Catching up with Sheila and Klaus

We were having a quiet day today.  I had to be around in the morning because Claire was coming to clean George and Pam's house in readiness for Louise and Malcolm who arrive tomorrow.  To be fair the house is looking pretty good because Bassam did have a cleaner in after he had done the repair work to the interior walls and Richard had been in last night to finish cleaning the windows as the ones at the front had been left to be done once Bassam had finished.  It is nice to see that place looking neater and tidier - from the front if nothing else.  The house between us and George remains listed as 'under offer'.  I know when we met the prospective buyers they had 40 days to complete - that was a month ago so they still have a little time yet.

Our pool has remained at a pretty constant 24 degrees which isn't bad bearing in mind that it is now partially in the shade all the time and fully in the shade early to mid afternoon.  We had given our brown box which houses beach 'stuff' a bit of a clear out and John wanted to test the two telly-tubby type snorkels to see if they were still good.  Sadly some of the seal had perished and they were looking rather unclean so we made the decision to ditch them.  It is a shame as they have been great but are not so great if they are letting in water!

This afternoon we were shopping as the cupboards were worse than bare.  We stopped the check the post - nothing for us but there is now a bright yellow Post Office cube outside - not sure what that is for but maybe rather than chucking the incoming post onto the verandah where it can be open to all weathers and potential theft it is to be stored in there - who knows but the mystery will be solved next time we get to see Philippos for sure.

We had decided to call in on Klaus and Sheila before shopping as Sheila is recovering from an operation on her spine and sadly they said goodbye to dog Benji a few days ago.  We know that they will miss him terribly but their one consolation is that the feral cat that adopted them 'Emma" had a litter of kittens before she was spayed and so they have three lovely bundles of fluff to keep them occupied.  Emma put in an appearance but the bundles of fluff did not so we didn't get chance of a cuddle.  Once they are a little bigger they are going for the chop too - there is one boy, the one on the left and two girls and that is a recipe for disaster in terms of numbers if not dealt with.  Sheila looked remarkably well - very upright and nimble on her pins even though she is in the early stages of recovery and Klaus looked well too.  I was able to quiz him about my cardiologist as he goes to the same man.  I am due my stress test tomorrow.

We spent a lovely hour or so with Klaus and Sheila before going to do our shopping.  We didn't have much to get but the bill was much larger than we expected which is a sign that everything is going up as we anticipated because fuel prices are rocketing.  Nothing we can do about it except make sure we don't waste food.  Tonight we were eating some lamb chops out of the freezer which I had bought from Shuks to have as part of a BBQ with our visitors but it never happened.  Have to say they were delicious - as was the mashed potato made by John's fair hands.  Early night for us so I can be fresh for my exertions tomorrow - prior to that I am calling in on Mum.