Tuesday - an Early Start

Want to know what it looks like at about 5.45 in the morning???  The sky looks like this....
We have the workmen arriving very early this morning to start the tiling and so we needed to be up and ready - I set the alarm and got up to get the coffees and feed the cats and as I walked across to the kitchen I could see that the sun was beginning to rise and the sky was the most beautiful colour - another nice day in the offing apparently the last before it begins to deteriorate.

Today the 'Team' arrived bright and breezy - today we had a newbie - the Tiler.  He is going to tile the pool and then rectify the poorly laid tiles around the edge of the pool.  John and I had been round the night before with some chalk and marked up the ones which were laid incorrectly or laid with bugger all underneath so when tapped sounded hollow.

To just underline how badly the tiles were laid the first three pinged off like a poorly stuck down false nail - and the backside of the tile showed no evidence of every having adhered to the base - we are amazed they managed to stay in situ over the winter but then we haven't been out and used the back garden since November.

We cannot believe how quickly (and how cleanly) they just got on with the job in hand.  Within a very short period of time the back wall of the pool had the tiles on and started to look fantastic - the tiles look so different when put up en masse - we both are really pleased with our colour choice - it is going to really look awesome when it is finished.

We didn't want the workers to think we were on their case all the time so we left them with water and a bucket of biscuits to keep them going.  My Cypriot coffee-making capabilities were seriously challenged when I was asked to make a Metreo (semi sweet).  Sadly my Briki (the coffee boiling pot) has a bit of an uneven bottom making the boiling difficult so I asked John if we could borrow Pam's next door but one.  On going round to investigate we realised that the rain a week ago Sunday and the subsequent warm weather had made the weeds go wild and now that Stelios their gardener and pool cleaner is incapacitated since his accident at Christmas it is down to us to make sure it looks tidy - well it was the least we could do to offer.   I am in the picture hidden behind the yellow weeds which have over the last couple of days reach over 5ft!!!  John and I just had to knuckle down and get to it.  We managed to get the worst of it pulled up and taken away but once the birthday celebrations later this week are over we will need to get down to the smaller stuff.

I disappeared off to Emba this afternoon to play pickleball - John wanted to stay behind so that he could ensure the project progressed without any issues and to take photographs of that progress for our records.  We are just gobsmacked by how much they managed to do in one day - we can really see that the tiling side of the project really might be completed by the end of the week.  Just goes to show how useless those other cowboys really were.

After pickleball I took mum to buy something for Mother's Day (which is this Sunday) from my sister who is recovering from a nasty foot operation - very nasty having seen a photograph of the scar which seems to run from the tip of her big toe right down to her heel.  Mum had seen a pot to house an indoor plant that she liked so we got that and the nice lady in the garden centre down the road potted up two Herringbone Plants (Maranta leuconeura erythroneura) in an appropriately sized pot to go inside.  Mum was happy.

The men had left when I returned - all bar the steps had been tiled and it was all looking fantastic and they had left everywhere clean and tidy - there were a few things which John felt needed attention so tomorrow morning, early, we are going to go out and mark up them up - they are relatively minor but there are a couple of cut tiles that seem to be sticking up a bit and even when grouted will be sharp to the foot.  Overall though we are delighted so far which is more than we ever felt before.