Shitty weather...

Before I even say anything about this picture of the finished jigsaw should tell you all you need to know - it is finished and that is simply because we were confined to barracks ALL DAY with more hideous weather - so hideous that we expected to keep mum for another day.

The thunder and lightning started early and was followed and then joined by hail, high winds and rolling mists.  This is apparently the second wettest/coldest winter in 40 years which is a tad worrying as we generally consider winter to be January and February and December can be quite nice.  We experienced the winter that currently is recorded as the league leader and that was grim to say the least.  We are thankfully more prepared than we were before.  There is little more we can do to protect the house and ourselves save for dealing with the water-butt issue which is located at the front door and which has a tendency to overflow particularly if it has a snail stuck up its jacksie!

Concerned about Mum driving home in monsoon conditions she stayed to enjoy a bacon sandwich before there was a brief respite and a glimmer of dry weather and she thankfully made it home in one piece only to find that the central heating was not working.  We think it may be a pilot light failure.

If it was dry and clear we could expect to see a view of the Troodos something like this one from a couple of years ago which was taken from the side of the road near to Fitos but for the last few days that mountain range has been swathed in deep dark clouds so not much hope until that clears although the local webcam shows quite a lot of snowfall.

We had hoped to get out for a walk today - we wanted to quickly call in and say goodbye to Claire and Les who return to Hong Kong tomorrow and then drop in to see Di and Rob to make sure they are ok in all this awful weather but the rain just never stopped and there seemed no point wading through ankle-deep rainwater just to get to the car.  It being January 2nd this is still a bank holiday for many here so we had not planned a trip to Papantoniou which is just as well as it would have been closed.

There was nothing left but to batten down the hatches once again, light the fire, warm up some New Year's Eve leftover ribs and watch a film.  My choice today - I had seen several people rave about Bird Box so that is what we watched.  It was ok, nothing too terrifying and passed away an hour or so.

The enforced day in had some benefits - it allowed me to start my list of 'Things to Achieve' in 2019 - this is instead of making resolutions.  I want to go through every drawer and cupboard in the house and get rid of things we really really do not need, this includes clothes as I can never seem to find anything to where that I am happy with so either I just can't find things or I am hanging on to stuff that no longer fits or has lost its appeal.  John is with me on this and if it weren't for the fact that today the bedrooms were so blooming cold I would have started already.