Today was a bit of a write off - we had a thunder storm this morning and just as John was about to jump in the shower the bloody electricity went.  When this happens we always check whether something has tripped in our house and then we check the main trip and then we text a couple of people firstly nearby and then down in the village to gauge the extent of the outage. Apparently today it was island wide.  Initially it was thought that the outage was caused by lightning but apparently the problem was isolated to a power line which runs from Vasiliko to Alambra and strong winds had caused the line to disengage from the power line insulator.    During the time we were without electricity there is next to nothing we can do as we are pretty much 100% dependent on it and even though we have Photovoltaic panels these feed into the grid and not into batteries so they stop functioning too.

Once we were back to normal we showered and got a shopping list together so that we could go down to Polis and get food in for the weekend when Nicky and Mark are coming to stay.  It is Easter in the UK - ours here in Cyprus is a week later.

We called into the Community Office to see Marianna so we could pay our water bill but she must have got fed up sitting alone in the dark without heat whilst the power was off - the building was open but her office was locked.  In the main foyer they now have a display of carved gourds hanging from the ceiling which look very effective.  Further in there is an Easter Tree.  Normally we have village celebrations centred around the amphitheatre but as they are digging up all the roads in the vicinity that isn't going to happen this year - I don't know if they will be moved elsewhere this year or not take place at all.  We didn't bother to wait to see if Marianna was going to reappear and went off down to Polis instead - taking a circuitous route through the village and saw her truck up by the school.

It was warm and sunny down in Polis after storms this morning.  The weather is so strange at the moment and the lovely man from the Petrolina petrol station near Paps said it could well rain up until August - I bloody well hope not!  It certainly isn't settled that is for sure - just hope it will be warmer when our visitors start to arrive - starting with my sister at the end of next week.

You have got to love our bank in Polis.  We have been with the Alpha bank for years and the staff don't change (save for the manager) so they all know you personally.  I needed some help with a form so collared Fitos who is the 'Relationships Manager' and asked for his help.  He, like me, doesn't like forms but he persevered with it and got it sorted for us which wasn't really his responsibility.  What a good man - I can't really see that happening in the UK if my last visit to the local branch of HSBC in Yeovil was anything to go by.

We have a busy weekend ahead and then it is non stop visitors - we heard tonight that Lakis, Argy and Kia will be arriving Monday week and as we have been looking after their car John will need to go down to the airport and pick them up.  We are so pleased they are coming and after Lakis was given a clean bill of health yesterday which was fabulous news.  Not sure how long they will stay - they didn't mention a return flight so maybe they are just going to see how things go.

We finished watching Baptiste and managed to catch last night's episode of Home is where the Art is and then we settled down to devour the chilli con carne that John and I had made together earlier and, amazingly, without killing one another.  It was delicious and we had enough left over for several more meals!