Things go pear shaped...

Today did not pan out as expected - we had a busy week ahead of us and we wanted to give Isabel's place a bit of a clean and tidy before heading off to Paphos to do some bits and pieces.  We were up early and shot off to Isabel's but our plans were thwarted when we could not get water with any sort of pressure in the house although outside it was ok.  This meant that no cleaning could really be done although we did manage to mop the floors so it didn't look quite so bad.  The house really needs some TLC and has needed regular maintenance but not having received it, it is beginning to look in a very sorry state.  With Isabel's health in mind I felt I needed to warn her that (a) the house was not going to be as clean as I had hoped because of the water situation and (b) it was now looking very sad and tired.  It is not her house she only rents but even so it is her home.

Bassam and his worker were here today putting in a stint on the front of George and Pam's house.  Poor Bassam had a problem with his truck which meant John kept having to go with his starting gizmo to get the engine turning over - Bassam says battery, John says starter motor!!!   Anyway progress looks good so far and I keep reminding Bassam that the job needs to be clean and tidy - I think he thinks I nag and he would be right.

We had a whole load of things we wanted to do in Paphos today so that we would have more time when we went down to see Mum tomorrow (they still observe half day closing on Wednesdays in a lot of the shops).  Our progress around was proper hampered by the fact that they have started to build what I think the girl in the bank says is a dual carriage way on the lower part of the Mesoghi Avenue which means if you are going down past Sklavenitis you cannot make a right turn for ages.  This is apparently going to take a year - if we needed an excuse to avoid Paphos (which we don't) then this would surely be it.  On the plus side, and I cannot tell you how ridiculously happy I am, John got the extra shelf I need for the corner glory hole cupboard in the kitchen where dishes are stacked in a wibbly wobbly mountain and I cannot find anything so just end up throwing things in there.  Andreas who built the kitchen cut one for us and didn't charge which was amazing.  It was a bugger to fit but John fitted it even though he was about to pass out from the heat in the cupboard.

We were just settling down after a rather nice takeaway from Paps on the Mesoghi when all hell broke loose but that is another story...