A quick trip to Pissouri...

Without giving too much away, hopefully nothing away at all, we had to be up and out early this morning to get to Pissouri to see a man about a silver wedding celebration and as we were there we planned to visit Wendy and Bill (No1 Stalkers) because we haven't seen them for AGES.  In fact, as so often happens, once people are here more regularly we see less of them - I guess there isn't the urgency that comes with someone's two week holiday!

We made it to Pissouri good and early and parked up heading for O Vrakas in the square and the first person we bumped into was Bill on a mission to get something to go with the coffee we were going to have later that morning.  Good Man!!!

It was the most beautiful morning - so much more like the weather we should be having this time of year and a welcome change from the last couple of days when we have had some rain.  

The square was quiet - probably too early for the locals and tourists to be seeking a coffee.   We settled down had a frappe and some bits of carrot cake from Harris and did what we needed to do and then set off to catch up with Wendy and Bill.

It was good to see them - for John it was a chance to talk footie with an ecstatic Bill who is a Leicester City supporter and for Bill to commiserate with the Blades indifferent season. For me it was a chance to catch up with Wendy and hear all about the family and all about their gift shop venture which seems to be doing very well - not surprised as Bill had worked hard to make the shop look inviting and Wendy has worked hard making sure that she has the right mix of suppliers.  Their hard work is paying off.

We could not stay as long as we would have liked as we needed to get back to Paphos so that I could play pickleball with Mum at 1.30 and we wanted to call into Emba first because they have been having trouble with the Android box which supplies their television.

We stayed long enough to sample the donuts which Bill had purchased from the local Paps supermarket - they were on a 1+1 deal.  I know that my niece Elena has always rated these donuts when she has been over but I haven't ever tried them.  I can confirm that the ordinary jam-type ones were absolutely lovely - clearly very fresh and fluffy. Can't say what the ring donuts were like - the dayglo pink icing is a bit more then I think I want to stomach and hundreds and thousands have never been my cup of tea.  

We sat out on their lovely balcony which its fantastic view all across the bay and along the coast.  We were laughing that Wendy had thought they would struggle by not having much of a garden and now says it is as much as they can manage to keep their pots watered and tend to the little bit they have outside the front door.  I smiled because I think we all dream of that luxury villa with lots of garden and outside space and then realise that it needs looking after and that as we get older it gets harder to do - small is good, small takes less time to tidy and clean and small doesn't need so much heating.

We hope to catch up with them again next week when they have visitors that they will bring up to our end of the island.  As we got in the car the temperature was showing 32 degrees and although it had been sitting in the sun for a while it was clearly a hot day, much hotter than of late.  We set off and managed to get to Mum and Dads before pickleball but I had to leave John trying to fathom out why the Android box was playing up.

We had a newbie called Angela come to try out PB today.  She is primarily a table tennis player and we know that table tennis players actually do pretty well with PB.  She started tentatively but by the end of the session was getting into the swing.  We are hopeful that she will want to play regularly because at the moment there isn't enough for Thursdays and that session is being cancelled.  As our rent has gone up we need to cover all three sessions to break even.

I am pleased to say that when I got back to Mum and Dad's I managed to work out what was going on with the Android Box and left it playing the Tennis from Roland Garros and Mum and I went down the road to the garden centre along from Paps to see what they had giving away - actually i was after some nice geraniums to add some instant colour to the garden and to go in the hessian bags that I had ordered and which John's mum recently sent out for me.  

We have three small window ledges (normally outside on a Cypriot house as they inset the windows) which I thought would benefit from a flower - the hessian bags are lined with polythene so are waterproof and at the end of the season I can cut the geraniums back and plant them in the garden for next year which is great and all for €4 a plant!

On our return home we had to prepare the conservatory for Bassam's impending visit tomorrow and the start of it being tiled.  We are having to house as much as we can indoors and the rest is dotted around outside and we have our fingers crossed that the weather is going to be fine overnight and no great condensation.  The cats are well confused by it all as they are creatures of habit and would, at this time of night, be settling down in their regular sleeping locations.  

Minnie was less than impressed that her favourite chair had been  moved into the spare room and had the footstool on top of it but she still managed to squeeze onto the seat whilst giving us a very very hard stare to make her discomfort known.

My craft box is remaining indoors overnight as I can't afford for the contents to get damp.  Normally it has cushions on top so it is more like a bench seat and is where Boris and Charlie like to sleep - not the same without the cushions but they got up on it anyway.