Now you see it, now you dont...

One day the other week when we returned home from shopping, or more likely from Emba having been there to meet with Costas to sort out the fly screen for Mum's sunroom door, the temperature in our conservatory was over 50 degrees because the doors and windows had been shut for a long period of time with the sun beating down through the glass roof.  Once it reaches those sorts of temperatures it is very had to get it to cool down to something more comfortable.  So we decided that we would invest in some window film that cuts out some of the heat and also provides privacy as it has a mirrored surface.  Should the house next door ever get sold that might be good because then, if someone is up in the top bedroom (which was built illegally but has now been given permission) they will not be able to look into the conservatory and that being the case we decided we would also have the windows of our bedroom done.

Ian, the window-film man, said he would arrive sometime between 8.30 and 9.00am which we thought would be more like 9.00am as he was coming up from Peyia but turned out to be almost dead on 8.30!!!  fortunately we were ready and John had moved the furniture and curtains out of the way.  Ian (known to us solely by his first name) has been on the island for about 15 years and been doing this all the time.  He came well prepared, did a very thorough job and was a nice guy.  He explained to us that depending on what the backdrop is behind the window will depend on how good the mirror quality of the film can be so in our bedroom all you can see is mirror unless we have all the lights on in which case it would be possible to see people inside if the shutters were open and as we have windows both sides of the conservatory there will be times and conditions when the mirroring is not as effective as it could be.  We knew all of this but to be honest if it can make the temperature in there more bearable than that will be great.

This is the conservatory finished and if you look very carefully you can just pick out someone stood inside but it does make the windows look bright and reflects the garden which is nice.  So well done Ian for a job well done - it took about 3 hours and we are very happy with it.  Now we just need to see whether or not it makes much difference with the sun.

Once Ian the Window-Film Man had packed up and gone I cleared up, mopped the floors and put the furniture back so that things ere back to normal.  We had plenty of time to get ready as we were meeting Di and Rob at Yialos in Latchi to have lunch as today was Di's 60th birthday.  As I have said before it has not been the best of years so far for Di and we just wanted her to have a lovely birthday and to take time out to spoil herself.  John and I had been to Lyssos last week to get a voucher so that Di and Rob could have an overnight stay with an evening meal and bottle of wine and breakfast the following day.

Yialos bar was looking fabulous, Nakis has obviously done a lot of work tidying up the outside space and now the tables at the end stand on a beautifully paved area.  It is all clean and tidy and such a far cry from the bar we first went to which was just a raised area by the sea with a couple of picnic benches!!

I took with me our gift and a gift from Mum and a card which I had to write on behalf of John's Mum, Jackie and Stan because the post has failed to deliver theirs.

We had a lovely lunch sat under the shade trees - I had my favourite there - Chicken Caesar Salad which was lovely.  Di looked happy and relaxed and we hope she and Rob have a lovely night away.