Beds...

Bloody Charlie has absolutely perfected his ringing of the dinner gong at around 6.30am so he has us up early because once his tapeworm wakes it has to be fed!!  This is not entirely a bad thing as we had a lot we wanted to get achieved today and the weather has suddenly taken quite an upturn so unless we get cracking early it is too hot to do much.

My main focus this morning was to tackle my pile of ironing which is about to give the Troodos a run for its money.  I am not a lover of ironing and John's clothes all seem to have pockets and bit and things which makes it more difficult - who ever invented bloody cargo pants/shorts obviously never ever did ironing themselves that's for sure.

I ploughed my way through everything today and did the lot including the horrid black stretchy shirt thing of John's which not only is a bugger to iron but also attracts every cat hair known to man.

There is a reason for this diligence - we have Mike staying on Friday and Saturday night and I didn't want him to be worried that he might be buried alive by my smalls if the pile toppled over in the night.



My current attention to the social calendar is shocking - I have dates in my mind that I have clearly made up.  I had thought that George and Pam's daughter and son-in-law arrived next week midweek but having seen Stelios the poolman it transpires that they arrive Sunday night so I needed to get my skates on to go and give 11b a clean as it has been shut up for nearly a year although John and I do go in and out periodically to check it is ok and of course Stelios has to walk through to get to the pool.  It is amazing what work the harvest spiders can do if left to their own devices.  I rang Pam to have a chat this morning and contacted Louise to see if there was anything she wanted put in the villa as she and Malcolm will not be arriving until about midnight if they are lucky - they are traveling Ryanair!!!  I know that my cleaning will be nowhere near Pam's standard but the rooms are clean and tidy and the bed made up for them to collapse into and all unwelcome visitors evicted.  Just a final tidy of the garden and it will be ready for guests.

We have Stephanos coming tomorrow to sort out the woodburner so John took the opportunity to get everything back in place.  The hearth has been put down and it leaves plenty of room for the wood baskets either side.  I am warming to the grey wall which changes shade depending on the light.  I have ordered some grey Dylon to see if I can dye the blinds that were up at the windows - if it turns out to be a dog's dinner then we will get Euroblinds to make some new ones as they did a good job with Mum's and were very reasonable.  If we do that we will do the kitchen window and the two lounge ones at the same time.

John had to nip down to Rob and Di's to do a little job for Di and on his return came back clutching a case of our favourite red wine which was a gift from Judi (Di's neighbour) as a thank you for all the various little things I have done for her with regard to her computer.  It was so very kind of her but I felt awful because I never did it for any reward.  I have text her to tell her she had better come up one evening for a meal and help us consume some of it - I hope she will accept the invitation.



I had taken the opportunity to get the bedding washed this morning - thanks to Charlie it was in, washed and out on the line just after sunrise!!!  All dry and not really needing an iron (thank god) I set about making my second bed of the day - as I have my aunt and uncle staying soon and Aunty Joyce was a nurse I need the practice with hospital corners anyway!  Boris had other ideas about bed making as he had made his way into our bedroom and was blissfully sound asleep when I came to put the bedlinen back on.  I turfed him out, made the bed and before I could finish he was back on his favourite blinky!

It had been such a lovely day today weather-wise that we sat outside for our supper before the overnight condensation began to set in.  We are addicted to noodles so tonight it was spicy chicken noodle salad with a bottle of crisp white wine - I am a new convert to white wine - it used to give me awful heartburn if it was too acidic - the Cypriot Xinisteri wines are great but this Chilean was pushing my boundaries a bit - one glass was ok but then I thought I should leave it as I thought I began to feel the beginnings of heartburn!

Our day was rounded off with an hour long video call from our very very very dear friends Sally and Tommy and Freddy and Molls.  It is scary to think that we first met them BC (before children) although it only seems like yesterday - they had moved into Glenthorne Avenue two up from us and were holding a barbeque for Sally's birthday - nothing strange in that you might think but it was March and it was bloody freezing - this set the tone for our friendship - madness - sheer madness and a lot of woodage - but that is another story!!!  Anyway fortunately distance has made no difference although obviously we wish we saw them more often than we do but we know they are always there for us as we are for them.  Love you guys xxxx