There is a man up a pole outside our house!

I was up early this morning because Mum was going to the Iasis Hospital to see if Dr Kritiotis might be able to sort out her hands because along with the ravages of arthritis she has trigger finger.  I had hoped to be able to combine this visit with a haircut which I desperately need.  Anyway Dr Kritiotis was only able to deal with one hand today so mum opted to have a steroid injection in her left hand and has an appointment for her right hand in two weeks' time.  We then had a voyage of discovery because Mum needed to swap out her PrimeTel Router which apparently failed last night.  Getting to PrimeTel at the moment is a logistical nightmare as so many of the major roads in Paphos are being dug up.  We did manage to find it rather more by luck than judgement and then I swapped out the router and we took a rather circuitous route back to Emba.  I swapped out the router but that did not solve the issue - it appeared that the line was down rather than the router faulty.  As a result of the tests the technical support people wanted me to do I had to cancel my hair appointment yet again.

I returned home and spent some time in the afternoon cutting back the Wysteria and  'doing a Bobster' in the front garden and by that I mean spending care and attention cleaning the shingle after I had got John to take the garden waste away.  It is worth doing - the shingle looks like new (for a while at least).  I am gradually working my way round the garden snipping and clipping so that it is ready for the winter.  The cooler damper evenings/nights and the bit of rain we have had recently have meant there is less requirement for watering although some things like the kiwi fruit require it all the time.

We could hear a strange noise when we were in the garden - a sort of whirring drilling noise but couldn't work out where it was coming from until we looked up to see a man up the telegraph pole at the end of our path.

John went out to investigate accompanied by Charlie who felt it was his place to give the man a stern look and a growl.  It transpired that we are having our street lights replaced so we will be going from Toc-H's to high-tech LED ones which will be great for lighting up the footpaths but not so great for letting us star watch as there will be more light pollution. 

It would appear that there is another department that takes the old ones away as these guys just left the old ones on the pavement - if no-one comes soon they will be going in the bin.

Sadly this afternoon/evening I started to break out in lumps and bumps again - not quite the red-rimmed hives of the other week but itchy lumps and bumps which appeared without me being conscious of having been bitten or anything.  The worst was on my bottom lip which was very painful and made me look a bit freaky.  They were confined to my hands, arms, face and scalp this time and started out quite small and then grew in size - anti-histamines required yet again and I am feeling pretty fed up about it.