Wet wet wet

February has apparently been the wettest on the island since just after the 1900s and today, after a sunny day yesterday, we were back to grey and rolling mists.  I don't mind but, come on, enough is enough - Jane and John arrive tomorrow and currently they are enjoying lunches outside in their garden in Keinton Mandeville in February for crying out loud!!!

We were heading off down to Polis today so that John could get a haircut, we could get some money to live on and I could get some shopping as we have Di, Rob and Judi coming for a meal tomorrow and we are currently at home to Old Mother Hubbard - fridge or freezer surprise may be good enough for us but not for our guests although having said that I took a box of something out of the freezer to make room and that is what we ended up having for our supper.  It was a chicken pot mess with butter beans and carrots, potatoes and leeks and I threw in a bag of yum-yum noodles for good measure and John declared it to be bloomin' lovely.

We made our way carefully down the hill to Polis.  There is so much water coming off the fields that the 'Egyptian's Road' is awash and it can be quite tricky to stop at the bottom without sliding or worse make your way up against the tide - we are tending to avoid that route at the moment.  Apparently we have subsequently learned that where the road collapsed on the bend on the way to Polis, and which was closed for months and months so that all the traffic had to come via Droushia, collapsed again later today which is going to be fun particularly as Droushia is currently being cobbled so at some point the main road through will be closed.

In Polis it was clear that they had also experienced the heavy rains and thunderstorms that were doing the rounds this morning although by the time we got down there the sky was clearing and the sun was beginning to break through.  We managed to get rid of our recycling without having to swim for it and John went to the bank then on to get his hair cut whilst I navigated the lakes in Paps carpark and started on the shopping - only a few bits on my list and then there were so many offers we wanted that it was over a hundred euros which wasn't quite what I was expecting!!!

We were short at pickleball today so having failed to find a fourth person I decided I would go because John had a little job he wanted to do at Mum's so it was a good opportunity to go down.  As you can see the weather towards Paphos was much much better than what we were experiencing although the sea along this stretch was pretty wild.

I played pickleball with Mum, Jeff and Tom and actually had a pretty good session - I haven't played with Jeff for some time - he is a good player and we have a bit of a challenge going on to try and get the better of one another.

John was trying to complete the partially finished wiring job that had been started earlier so that mum could get a more stable internet connection in the sun room.    He managed to get most of it done and had been and purchased a special 'kit' which enabled him to test his work but the shop didn't tell him that it needed a specialist battery so he couldn't do the final testing.  Not to worry as Mum is currently ok with the internet and her TV in that room.

As I said yesterday Jane and John had sent mum some flowers yesterday.  In amongst the bouquet were some absolutely beautiful roses and although I tried to capture one with my phone it has failed to pick up the delicate colour - the rose was more peachy than this and had a green tinge around the edge of the petals giving it a wonderfully 'washed-out' Victorian look to it.

On our way home we quickly called into a new shop which we had seen advertised on the Mesoghi Avenue which is an Outlet Store for Steptoes and which seems to sell ends of lines and items which they have had on show in their other massive showroom.

We didn't buy anything although we were sorely tempted by a rather nice grey two seater and three seater settee combo which would have gone rather nicely in with our new colour scheme.  The sofas we have currently are in a sort of burgundy raspberry claret colour and were built to last so it took three men to lift in the three seater which is also a metal action sofa bed.

I have decided to get in one of the firms that advertise cleaning upholstery to give our sofas a bit of a spring clean and one got back to me with a price of 70 euros for the two which seemed a bit of a no brainer - only trouble is that they need 2 to 3 hours of good ventilation to dry completely and with temperatures in single figures at the moment I don't think 2 or 3 weeks would be long enough!!!

Back home I started to get organised for tomorrow's meal because we have a trip to the airport to pick up Jane and John in the middle of the day so I want to make sure everything is in place before we do that.

John shot off to the winery to stock up the wine rack and returned home with a bottle of their Rose wine which is called Einalia and which has had a revamp with a new bottle and label and taste - it is marginally less alcoholic than it used to be and not as dry, still dry but fruity dry and less acidic.

It went a real treat with the chicken pot mess freezer surprise and may well be my new tipple in the Summer as it didn't give me heartburn.

We were more or less on track by the time we settled down to a couple of episodes of New Home in the Sun where we could sit back and follow the misfortunes of fellow Brits who had made their lives abroad but these were in Spain and France.