Thunder and Lightning very very frightening...

So late last night we were entertained by what was possibly the most spectacular thunder storm we have ever witnessed in Cyprus.  The lightning was so intense that it was like someone had turned on a massive spotlight to light up the world.  I had glibly said to Andy on the way home that we would probably lose our electricity and true to form we did - and we lost it for nearly 13 hours which is not ideal when you have people staying over because you realise that everything, and I mean everything is dependent on power.  We did manage to rustle up a cuppa by digging out our little gas burner and the whistling kettle but that was it!!!  Poor Andy and Nikki had to go off to explore Polis without having been able to have a shower - a wash was probably quite difficult too as we have an electrical pump to pump our water.  Periodically during the course of the morning the electric would 'blip' and we would become very excited that we were going to enter back into the real world but NO NO NO it lured us into a false sense of security and we were back to the dark ages literally!!!  Suffice to say we are going to be severely downgraded by our guests for our overnight accommodation!!!  Andy and Nikki moved on and John and I sat it out until we eventually got power restored.

The minute everything came back up and running it was ping ping ping on the phones with messages that had been sitting waiting to be delivered one of which came from someone called Sharon who is currently on holiday in Droushia wanting to know about whether there would be somewhere to eat in the village this evening.  She had found my details from following my blog - would you believe it and how gratifying is it that someone actually reads my blog - there are times when I think I will knock it on the head but knowing that it does have an audience other than my mum, mother in law, Stan and Jacky makes it worthwhile and, not only does Sharon read my blog but her friend Fiona reads my blog and asked how my foot injury was progressing!!!   Woooo Hooo I have followers - so thank you Sharon and Fiona for reading - maybe we can meet one day!!

We took the opportunity to get out and do some shopping as we have Nicky and Mark staying tomorrow and Saturday and we needed some last minute bits and pieces for our meals.

I was somewhat tickled by the Sainsbury's item I saw on show at the checkout - cook and grind - is that like bump and grind I ask myself!!!  It was for sea salt and there was a similar one for the rock salt - perhaps that one was bump and grind!!!

Paps was fairly empty and it was a joy to do our shopping and at the meat counter, surprisingly, Valentin was twiddling his thumbs so I was able to have a decent conversation with him about getting the meat for our Boxing Day pasties.  We would normally use Skirt but over here nobody seems to know what that cut of meat is.  I should have taken a photograph of the meat cuts on a cow because it is also known as Plate apparently and is located on the underside of the animal centre front whereas flank (which is what we ended up with) is located on the underside by centre right.  We have used flank before and hopefully it will be ok.

As we drove our way back home we noticed that Polis is getting ready for the bank holiday on Monday which is an important one to the community but not a religious one.  It is Oxi Day or Ohi Day - Anniversary of the No which is celebrated throughout Greece, Cyprus and Greek communities around the world on 28th October each day and which commemorates the rejection by the Greek Prime Minister to the ultimatum made by Mussolini.

After a bit of a trying day when we couldn't do what we wanted to do we thought the best remedy was to treat ourselves to an icecream on the way home before the Gelataria closes for the season.

Oh my god there is a god - if you get my drift!!!!  Last time we had an icecream the Gelataria had a new flavour - or new to us - Banana and John had one and declared it to be his new best favourite and after a little sample I can see why.

Two single scoop cones were the order of the day abso-bloody-lutely delicious and so filling that we then decided we were too full to need any tea!

It was a quiet evening thereafter - we were both tired from our late night and spectacular weather conditions and so we managed a little bit of TV before throwing in the towel and retiring to bed with our tablets to catch up on the news and the farce that is the British Government - what on earth is going on there?  Seems to me that parliament is broke and there ain't nothing gonna fix it!