A day of sorting

We have Sunday home alone as this is the final day of the current restrictions.  We had planned a quiet day with a bit of sorting and a bit of tidying and a bit of gardening but when I woke this morning I certainly knew I had gone 15 rounds with a bloody cactus - my shoulders and neck ached like nobody's business and the first thing I did was to take some paracetemol and we did not rush to get up.

When we did show willing we started with a nice leisurely breakfast and decided to tackle the storage space John has created between the two bedrooms.  That houses things which we cannot bear to throw away but seldom need or use.  We found two electric blankets - not likely to need them now anyway but seeing as how we never progressed beyond the 4.5tog duvet and a throw in the height of the winter they may never see the light of day but you never know - when we first moved her I think I had one installed and working as early as November - mind you it was an exceptionally cold winter that year.  There are also some ancient board games which we were given by Mum and Dad's old friends Frank and Thelma.  I believe I am right in saying that Frank ran a coffee plantation in Kenya back in the old Colonial Days and the Mahjong set and the Scrabble set come from that time.   The Mahjong stands are all beautifully lacquered and painted - I do not think the tiles are ivory, in fact I am sure they are not but the Scrabble tiles are old and wooden, well thumbed and fading.  They have history - sadly lost now that Frank has passed away (Thelma died about 10 years ago) so we just don't want to give them away.  This space also houses all our old photograph albums and paperwork relating to John's Naval Career.  It was fatal getting them down because inevitably we sat and looked through them.  It made me feel very sad to see so many family who are no longer with us, couples no longer together, friends who have passed away, lost contact or who are simply no longer friends.  Those albums have been tucked away for the past ten years and so much has happened in the interim - not least Covid - who would have thought?

I appreciate that we are getting old and probably seem ancient to a younger generation when I realise how much we now sound like our parents.  Our record collection got transferred to what was then the absolutely state-of-the-art in music storage - and IPod Classic 160gb which stored music and video (including full length films and TV series and we would watch them on that tiny match-box sized screen on flights over to Cyprus!).  We had a number of 'docking stations' which charged the IPod and which provided speakers which were also portable (we are talking before bluetooth).  The systems worked perfectly and to be fair there is simply no reason to change whilst they are working save that they now begin to look very old fashioned indeed.  Yes we have moved on to things like Alexa and our wonderful Wonderboom speakers (for which we have to thank Lakis and Argy who wanted a better quality of entertainment if we were going to be keeping them awake from the roof terrace!!) but revert back to the old technology because it just worked!

In amongst the paperwork that was earmarked for shredding was stuff to do with John's resettlement courses which he took prior to leaving the Navy.  Amongst other things he did City and Guilds courses in Bricklaying, Plastering and Plumbing which have come in very handy I must say more so than the 4X4 driving course.  This all seems such a long time ago.  I remember him ringing me from the ship when he put in his notice - they were anchored off of the statue of Christ the Reedemer in Brazil.  That was a squeaky bum moment - once accepted he had to fight tooth and nail to be released in time to get home and get in the resettlement courses to which he was entitled.  He falls off the RN Radar now that his 10 years since retirement has passed - they can no longer call him up for the reserves - phew!

Late afternoon with all jobs we wanted to do, done we treated ourselves to a barbeque.  I made a salad and some Thai spiced potatoes and we ate two thirds of the barbeque pack we had got from Shukrou Meat Market.  For 10 Euros we got two each of homemade burgers, lamb koftas, sausages, chicken skewers, pork chops and lamb chops.  After some debate we decided not to have the chops.  The rest was absolutely first class - what a bargain!