Friday...

Now I cannot be sure whether we had a late night or an early morning after our lovely night at the Veaseys - what I can tell you is that we were very very glad to have missed a damn good soaking as the heavens opened shortly after we got home and I can also tell you that as a result of the late night/early morning we were not too fussed about getting up early although no-one told Charlie that!  On the subject of Charlie his nasty sore at the base of his right ear is slowly beginning to heal but he will dig at it with his claws and clearly doesn't know that he is doing it to such an extent that it bleeds.  When we last took him to the vets she tested the reflexes, or lack of  them, on the right side of his face by poking a ball point pen in his ear, up his nose and towards his eye.  At that time there was no response and I want to see whether this has improved at all but whenever I approach him with a ball point pen or similar he looks at me as if to say "you have two hopes if you think you are going anywhere near me with that" or words to that effect!  He seems ok in himself although now, thankfully, he doesn't venture far from the house.

We had a bit of a tidy up before getting ready to go off down to play pickleball.  This bit of video is for Nicky.  When she and Mark came and we had a mini Christmas John won a 'build your own robot spider' kit in the present game which was one of the gifts that Nicky supplied and she had asked whether or not John had completed it and I can confirm that he has!!!  It drives the cats mad and so we are having to pack it away otherwise I can see them breaking it and trying to devour one of the small plastic pieces.

I had another trip to the post office today - two parcels have arrived and this time I was sure one would be the vacuum cleaner that I have to refuse to accept so that it goes back to Amazon and I get reimbursed - the other was likely to be my new set of folding steps as John had stood on my old one and it had collapsed the other week!!!

Once again I explained to the girl with the lovely hair who does the parcels about my dilemma and once again she and I went into the room to look for the two parcels.  We were joined by a man who came to find the parcels which are stored in no particular order it would seem.  Anyway I spied both my parcels super quickly and the man jokingly asked the girl with the lovely hair if I could stay as clearly I was able to locate the items much quicker than either he or she had.  She asked me if I could return at 7.30am tomorrow!!!

Anyway the outcome was that the unwanted hoover had arrived and the girl with the lovely hair was going to send it back on the next available shipment and the other parcel was indeed my new and funky folding steps which come in two heights so I am now well sorted.  I cannot believe how much I have missed not being able to reach things, even on the lowest of the shelves.

We had a number of small items we wanted from Paphos Home Market like a new net for skimming the swimming pool which we got but also left having paid for some new garden furniture as they had some on offer which was very reasonable and is going to be delivered in the week.  The weather has taken its toll on our existing furniture but it was cheap and cheerful from Paps about 7 years ago!

Before going to pick up Mum we did a bit of research.  Just along the Emba by-pass next to where Dad used to get his hair cut a new coffee shop has opened.  Until recently Mum used to like to go to Choccos which is opposite Paps and would meet friends there or even go on her own as she felt comfortable there but now unfortunately Choccos has gone.  She has yet to find a replacement venue and so we though we would just go and see what this was like because it is quite near.  We met the owner called Lara and had a lovely chat and a great cup of coffee.  There is to be a new menu but there is quite a lot on offer like paninis and pizzas or just a piece of cake or a croissant.  Lara told us that the inside area is most definitely non-smoking as she wanted to create a nice comfortable place for people to come.  As we were leaving we bumped into Stelios the Barber who hugged and kissed me and offered his belated condolences about Dad.  Stelios used to be Mum and Dad's neighbour - he was about 5 years old at the time so he had known Dad a very long time.  Anyway we intend to take Mum next week for a cuppa so she can try the place for herself.

So we had a good session of pickleball even though there were only four of us - Liselotte and John have gone to the UK for a family wedding - we hope they make it because it seems that most of the UK is covered in a blanket of snow.