Thursday...

I would really like to say that this nice little motor is my joint birthday/silver wedding anniversary present from my lovely husband but sadly it is not!!!!  This car was parked outside our friends' house this morning when we called in to witness their signatures.  I am guessing that it was driven up the concrete road and not down the unmade road as it looks a little low slung!!!!

As you can see from the blue sky in the car photograph it was a glorious day and a glorious day puts you in the mood for doing thing and doing things yourself so we went down to Polis to pick up some DIY bits and pieces so we could get a few jobs done.

We want to tackle the pathway up to our front gate.  There are two sides to this job - the first is the pipe which runs the length and takes excess water from the water butt when we have a deluge (not that often this winter) - this is a big job that will involve digging up the pavement.  The second part is to pretty up the fencing between Gregoris house and ours where the olive tree and honeysuckle constantly drop leaves and things on the floor and which I am constantly sweeping up.

Now that the wooden cover has been removed from the swimming pool John has an idea for reusing the chipboard in the alley-way and constructing something like the wall which he likes in the Outside Inn which has vertical strips of wood and a cream wall behind.  This would look good and tidy up the approach to our house no end.

Whilst John was getting everything prepared I tackled some of the mess that the previous 'builders' (I use the that term in the loosest possible sense) left behind.  Having only just had the outside of the house painted before they started and having asked them on numerous occasions to be careful we were left with a right old mess after the concrete had been poured and they made no attempt to clean things up so we have concrete caked on the patio doors, the spare bedroom door and the walls and it looks awful.

It was very hot today for February and the black waterproof paint got stickier and stickier which made it really difficult to put on and in places I had to get a tiny watercolour brush to get down between the tiles.  It is looking better - I haven't finished as I wasn't sure how much paint we had so I still have some more to do but it does look a bit neater than it did.  Close up inspection of the work which was carried out before makes us realise what a lucky escape we have had that they did not stay around to complete the project.  The new contractor tells us not to worry that it can all be resolved but we are wondering if he appreciates just how bad the work is.  Still we will know soon!!!

We actually took time out for some lunch today - yesterday we forgot and then were ravenous before we went out to Fitos.  It was such a nice day that we decided to take lunch sat outside - John is anxiously awaiting his soup!!!

So back to work and this is the original wooden fence between us and Gregoris which John has sanded down.  I had already cut the Olive Tree down to a more manageable size.  It had been growing right over our path and was right up against the side of Gregoris's bedroom window so you couldn't open the shutters.  It looked rather pitiful when it had been scalped but it is now throwing out some new leaves.

Anyway John sanded down all the wood in situ because that made it easier then stained all the wood and let it dry before he removed it and erected the UPV treated chipboard which we then proceeded to paint cream which is not that easy because of the uneven finish to the chipboard - I shall have to go over the bits I missed on another day!!

We waited for the cream paint to dry before we put back the newly stained wood et voila we have a nice new fence.  So I just need to nip round the other side and stain the backside of the fence so that it looks nice for Gregoris and Theodora and make sure the cream on our side is fully covered and then all that is left is to tackle the water pipe which you can see is weighed down with some coping stones.

John actually said it was a job well done - which means we didn't fall out whilst doing it!!!

Whilst we were doing it we had a rare visit from our neighbour Paul who has the house with the horrendous extension.  Apparently he has two houses in the village neither of which are lived in and he said today that he planned to come back at Easter with 'technicians' to do some work to them - apparently Johns says he said the same to him when he last came two years ago!  The one next door to us remains standing more by luck than judgment I think and we aren't fussed about having anyone living there so we aren't bothered about it being fixed up - we can't really see much of it except the illegal bit at the top which is a bit of an eyesore - it would be so much better if that bit were knocked down.

In clearing up today I came across this bug which was about the size of a brazil nut.  Orangey-red in colour with a huge body and tiny thin head.  I had no idea what it was and saw that my friend Dina had come across one exactly the same - it is apparently a Palm Weevil  Rhynchophorus ferrugineus and in some countries they barbeque the larvae and eat them!!!!

I walked down to the Hotel this evening as we had another Theatre group meeting - sadly the numbers are dwindling and I cannot see this getting off the ground.  On the plus side the sunset was absolutely fabulous on the minus side there were only three of us turn up with Nicos and Doug had to leave after 20 minutes and Diana and I don't mind helping but we don't want to act.  We are now going to concentrate on increasing numbers but not sure how!!!

We had decided to give the hotel restaurant a go - choosing from the menu rather than the buffet.  With the coupon holders filling the place I was glad I had reserved a table - this is not normally a necessity but was tonight.  I have to say I was quite impressed by the food - my carbonara was delicious and John said his sweet and sour chicken was much nicer than he had anticipated.  We had a lovely evening with Rob and Diana and a very pleasant walk home under the stars.