No Power for Hours

 

I normally blog about what happened yesterday but the weather gods have conspired against me.  We have just endured the most recent coptic storm - El Fedra - a two day gale which was a storm of biblical proportions.  We have been without electricity for the best part of 20 hours so I could not blog yesterday and thought I might not today so if my memory serves me right I went out on Friday to run a few errands.  Firstly as Mum will be allowed to come up and see us this coming week (and vice versa) we have planned for her to come on Wednesday and she will visit Dad at the same time.  I wanted to make sure that Dad's grave was ok after the heavy winds and rains and it was perfect.  I had planned to remove the Christmas decoration and the vase of artificial poinsettia but it looked bright and jolly and that is good.  As I drove up to the cemetery I wondered whether there were any new graves as I thought I had heard the bells earlier in the week.  Everything looked the same but we subsequently learned that our neighbour, John the Builder, who bought the house that Wendy and Bill were interested in and who did the refurbishment work to Sonia's house, had very sadly and unexpectedly died.  He leaves his partner Andrea and a young son and I think it is fair to say we are all in shock and deeply saddened by this news.

While I was out John did some modifications to the 'Eagles Nest' where Miss Minnie likes to sit and take stock of her surroundings and take her meals.  John is worried that sometimes she gets a bit battered by the prevailing winds and weather so he wanted to provide her with a bit more protection and wanted to use some odd bits of wood he had knocking around.  He asked me what I thought and I said it looked like he had used up some odd bits of wood he had knocking around because for someone that can be so anal this was a little more 'rustic' than I would have expected.

When Miss Minnie came to inspect I have the distinct impression that she was of the same opinion as me - that it looked like John had used up some odd bits of wood he had knocking around as she gave it a stiff ignoring and preferred to take her meals on the lower terrace i.e. in the windowsill!!!  Time will tell but I am guessing she will mooch on up there shortly.

I also put in a chit to go and meet the lady from Cyprus Scentual Aromas as I had arranged to buy some Sizzlers - which are an alternative to the wax melts I normally use to provide some fragrance in rooms around the house.  I normally get the melts in Cycleband but haven't been down for ages and the last time they didn't have any anyway.  The Sizzlers are a bit like infused salts and you put them in the burner dry and as they are heated by the candle in underneath they release their aroma.

So I chose two burners and four different smells - each one a 'Jo Malone-alike' including my favourite Lime, Basil and Mandarin and I have to say I wasn't disappointed as that lovely familiar smell started permeating through the house.   You add a couple of teaspoons of the crystals to the burner and apparently when they turn white they are spent but when I used them in the little shower room even though they had gone white they still seemed to retain some smell for hours afterwards.

So thank you Jen for meeting me in Kathikas and doing our transaction in the carpark like it was some dodgy drug deal!!!!  and I really hope that all the Brexit changes wont affect your business because you really deserve to do well.

So that was my excitement for the day.  John got the job of getting our Friday night date night takeaway - this week from Fitos and bless Joanna as she agreed to do two beef pies for us as we promised to return the dishes the next day.  Initially she said she would prepare them and I could cook them at home because they take so long it isn't really viable for her to do them as a takeaway but when John went to get them they were cooked because she had done a moussaka at the same time!  

So a lovely Friday night with good food, a glass or two of vino and the start of a new series called Finding Alice - the lull before the storm as it happens.