Congratulations to our god-daughter Alicia

Today I am pleased to report that John managed to solve the problem with Lakis's water system without scalding himself or losing the water which was a result and it only cost a few euros and his time which was a bonus.  He also managed to get up onto George's flat roof and inspected it for George.  John said that it was in good condition and certainly didn't need anything do to it at this exact moment but would look again before the winter rains and if another coat of the silver stuff was required would do it himself.  We duly reported back to Louise and told her that her mum and dad, George and Pam were not to worry.  We hadn't been able to get into the bedrooms to inspect Stelios's paining handiwork but from what we could see through the windows he has painted the bottom third of the walls and so they are a nice two-tone!!

This is a photograph of our lovely, somewhat shy niece Alicia (taken when on holiday here a few years' ago).

She will not thank us for this but, amid all the furore of the 'A' Level marking debacle during Covid-19 she contacted us to say that she has managed to secure the grades required to go to University in Sheffield to read medicine. She doesn't really care whether they were the grades she might have achieved had she been given the chance to sit the exams they were enough to ensure that she will be following her dream this autumn.  We would have said that this was never in any doubt but looking at some of the mysterious grades that have been awarded she must have been worried.

We are very proud of her, and her older sister Abby, as they will now both be at University (different ones).  Clever girls in their respective choice of degree.

John obviously got the taste for heights having been up the ladder at both Lakis's house and George's so he decided he would clean our panels - good job he did it this morning because later in the day we had next to no water pressure which happens at this time of year when the village had so many more people around as it is holiday season.  In fact today August 15th is the celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and a massive holiday here for the Cypriots.  They usually spend a lot of time outside and cooking souvla but travel is rather more restricted as is lighting fires.  Polis campsite is apparently the only campsite on the island able to open.

I have Mum coming for lunch tomorrow so I decided to get ahead of the game and went to the outside table to make sure it was clean and tidy.  There were the tell-tale signs of a visitor overhead and this time he/she was easier to spot as, instead of being the usual green colour, this one was brown.

I removed the leaf that it was chomping on and made sure that I placed it so that it was no longer directly above the eating area otherwise someone tomorrow might have a little extra je ne sais quoi in their lunch!!!

I am not sure whether this is a different caterpillar to the green or whether this is one in the final stages of its journey to becoming a chrysalis.  Whatever the situation is, it is now safe and sound in the vine out of harms way.

This year I have been more diligent in removing these beauties so that the vine has been spared being stripped - normally by now it is looking way past its best but at the moment it is brilliant and that is because I have been vigilant about evicting the lean green/brown munching machines away.

It has been way way too hot to think about doing too much cooking and way way too hot to do any shopping (which I find a quite unpleasant experience in a mask).  As a result we are in Mother Hubbard territory at the moment and our supper was to be fridge surprise.

I had the remains of our chili from the other evening which was mainly rice and I had some bacon which needed eating and some mozzarella knocking about so I decided to take the massive red pepper I had in the fridge and stuff it and pimp up the sauce with some barbeque sauce that we had been given some time ago when we picked up some food from Mammas in Paphos.

John seemed less than impressed by the prospect of this as his evening meal but, as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and once sampled he declared this to be delicious and had seconds.  Apart from our meal tomorrow our fridge is now officially empty!!!