Nursey Nursey

This morning John and I were sisters of mercy as we helped the severely incapacitated Elena to get from her bed to the car as she is going to the Friends' Hospice in Paphos for a couple of days' respite care which will hopefully be good for her and give the family a little break.  Lola, having just got up and clearly not one of life's morning people would not have her photograph taken - I tried to get the family assembled but the resulting shot was terrible!!  This however was a lovely shot of Elena, Amoura and Rabia (sporting his new summer haircut).

It is another hot and sticky day and John was planning on the afternoon playing Badminton and I was going down to spend some quality time with Mum and Dad rather than the quick hour or so after we have finished playing pickleball.  We are all hot and we are all desperately trying to find our 'cool' place - Charlie has most definitely found his on top of John's car where he will happily spend most of the day.  He must get a bit of breeze up there.

Yesterday I made some fig preserve - it is actually more of a chutney with fig, orange and chilli and which John sampled and declared delicious which is praise indeed from someone who doesn't like figs.  I think it will be a fine accompaniment to cheese and we are going to test out that theory later this evening!

I popped Roberto's jar down to him - he is mourning the demise of his lemon pickle and I have promised I will make him some more as soon as it is commercially viable!

I stayed for a cuppa with the Veaseys sitting out on their lovely patio with its lovely furniture.  I covet that furniture - it is so comfortable!  Diana thinks she is making slow improvement with regard to her back.  It would appear that the source of the problem is in a different place to where the pain originally manifested itself and now this has been pinpointed treatment can be more precise.  She has had acupuncture and been scrutinised by Dr Marios's little boy who was at work with him today.  You are afforded no dignity if subjected to Cypriot medical care!!

Mum and I opted to go to the Mall today as (a) Dad has got so fed up trying to look at photographs of his great grandson which my sister sends to my phone that he is insisting I buy a new handset and (b) the weather seems to have got to Dad's watches (and John's for that matter) and he needed a good clear-faced watch to tied him over until his good one gets fixed.

It was an easy shopping experience - Mum managed to find a nice stylish Casio watch from Lepus which was in the sale and was perfect and I found a Samsung Android phone at a reasonable price in Public where our sales chappie assistant was extremely helpful.  I have to thank Dad for the phone - so thanks Dad.  I also got directed to the Orange room in Public to speak to a techie guy who confirmed what I had feared, and one of the reasons I had put off changing my handset, the Blackberry information could not be automatically transferred over to the Samsung which is a bit of a bugger as I will have to manually bluetooth everything across!

I forgot to check that it needed a mini SIM so will have to visit Cyta and get my SIM sorted and I must treat myself to a cover to that I can look after my new gold Samsung which I know John will be extremely jealous of!  I will be very sad to get rid of my trusty old Blackberry and have decided that, with a couple of new batteries coming out, will keep it as a backup bearing in mind my track record with phones and water.

Mum and I went from the Mall to the Friends' Hospice to grab a half hour with Elena and to deliver the Mentos sweets she had asked for.

Mum had given Elena her phone number and is quite happy to become her personal shopper and personal bedside visitor for as long as she is in the Hospice.  I think it is only going to be a couple of days and to be fair if she is just confined to bed there she is no better off than being confined to bed at home because there are plenty of us willing to sit with her to enable the rest of the family to get on with things.  Hopefully the staff there will be able to help her with other things that we cannot.  I know she is concerned about her 'good' leg as that is inactive due to the 'bad' leg having been plastered and having to stay still and elevated for about six weeks.

I collected a very hot and very sticky husband from Emba Badminton Club - rather him than me as this concrete building must be like a pressure cooker in the summer - so much so that John took one of the stand-up fans we bought for TD with him today.  It would be interesting to weigh him before and after!

Our garden plaques which we purchased for our wedding anniversary have been made (they needed to be in concrete so they will survive outside).  This is Hercules and Hercules had a ready made hook for him on the wall by the outside shower.  I love him and am glad that we decided to buy him and the other plaque which is of Persephone and Hercules.

The second plaque needs a hook and John is going to sort that out tomorrow so I will take a photograph of that tomorrow when it is in situ.

The plaques are the good news with regard to our anniversary present.  Our special present being shipped over got damaged in transit - would you believe it?  The agent at this end has refused delivery and we are now going through the process of getting it replaced.  Thank goodness it was insured en route.  This is just about our luck unfortunately but we have been assured that we are not to worry and it will get sorted as quickly as it can bearing in mind it is prime holiday season and lots of businesses are now shut for two weeks.

Back home and in an attempt to cool down I went up on the roof terrace.  I could hear Mr Boo but not actually see him until he appeared from underneath the sun beds.  This must be his 'cool' place.  Once he realised I was up there with him he decided to sit on top of the beds and have a sleep.  There is evidence that he, or one of the others, lies up there on the sunbeds regularly judging by the amount of burs that have been spat across the red covers!!

Our next door neighbours are planning on coming tomorrow for a few days - this is good news as they are going to get the issue with their pool sorted.  John is very upset that he has had no choice but to let the water go green.