Tuesday

John's fingers are causing him a load of trouble at the moment as the splits have worsened and bar his pinkies everything else has been affected.  He decided that today would be a good day to give them a rest from building work and so he slathered on some handcream that Mum had given him to try and put on some surgical gloves and sat around looking like a gynaecologist in waiting.  Diana and I kept up our fitness regime and went to the gym even though we were feeling the after effects of last night's belly dancing.

The weather has  settled now (although people reckon we have not seen the last of the storms if only coptic ones) and it is very warm - possibly warmer than we would normally experience in April and everything looks so much better when the sun is shining.

It was nice enough to take our tea and biccies outside - this is our little reward for working up a sweat on the treadmill!!  The hotel is still pretty busy with the tail end of the Alpha-Mega voucher holders and many of them were taking advantage of the sunshine outside.

The waiter obviously felt we had more than earned our reward and gave us a Billy Big plate of biscuits which I was more than prepared to scoff but Diana said I ought to take some back for John so we wrapped up four - the people on the table next to us looked at me, looked at my clothes, looked at me packing up four biscuits and obviously thought I was some poor poor villager filling my bag with goodies.  I don't care - I look at the visitors and think "you do this for maybe one night, maybe one week - I can do this any day I like as it is on my doorstep"!!!!  We are blessed and we do try and make sure that we do not take it all for granted although we are now about to complete our fifth year and we haven't as yet.

Diana and I were watching the swallows dipping in and out of the swimming pool.  I would love to catch one of them on camera but wasn't set up to do so and whilst I was hoping to achieve something like the picture on the right you can see that I failed miserably!!!  Oh well must go down with the right camera and the tripod and give it a go - it cannot be any worse!!!

We finished our tea and made our way home - I came back up the road from the Droushia Hills Taverna - this is a really beautiful little road although a killer if you are on your bike and not so good if you meet Kelly coming in the other direction if she has been up picking lavender and is in a hurry!!

We had a quick turnround before going to Paphos but not before I got my act together and put our supper in the slow cooker - although it is really salad weather we always seem to be short of time or tired when we get back from pickleball/badminton so John suggested the slow cooker and I shoved in the ingredients for a sausage and bean cassoulet which would be ready and waiting.

We had a number of things to do before playing sport.  I had to return the Aloe Vera products I have been testing out.  Some of them I really liked - the toothpaste and deodorant were particularly good and the serum was fantastic but sadly out of my budget range and John, it would seem, is one of the 2% who are allergic to Aloe Vera as the products he tried he had to take off as they made his skin sting!!!

We also wanted to call into the garden centre because John is now conscious of the plants which drop leaves and flowers and which are near the pool as we are due to have the water put in later this week and after all the heartache this bloody project has caused we want it to look beautiful and to last.

The garden centres here are rather more like mini nurseries and in general I would say that the cost of plants is very reasonable.  I bought two well established osteospurmum and three gazanias and it was the equivalent of about a fiver.  There is the temptation to go wild in the isles with the plants on offer but as I have learned it is best to stick with what we know grows and more importantly survives the seasons.

Dad and I both had to go and get our new prescriptions this afternoon - Dad was having complete new glasses and I was being a tightwad and having just replacement lenses - this is not entirely true - I really like the frames I have which were new two years ago and the current fashion over here for larger thicker frames just don't seem to suit my face.  Anyway this meant we had to negotiate the miniscule footpaths in Old Town once again.  I cannot see much progress since last week but then there has been Bank Holiday.  You really have to feel for the businesses here but I guess if they do not open then they are guaranteed not to make money but if they do there is always the slim chance that someone might come by.  God only knows what the poor tourists must think.

John and I took a quick detour on our way home to a shop we had seen on the Mesoghi Avenue which had lots of stone things outside.  We are looking for something to match up with Dionysos but having scoured the garden centres have found nothing so far.  This shop was a complete Aladdin's Cave with the most helpful woman.

The prices were amazingly reasonable so we think we will relocate Dionysos and purchase a matching couple of plaques for by the pool.  In fact if anyone is desperate to buy us a present for our Wedding Anniversary then we will put money towards the plaques.  We have now sent out a save the date email as we are planning a little 'do' to family and just a few friends as we will be limited to numbers.

It was lovely to come home and have our meal ready and waiting.  Well done to John for thinking about it and I am glad I was organised enough to get it sorted before we left and even more organised that I remembered to turn it down to low beforehand so it was not spot welded to the pan!!!