We have been here 10 years!!!!

May 1st is a very significant date for us because we arrived on the island permanently on May 1st 2011 and so have now completed 10 years living here at Villa 10b.

We had nothing special planned - it is difficult with this full lockdown to do anything so it was really a normal Saturday with Nicky and I going for a walk - we left very early as the forecast was for it to be hot.  We were away by 7.45am and I had chosen a walk which was near Fasli so not far from home and not too hilly either.  It all started so well but within about half an hour we were both beginning to feel the heat.

Not only were we beginning to feel the heat but we soon realised that our ascent back to the car was one where we had absolutely no shade whatsoever and the sun was reflecting off of the road surface.  At one point we crouched on the road under the tiniest bit of shade and were passed by a guy in a truck who must have thought we were nutters.

We decided to cut our losses and take a shorter route back to the car - fortunately there was one which meant that we cut a couple of kilometers off the route but once the decision was made we attacked the final leg with a bit more enthusiasm.  The only problem was that the final bit was a 'path' where the start and the finish were great but the middle section had got lost in the annals of time and so we had to make our way off-piste through fields which was not so good.

That is Nicky in the distance at the start of the path - the good bit - it just went downhill from there - literally until we got to the ruins of the buildings in Fasli and from there the car was just about visible and we were very glad to be going home.  We had managed about 5km but were shattered, hot and exhausted.

Via Social Media John engaged Mark Pamment in a trip down memory lane as we remembered how he and Laura came with us to Hilary and Keith's (before Keith took us to the airport) and we stopped on the way at the Jekyll and Hyde for a meal where John and Mark enjoyed a meze platter.  Good times and great friends, we gave them our trusty old Peugeot estate (The Hearse) by way of a thank you.  We realise we have known Mark and Laura for over 15 years now!!!

We settled down to what we knew was going to be a noisy evening - the Saturday before Easter Sunday is a hugely important day to the Cypriots and the relaxation of the restrictions meant that people were going to make the most of their being allowed to go to Church and celebrate.  Normally a bonfire is lit at midnight when they pronounce that Christ is Risen (Christos Anesti) and the bonfire normally burns an effigy of Judas Iscariot the Traitor.  Nowadays these celebrations are accompanied by the bangs and whizzes of fire crackers which in themselves aren't too bad but the fireworks seem to start weeks earlier and carry on for weeks afterwards and the homemade devices and pipe bombs make it sound like down-town Beirut.

We settled for some TV and my take on Crispy Chili Beef which was rather on the hot side - actually on the limit of what I can stand - but very tasty.