Wednesday begins and ends with a lizard

I was up early this morning and doing a cat headcount because Chivers has taken to going walkabout right when it is time to have breakfast.  At the front gate this little fella was having a sunbathe and enjoying it so much that he remained there whilst I went indoors and got my phone to take his picture.  Not easy to see but in the morning sunshine his underbelly was a beautiful shade of green - something like verdigris.  He kept out of the way of our lot - they love a nice lizard to chase and eat.

We were having most of the day at home then going down to Mum's to try and sort out her tax with the HMRC before going to Thanasi in Emba and having dinner with Nicky and Mark and Liz and Bill.

It will soon be John's birthday (well September but that will come round soon enough) and he spotted this t-shirt on tintyweb - looks good - I shall have to see if I can get something similar sent over here for him.

I was on gardening today - we tackled the big old bushes by my shed.  I had severely cut them back not so long ago so that we could see the light that is in the wall behind but I reckon it has grown at least two feet since then.  I have been moving plants around.  I want to re-do the garden which is in front of our bedroom window but am not sure how - earlier in the year we had planned to remove the lemon tree and possibly the lime as neither were doing well - in the interim the lime has bucked its ideas up and is looking quite healthy whereas the lemon still struggles and the rest of the things in there are all a bit of a mess.  We also have a few problems with indoor plants and in particular my peace lily which is struggling in the conservatory so I am going to move it somewhere less sunny in the hopes that it will lose some of its yellow-ness.

We were having an early dinner at Thanasi which suited those of us who wanted to get home in time to watch the World Cup semi-final Croatia v England.  We managed to eat, drink and converse without the need to chivvy anyone along.  It was a nice evening and good to catch up - this is going to become a regular thing which is nice.  I kept my meal simple as we are out again tomorrow - my favourite stand-by a Caesar Salad and very nice it was too.  Nicky and I shared a bottle of wine as John was drives for me and Bill was driving the others.  Nice to see Nicky's mum is recovering from her operation - slowly but surely and ditto for Bill.

Forgot to say that on arrival at Mum's we tackled HMRC and Mum got them to speak to me because she told them she was hard of hearing (which she is).  A spoke to a nice guy called Craig who agreed with me that Mum's tax was on the high side and so made some adjustments which means that she should now be paying the correct amount for being taxed in the UK - now all we need is to find out where the form is for her to be taxed in Cyprus - I took it to the tax office about 6 weeks ago but HMRC don't seem to have received it.

Anyway there was a strange sky as we made our way home - the sun was going down nicely but there were loads of clouds hanging around and in our direction it looked like it could even have been raining.  When we returned home it was dry but there was a much cooler feel than of late.  Good news we were home in time for the footie.

After the euphoria of the opening goal in the first five minutes for England scored by Trippier from a free kick and a first half filled with missed opportunities to secure what would have been a monumental victory the team descended into chaos and the remainder of the game, which went to extra time, saw a woeful performance of a young team lacking in ideas.  It was only a matter of time before Croatia scored the winner and they did.  Based on the first half England had been the better team but thereafter there was only going to be one winner and it wasn't them which was a shame.

John was nearly apoplectic as the game went on - so much so that I could no longer watch and busied myself with stuff around the house before deciding that I would get ready for bed.

We had a visitor in our bedroom - a tiny pinky or house gecko which evaded capture for quite some time before I was able to get hold of it and move it somewhere where it would be safe from the cats and us.

Meanwhile in the lounge we had moved the ailing peace lily and with it one of the brown and yellow striped grasshoppers which make such a loud noise.  We could hear it but couldn't see it and when we moved towards where we thought the sound was coming from he shut up.  Eventually John managed to track it down and along with the pinky this too was removed from the house to somewhere more suitable.

It was a late night for us and bloody England had lost - still they did better than a lot of people had expected at the outset.