Old Schoolfriends Reunite...

Today I was having a bit of a mini school reunion down in Paphos.  When I went to the 40th reunion last year I caught up with Linda Painter (Nee Thorogood) and she had holidayed in Peyia on a number of occasions in the past and she had said if she and her husband ever came back she would get in touch which she did.  She and John are staying in the Azia and so John and I were going down this afternoon to meet them for coffee (I had suggested sitting down by the sea at Baracas) and our mutual school friend Sheri was also coming as she was over this end of the island from her normal home in Paralimni.

As a result of this I was going to Art an hour earlier than normal so that I could finish early and get down to the Azia for 2.00pm.  I drove off to Sheila's via the cemetery and remembered to take my snips so that I could get rid of all the straggly growth and I also planted in a couple of other succulents so that there will be something growing in the trough over the winter months.  It's pretty hard to think about winter and bad weather at the moment as the weather is so glorious and today was no exception.  It looks to stay fair for a little while yet which is good because on Thursday we are meeting up with my cousin Michelle's friends who are coming over house hunting and want to pick our brains (which wont take long!!)

I had a lovely morning doing my art - but then I always do.  My picture is progressing well but it will be a few weeks yet before it is completed.

Our conversation this morning turned to the winter fuel allowance which is being given to permanent residents in mountain villages - by this they mean villages that are 600 meters and over above sea level.  I couldn't find the original information about the payment but remembered that there was one amount per household and then another amount for each person living there.  It was somewhat confusing then that Sheila and Klaus had received one amount, Di and Rob a different amount and John another yet another and John reported, having been to have coffee with Bassam this morning, that Bassam had had even more!  We thought that ours might have been an error so before we spent it I did some investigation.  

Well this could only happen in Cyprus - whereas most winter fuel payments are to ensure that the elderly are able to keep warm this was an incentive by the government to try and keep younger people and families living in mountainous areas so the amount per household was the same but if you were over 65 then you got less than if you were under 65 which explained the differences.  Not that we are complaining but it did seem rather unfair.  Still mystery solved.

We arrived down at the coast a little earlier than we had arranged so we parked up by the Azia and took a walk down to the coastal path and then hung a right and walked along so that we could come up through the grounds of the hotel and into the reception area where we had planned to meet.

The hotel and its grounds are lovely and we have been there briefly when Hazel was put up there when her flight to Bristol was severely delayed earlier this year.  Linda and John have certainly had fabulous weather for their stay which comes to the end later this week.  Apart from a brief chat with Linda at the reunion we haven't seen each other for 40 years and when we were at school she was a boarder and I was a day girl.

We all met up in the reception and mooched off down to Baracas to sit and take in the afternoon sunshine and watch the world go by and catch up once again.  I am sure John Painter was glad that my John had come along otherwise he would have been sell outnumbered and I am not sure some of our reminiscing would have been of much interest to him!

So here we are in height order and age order!!! I am the oldest, Linda comes next and Sheri is the baby!  It would be interesting to try and find pictures of us when we were at school - I don't think Linda and Sheri have changed much at all.

It was lovely to catch up and it was lovely sat down on the coast - it was so warm it was incredible.  Initially Linda and John were not going to hire car so we hadn't suggested them coming up our way but in the end they did and the other day they were in Latchi and would have called in if they had got our address - this is such a shame but they are planning coming back again so we can do this the next time.

We watched the sun go down and then said our goodbyes because there is very little twilight here in  Cyprus, shortly after sunset it just goes dark although having said that there was a massive full moon tonight!