Friday...

Today did not pan out as I had expected - the aluminium men were due here at 8.30-ish and so John did not come with Diana and I to the gym because he wanted to make sure he was around for them.  They were also visiting Sean and Sharon and fitting their shutters so we hoped they would be bringing with them our steels for the conservatory roof to replace the wood which is there currently, our new door for the bottom of the BBQ which John is refurbishing and the solid panel that we have opted to have installed in the back (front actually) door because the sun streams through there onto the cat food and in so doing becomes a haven for flies.

Diana and I took one for the team and did our regular work out - the hotel is quieter now that the AlphaMega voucher scheme is coming to an end so luckily we still have the gym to ourselves.

On arriving Kelly on reception asked if I could deliver the food her mum had cooked to Elena this afternoon as she was coming out of hospital and coming home after over a week of bed-rest and drips and drugs and not forgetting the easy on the eye bearded hot male nurse who was giving Elena something else to think about.  I didn't have pickleball today but had intended to go down to Paphos to see Mum and Dad and to talk to the man from the private ambulance company which Mum and Dad are thinking of using.  This would have coincided with my meals on wheels so I got Mum to rearrange for Tuesday.

On my return from the Gym the ally-guys had still not arrived - John was less than happy as he could have come with us for a workout as he has had to miss the last twice.  I got detailed off to get some 'glue' for the tiles he is putting on the BBQ - I went of to Julia's (pronounced Yoolia's) in Arodes to a collection of shipping containers which is what passes for a DIY centre in these parts.  Yoolia knows us and used to clean our villa when it was rented out - her English is patchy and my Greek patchier but I managed to make myself understood and got the guff that John wanted even though the bag was not looking the way he described and the price was different to what he had expected!

As I made my way back home and got to the T Junction at the top of the concrete road by Andreas's house
I noticed a flash of yellow in front of me and I was lucky enough to see a Golden Oriole flying by and come to rest in the tree in Andreas's front garden.  I hastily took a quick snap before it flew off so apologies that the bird is not quite in focus but it is good enough for you to see how beautiful this visitor is.

The ally-men arrived shortly afterwards and started at Sean and Sharon's and then came to us.  The job to replace the wooden beams in the conservatory was a tricky one.  We should have gone with aluminium from the start but the wood was already up.  Recently we had begun to notice that it was sagging and when Mike (Jane and John's builder friend) confirmed that he would get them replaced sooner rather than later we thought we should do it.  We have three monumental panes of glass which make up the roof and which took about six guys to lift when they were brought up originally so we didnt want any of them to come crashing down anytime soon, can you imagine the mess and then the cost if that happened?  It didn't take too long for Alex and John to get the new beams in place and we breathed a sigh of relief!!

I stayed out of the way of the men whilst they were working and tackled our tax returns which have to be submitted by the end of the month.  When we came five years ago the tax form was one page of A4 but now it has morphed into something not unlike the forms we used to have in the UK.

Fortunately there isn't too much for us to fill in although I learned today that as a very poor person I shouldn't be paying the Defence Levy which I always have so I need to submit a form to the Bank to ensure that they do not take the Defence Levy out of any little bit of interest I might receive although we are hardly talking mega-bucks here but as Asda says - every little helps which is very true when you think that when we first had money here the interest rate was around 7% and now you would struggle to get 2%

It was rather a sad and monumental day today as my Molos Rose given to me on March 8th for International Women's Day has finally given up the ghost after weeks of looking absolutely superb - I have kept it for over 5 weeks in the house - this surely has to be some sort of record.

I did my meals on wheels stint - collecting the food from Kelly's mum who lives next door to Stelios who was knocked over at Christmas in Paphos.  She had cooked for Elena and the family and it smelled absolutely delicious - a quick peak inside the pot revealed a tasty looking Chicken casserole.  We stopped to have a chat about her lovely ginger tomcat (I named conkerbollox on account of his rather large nuts!!).

This evening we were going out for a meal with Gillian and David Carbine.  They are the couple to whom we gave our voucher for an overnight stay at the Lordos Beach Hotel in Larnaca because Gillian had been unwell.  We were going to the Old Town in Polis - we have been once before and thought it was rather expensive for us.  If we go for a 'posh' meal we generally go to Gabors in Paphos and for us this still remains our favourite although we had a lovely evening with David and Gill.  Unfortunately all the food and even the vegetables came adorned with mushrooms even though there was no mention of it and that just puts John immediately off of his food.