New things...

 

We spent this morning in the garden - our aim is to get the area where the ivy was growing looking neat and tidy.   John shot off down to the woodyard and he got some of the wood we need - so today I was on staining - John cut the uprights and I did the staining.  The panels are being delivered on Monday and they will go horizontally where the ivy used to be, in fact you can see where the ivy used to 'stick' to the wall.  We had toyed with the idea of putting stone along the wall but this is directly opposite the Do-Jo so we thought wood might look better.

Today was a big day pickleball-wise.  We had hoped to restart the club starting today but during the enforced corona-virus break a few members (including my Mum) had decided to call it a day and Liz was returning to live in Scotland and Trevor returning to the UK.

This left us with a huge problem as to how we were going to fill the gaps and so we had organised an open afternoon and advertised it and had a few positive responses.  We wanted to get people in to try the game because just about everyone that tries it likes it.

I set off early as I had a few errands I wanted to run before going to the court and then afterwards I was going to catch up with Mum.

Today was a bank holiday for Greek Independence Day which meant that several shops and businesses were taking the day off fortunately not Cycleband where I needed to go and get some cat food and not The Mall where I nipped in quickly in order to get a frame for the painting we have of Chivers. 

It was a very warm day and so I was horrified to see that there were Christmas items already on sale although only in Zara Home where I think they were trying to shift old stock but really it is only 1st October!!!

Equally weird was the giant plastic dog outside one of the shops - I have absolutely no idea what he was promoting!!

I am not overly keen on venturing into Paphos shops but today, being the Bank Holiday, it was very quiet and so I parked up, walked through and headed straight for Jumbos.

I have got more used to wearing a mask whilst shopping but it is amazing just how many people have one hanging around their face but not actually positioned in a way to provide them or others with any protection.

I got the frame that I wanted - Nicky has been looking out for me but they have been out of stock recently and so we will be able to put up our beautiful painting of our equally beautiful boy Chivers.  I miss him so much - he was such a gentle and lovely boy and no trouble, unlike Charlie, Minnie and Boris who are all challenging in their own right.  Currently Boris is nursing a poorly paw.  We aren't entirely sure what has happened but he appears to have damaged the pad on his front right paw and has been limping and crying.  We have cleaned it and put some iodine on it and given him the remaining anti-biotics we had left over from the last time something like this happened and he seems to be ok-ish but we cannot take him to the vets as they are currently closed for this holiday.

I had been pretty apprehensive as to whether our proposed open day was going to be a success.  There are all sorts of things we have to do in order to comply with the covid restrictions imposed on indoor sports and we have done our best to make sure we have got everything in order.   

Although we had interest from six people initially only two turned up but they were both very good players and we hope that we made them welcome enough to want to join us.  It was quite hard work getting back into playing after nearly 7 months away but I actually really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, all hot and sweaty, I called in to see Mum.  She is suffering terribly with her new teeth - something is definitely amiss as they have rubbed her gums raw and so she is going to go back to the dentist tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to sort it for her.

She was very down today as everything seems to be a drama when it really should be more straightforward.  Her windscreen wipers on the car have given up the ghost and it would appear that her car key fob needs the battery changing.  In themselves not major but when lumped together it can all get a bit overwhelming for her.