My Aunt and Uncle arrive...

t5he 

When my Mum came up yesterday she brought some roses from her garden - they are absolutely stunning but have possibly the most vicious thorns I have ever come across.  It would appear that roses have relished the winter weather conditions but are about the only thing that have.  I had hastily put them in a vase when Mum and Kaye arrived but today I took them out, smashed the stems and fed them some sugar water in the hopes they will last a good amount of time.  I have also found them a spot where it is a little cooler.

Today we were going to Paphos to pick up my Aunty Joyce and Uncle David who, bless them, are both in their 80s but still feel able to make the journey.  Normally they come in October, in fact they have never been in May but I suggested it might be nice for them to come over for Mum's birthday and they decided that they would.  I know they don't like it too hot so we are hoping that the forecast is correct because it is supposed to be a little cooler at the weekend.

John and I will be hosting them next week (Tuesday to Friday) and the following week (Tuesday to Friday) so that they get a change of venue and by doing so it will mean that Mum doesn't have to radically change her routine.  It is lovely having visitors but we are not the ones on holiday so still have normal things we need and want to do.  I will be back down to the airport tomorrow as my sister is going home after her week.

We tried to time our arrival at the airport carefully so that we would not be hanging around for too long.  It is hard to try and calculate how long it will take visitors to appear once the flight has landed.  As we drove along the airport approach road an EasyJet flight went over the top of us and I managed to get a snap of it as it passed over.  We stopped outside BonaMare to tap into their internet and ascertained that this was the Gatwick flight that we were supposed to be meeting.

There were a couple of flights arriving around the same time and it was lunchtime for the Cypriots so the baggage handlers might well have been mid-siesta so we sort of calculated on a half hour or so before Joyce and David would emerge.  John dropped me off and then went to the quick pick up practising how to say "I am waiting for my ancient uncle who walks very slowly" although heaven knows whether this was, in fact, what he was saying and fortunately he didn't need to use it.  I think it was about half and hour or so before they emerged and their bags were some of the last out but they had arrived safe and sound.

We got back to Mum's for a cuppa - Kaye had taken advantage of the better weather today and gone off to the beach for some sunshine.  We needed to do a bit of shopping on our way home and I have been a little concerned about Charlie who just didn't seem himself this morning - he didn't come for breakfast which is a sure indication that there is something amiss.

With visitors coming who enjoy a spot of breakfast I thought it would be nice to get some preserves to go with our toast.  I am not sure I want to share the lemon and gin!!!  We had called in to Cycleband earlier and John found himself in seventh heaven as they had a few bottles of real ale in at a reasonable price so we decided to have a look in the sister shop Grande to see if they also had some and they did and quite a lot so John got a supply for the big footie weekend ahead (which he can thoroughly enjoy as SUFC have been promoted) and he got a selection for the Bobster because the Bobster always does the same when he comes across the Holy Grail that is real ale.