Tuesday

I got up and off early this morning because I needed to take mum to CYTA to get the sim card from her trusty old steam driven mobile phone put into her all singing all dancing new smart phone.  Good old CYTA they sorted it all out and did so free of charge even though when they handed back the old steam driven we managed to lock the SIM and they then unlocked it for us.

Anyway prior to that I was travelling down to Paphos via Stroumbi and was caught behind a very very slow moving lorry on a stretch of winding road where it is very difficult to overtake safely.  I was keeping an eye out for a safe place but there were signs warning of roadworks being carried out 'on the' shoulder although I couldn't actually see any.  One minute I looked in my rear view mirror and saw nothing and the next there was one of those ubiquitous 'Cyprus' cars behind me - a silver saloon of some description, probably a Mitsubishi of unknown pedigree or age.  This one had been 'zooped' up with the addition of an incredibly massive rear fin and an exhaust which sounded like it was missing a section.  Said car was being driven by a guy who I will refer to only as Dick (as in Head).  He was desperate to pass - I wondered why, if he was in such a rush, he hadn't left a little earlier on his journey - and he weaved side to side until on a blind left hand bend he went for it - only to encounter the roadworks which meant he had to brake viciously and swerve to avoid the men putting bollards out into the road.  I let him get on with it and remained behind the lorry which, on the Kathikas-Stroumbi T-Junction kindly let me pass in safety - for which many thanks Mr Lorry Driver.  As I went by the Stroumbi petrol station Mr Head shot out in his zooped up Mitz only to be located directly behind me once again.  This clearly pissed him off big style and he spent the remainder of the journey to Paphos dangerously weaving his way in and out of the traffic - where are the police when you need them?  The trouble with people like Dick is that they leave a trail of destruction behind them oblivious of any accident or incident their erratic driving might have caused.  I was glad to arrive in Emba in one piece although I half expected to find Dick wrapped round a tree at some point.

I am in search of a table lamp for the conservatory - something in a neutral colour with a squat base so the cats cannot knock it over when they hare having a mad five minutes but have yet to find anything.  I took the opportunity to have a quick look in some of the charity and second hand shops on the Chloraka Road but didn't see anything that fitted the bill.  At one of the second hand shops there was a sweet little chair that had been upcycled (or is it now repurposed?) by being distressed in a lovely Mediterranean blue colour and with the addition of a plastic washing up bowl where the seat would have been had been turned into a planter.  No there's an idea!!!!  Sadly my nice little Cypriot chair disintegrated otherwise I could have given that a make-over for the garden.

Anyway as I said I failed to find a lamp and am still searching!

Having got Mum's phone sorted we played pickleball this afternoon and it was exceptionally hot on court.  Last week we might have anticipated playing through the summer as it had been much cooler than normal but the temperature has ramped up and looks set to get even hotter so I guess we will be grateful for our summer break in August.

It is Di's birthday on Monday and we have bought her something from Claire's gallery at the Aliathon which I hope she likes.  We had to do a furtive handover when we all met at Yiallos last week so I hope Di didn't guess that something was going on!!!  I had seen these these cute little handmade boat ornaments which I thought would look nice somewhere in Di and Rob's home.

I wanted something to go with it and so decided to stop off at the London Road garden centre where I chose a Euphorbia Milii Crown of Thorns plant which they now produce in a host of beautiful colours - they only ever used to be red.  I opted for one with peachy coloured flowers and put it in a pale blue bucket container.  I don't really like the London Road - I find the woman in there most unhelpful but it was on my way home and I wanted to make sure I got something nice.  The parrot is still at London Road, they had him in his cage sitting in the shade - poor thing I don't like to see caged birds but I am guessing he doesn't know any different.

When I got home John had been busy - he had used up most of the remainder of our stone to put a second bit on the wall as you approach our front gate.  The plan is that we will paint the walls all along in the same colour as we did the outside of the house.  These walls aren't in a brilliant condition and we aren't even sure if they are ours or not - listening to Lakis it would appear that we own one side and the house next door owns the other which is a bit odd anyway as that house is empty and owned by the bank we are just going to make our side look nice.

The plan is to have something like a couple of terracotta pots hanging between the stone 'pillars' which should look nice.

John was knackered and so I cooked up some spicy meatballs with spaghetti to have before we sat down to endure the England Colombia match.  I couldn't stand it so went to bed and kept track of the score on my tablet.

Everyone will know by now that England secured a win on penalties - based on the performance tonight John doesn't reckon 'it's coming home' more likely that the team will be coming home after it is defeated by Sweden in the next round!