Mr Blue Sky!!!

As that old song goes...

...What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours, brought the sun and the flowers, where there used to be rain!

So the end of the week brought a very different day than was forecast.  Last Sunday Accuweather showed two weeks of nigh on continuous rain so today was a very pleasant and unexpected one.  Even though it is very cold (by our standards) the sunshine and blue skies makes it feel warmer and it is most definitely warmer outside than in!

I was nipping down to Universal (Paphos) this morning for a quick and very welcome haircut.  We had got home in the early hours after our cards evening and got up quite late so I was eating my toast in the car when I set off at 10.45 for an 11.30 appointment!!!  In fact I got my hair cut, went to the Mall, collected the fan remote control John had ordered from Pentaras which is by Shuks on the edge of town, bot some oven cleaning kits in the Euro Shop and even called into The Grande before getting home at 1.15pm and that was without rushing or collecting a speeding ticket!

It was great to get my hair cut - now that it is shorter it does need doing more regularly.  I was thrilled to learn that Lumi is off back to Romania for a couple of weeks to see her family - it is long overdue but I was more thrilled that I had managed to get my appointment now rather than have to wait until her return.

I spent a jolly couple of hours this afternoon making some more Christmas Cards.  Now that I have sorted out some of the stuff I had in my craft cupboard it is easier to get to the things I want.

I have been trying out some new techniques.  These are done with ink and watercolour.  The interesting thing is that the ink remains somewhat fluid so you get some interesting results when you add the watercolour washes.

I did my painting out in the conservatory because it was lovely in there and John kept me company but was watching the TV and catching up on the current state of play with the fifth and final test match of the Ashes series down under.  It looks like England will have another uphill battle to secure a draw - same old story unfortunately.

I didn't have to worry too much about this evenings supper as it is Friday and date night so we have our usual fillet steak from Shuks which normally takes next to no cooking and I had some salad and little potatoes that needed using up so everything was in hand.

Earlier in the day we had taken Isabel's car down to Andreas because it needed a bit of a mini service, an oil and filter change for sure.  They had said that it should take a couple of hours and so before it got dark we decided to pop down and see if it was ready.

We had just navigated our way down the road by the Vals (which was opened up when they needed to detour traffic around the village when the cobbling was being done and which is now beginning to break up quite badly) and got to the bottom where we met a car coming from the Hotel which was waiting for us to emerge onto the main road.  As we turned left onto the main road we realised that the car that was waiting was being driven by Yiannis Michaelides whose parents live in the village - we think he lives in Limassol and in the past he came on a village clean with his two boys.  Anyway he was waving furiously at us and we thought we must have a puncture or something so John reversed slowly back and wound his window down - both cars were stopped Cypriot fashion on the main road for a conversation to ensue and then Yiannis shouted "One Minute!" and jumped out of the car opened the boot and produced a bottle of home-made wine (guess it was made by his Dad) and wished us a "Happy New Year".  He said it probably wasn't as nice as Agios Onoufrios but it was good.  How lovely, it put such a big smile on our faces - we don't really know him that well but that was so kind.

Unfortunately the car wasn't ready when we went down so we arranged to pick it up tomorrow.  The ride home was directly into the sun which made it a bit difficult but hopefully that means it will be nice again tomorrow - clear blue sky as you can see meant it was a right chilly old night.