning.

It was so warm that we took our work outside for a couple of hours until the heat and the flies got too much for us.  Marianna from the community office joined us for coffee and to take some photographs of us for the communityFacebook page.

It was so warm in the sun that a couple of us got unexpectedly suntanned sitting in the garden.  It wasn't too easy to work there either as the floor is uneven and we were all squashed next to one another - you are in danger of poking someone's eye out with the reeds if you are not careful. 

We are all now nearing completion of the base of the basket and our homework was to take the sides up by about three rotations in readiness for finishing off.  This is not as easy as it looks and takes forever - no wonder these baskets cost so much - the raw materials themselves are a good €30 before the time and effort that goes into them.

I have eventually managed to take up the jimjams Mum bought as she was able to let me have some better cotton - I say better but this would break three or four times each run so she is lucky that I persevered - not the best sewing job I have ever done but it is done nonetheless.

John has been working very hard getting jobs ticked off his to-do list and this afternoon when I got back we sat up on the roof terrace for a well earned drink before the sun went down.  We were joined by Chivers for a short while and then when it got just a little too chilly we retired to the conservatory where it was a lot warmer!

I took the opportunity to get a photograph of the pool as it currently looks before work starts next week - fingers crossed that the weather will remain good otherwise it is going to be a right old mess.  All that old paving is coming up and being replaced before the inside of the pool is replaced with this new Aqua Carpet stuff - and it will no longer be blue - my choice - I hope it is the right one!

We were sat in the conservatory last night when I thought I could hear a faint tapping in the distance.  I wasn't sure (a) because we do have a door bell although it often refuses to work or worse continues to work long after someone has poked it and (b) we rarely if ever get someone calling by anyway!

As it happens it was Savvas the tyreman's wife Elena and her little girl clutching a bag of what we think could be guinea fowl eggs.  When John went to get tyres last week he thought he had had a conversation about eggs with Savvas - he wasn't sure except that during the exchange Savvas drew what appeared to be an egg.  We are amazed because we had no idea that Elena knew where we lived and even more amazed that we heard her gentle tapping at the door.

The eggs will be put to very good use over the weekend - how kind.  The whole episode of egg-gate did however have an unfortunate consequence in that I woke in the night screaming with a nightmare.  This does happen periodically and although I think I am screaming John says it comes out as just muffled murmurs except last night it was the full ish.  In my dream John had opened the door to let the cats in and there was just a sinister someone stood staring into the house who wouldn't go away.  What with that and my carpel tunnel I didn't get much sleep before my early start for school.

Hands that do dishes...

Not my hand but it is beginning to look similar

I can tell that Winter is on the way by the state of my hands as my blood must be getting thicker and during the night some of my fingers go numb - numb rather than go to sleep because when the life comes back to them there are no pins and needles.  It is a bit irritating and can be a bit painful at times but I guess it is thanks to years of keyboard work - it is more than likely carpal tunnel syndrome and so I will have to keep an eye on it - at the moment it is just about confined to the night time and rarely if ever bothers me during the day but what with that any my would-be ganglion and my sore fingers from basket weaving my hands are in a right old state.  They say that your hands are a give away to your age in which case I must be about 93 by the looks of it.  On the subject of the ganglion mum lent me a wrist support for when I play pickleball and I wore it today and couldn't understand why it itched so much - I thought it must have been that I was sweating but when I took it off I had obviously trapped something underneath like a mozzie or something which had taken a bloody great bite out of my wrist!

And on the subject of things getting trapped... We are having a move around with the curtains and so I decided to take down a pair in our bedroom which are full length and get caught behind the dressing table and replace them with a shorter pair and put the long ones into wash.  When I got them down one of the curtains had a small mark on the inside which looked like a spider had got inside and made a nest and left a stain.  On closer inspection I could see that it was something a little larger than that and as I held it up to the light I could see the outline of something between the lining and the curtain.  It was a crispy shrew.  One of the cats must have brought it in, let it go and it shot up the curtain - got so far and either died from shock, injury or suffocated.  Bloody cats just aren't doing their jobs properly that is all I can say.  This is not the first time we have had a dead rodent in our bedroom but at least this time it was not so horrific as rat-gate and the maggots.

John was for some reason up and about at 6.00 this morning - coffee'd up and reading the paper so I decided it really was time to tackle the garden so that I could do some severe haircutting and there would still be enough nice weather for the plants to put on some new growth and prepare themselves for the winter.  It was also time to evict the wasps from the Morning Glory.  There were now only a handful of wasps left keeping guard over the mouldy leaf inside.  I wasn't planning on investigating but I have a sneaky feeling that the Queen was no longer there or had died and these few wasps were just carrying on regardless because they didn't know what else to do.  I managed to cut down the old plant with them still inside and lobbed it over the wall so they are probably still there clinging to that leaf thinking they are protecting their leader.  These little wasps really posed no great threat unlike the ma-hoo-sive hornet that John gave a severe cuffing to and which then fell into the empty pool and which two days later was still alive.  These are nasty - nasty enough that if you get stung you are advised to go to hospital and just the sort of thing the cats will try and play with.  This had to go.

Before the haircut

I did two hours in the garden working away like Edward Scissorhands until something got up my nose and the sneezing got the better of me - I think it was probably the sage that and the fact that they were giving out dust warnings for the Island today.  The solanums got a right old haircut and look all the better for it - even though they were in flower and it seems a shame to cut the flowers off you never get them all so they still have some colour and now a much better shape.  There are all sorts of things growing at the moment and it is difficult to differentiate between weeds and seedlings especially seedlings of something you may not have grown previously.

After the haircut

We took coffee together in the conservatory talking through our plans for the house and our diary for the week before setting off for Paphos - there is a real advantage to getting up earlier - we are not rushing and we are not getting stressed!

If anyone is down in the Tomb of the Kings area can I recommend that they go down to the Elysium Hotel and check out the Christmas decorations - maybe leave it a couple of days because they are only half way through putting them up.  Mum and I needed to call in today and were just blown away by how beautiful the hotel is looking.  I only had my phone with me so apologise for the photographs but I hope it gives some idea as to how they are going to look.  This really is a first class hotel in every sense.  It is so beautiful and the staff are so friendly - when I went to organise for my Mum and Dad to stay earlier in the year (thanks to Jane and John who paid for the visit) I dealt with a woman called Liza who could not have been more helpful and I saw her again today and she greeted us like old friends.

On our way home we called in to see Elena and Bassam as I had picked something up for Elena in Paphos.  I know that she is miffed that she didn't get onto the basket weaving course but there was no need to sabotage me this morning by feeding me large glasses of red wine on an empty stomach so I am nursing a baggy head today before going off to class!!

John and Boo Boo watched the TV - I snoozed my way through an episode of something or other - no idea what!