Visitors...

We started the day, as we have done every day this week by braving our pool - I don't know if it is so cold I just no longer have any feeling but somehow it doesn't seem that bad - mind over matter clearly works as I am determined to try and keep going in for as long as possible and unlike when it is hot I fanny about on the steps edging in are at a time I just walk in and get my shoulders down - although not submerging myself fully underwater like John does, that really is a step too far and I don't want brain-freeze.  John went one step further today and actually had an outside shower although he did admit that it was, in his words, abso-bloody-lutely freezing!  He followed it with a warm shower indoors and I don't blame him!  I do think that our new solar panels are working better than the old ones as even though it was only 8.00am and the sun rises so much later these days there was sufficiently warm water in the tank to have a pleasant shower - both of us (not at the same time!!!).


On the subject of the shower we now have a Mark II mat made from corks - this one covers the whole area where you stand when you get out to dry and has taken more than 200 corks to complete.  Fortunately we had a load of corks but our stocks now are very depleted.  This is John's project and on a much grander scale than the one I made which has now been consigned to the outside shower - which we hope to refurbish next year with stone walls rather than the current wooden screen which has begun to see better days.  We want to copy the idea Aunty Maura has for her outside shower where the curved walls provide modesty from all angles.

We played pickleball today, just me, Mum and the two John's and had to have plenty of rests in between games for fear that otherwise Mum might keel over!

John then drove Joyce and David back to our house and I took Kaye in Kenny stopping at the bakery on the top of the Mesoghi Avenue to buy a box of Patates sto Fourno which are the fabulous Greek roast potatoes which are flavoured with tomato and onion and are delicious and, at the minuscule price Paps charge, not worth me trying to recreate.  I had put a chicken dish in the slow cooker in readiness for this evening so that would be ready to eat whenever we wanted it so all I needed to do was warm the potatoes through.

Uncle David shares the same birthday as John and my Dad, he is a year younger than Dad and 35 years older than John!  We had thought that last year might have been the last time he and Aunty Joyce fancied making the trip over here but they said they were up for it again this year and we are really pleased that they have made it.  For the past few years we have given them a mini-break up with us and this year they will be with us twice as they are coming up again next weekend.  Our families have spent many holidays together particularly when we were small children so who would have thought all these years later we could all be together once again but in Cyprus.

I am sure that the return to our villa for my sister has been exceptionally difficult as it was here that she first realised her husband Richard was so very ill but I am so pleased that she has felt able to return and spend time with us.

She took advantage of the remains of the day and sat out in the garden whilst there was still a little sunshine to enjoy.  It was then 6.00pm somewhere in the world so we cracked open a bottle of gin and enjoyed a tipple in John's very lovely gin glasses which were a gift for his birthday (thanks Nicky and Mark xxx).  I cannot believe that it is three weeks' ago when we were on our misery bus trip to the winery for John's birthday - where on earth does that time go?

The slow cooked coq au vin type meal seemed to go down well as did the potatoes and for those that wanted there was some orange cake and cream or ice-cream to finish the meal before we dusted off our dominoes and played Mexican trains.

Bless Uncle David, he cheerfully plays along seemingly without any clue as to what he is doing but never complains - his reward was to have a couple of nice whiskies to help him sleep!