A New Week

March is cold and uninspiring so far - it really needs to buck its ideas up because the current world situation means that fuel prices are going through the roof so heating and petrol prices are rocketing.  When we decorated the lounge we packed the woodburner away, not really intentionally but it seemed like a good idea at the time so we are reliant on the gas fire and the electric heaters.  Today we finally used up any excess electricity we had banked from the photovoltaic system so unless the remainder of March is a heatwave with wall to wall sunshine we will get a bill this time.

Our plans for the remainder of the week have changed because Wayne and Lisa cannot come on Friday.  Wayne is working out of Akrotiri and it would seem that it is just a tad busy there are the moment for obvious reasons.  We had to go and tell the Droushia Heights who were fine about it but sods law Friday night they had entertainment on.

Earlier in the morning we had received a phone call from Paps supermarket informing us that we had won something and were to collect it from the front reception desk when next in there.   Neither John nor I were aware we had entered any sort of competition but we think that actually our loyalty card number was drawn out at random.  Anyway we shot off down to investigate what we might have won and it was a selection of alcohol related goodies although no actual alcohol which was a bit of a shame!

We did our shopping and then returned home for a quiet day.  Now that we know that we don't have visitors on Friday we are going to start the next bit of the decorating starting with the small toilet.  This is probably just as well because we have discovered that the seat has a crack in it.  The shape of the seat isn't standard so if we cannot get a replacement from the supplier we might really struggle and we don't want to have to go to the expense of getting another toilet.  

I did some art this afternoon.  The new challenge is Orchids which is not something I have ever drawn or painted before but photographed a plenty - now is the best time to find wild orchids over here and they are beautiful.  In fact, there is a field across the road (where I lost my glasses) which is the ideal environment for bee orchids and once you have got your eye in they are quite easy to find.  I keep meaning to go over and have a look but to be honest we really haven't had very nice weather.

I like to get my art done early - even though the challenges are now extended to two weeks I find time running away with me if I am not careful.

I am not sure how much longer the challenge will continue - it was supposed to be something to alleviate the boredom of lockdown but there are still sufficient numbers of entries to make it worth while carrying on.

After doing my art I decided to tackle the mountain of ironing that we had lurking in the spare room.  If nothing else ironing keeps you warm and even though I don't really enjoy doing it, it is quite satisfying to see it all neat and tidy and the basket empty.

John took the opportunity to get a shirt ironed in readiness for Saturday when we are going out with Nicky and Mark to celebrate her birthday which is today and my birthday which is next week.  We are going to Finnikas in Polis and I am really looking forward to it because their food has always been excellent and a little more like 'fine dining' than most of the places we go.  With prices increasing we know that we need to be a bit careful about going out and choose the occasions and the locations carefully.   Tomorrow I have suggested that Mum and I go and have a spot of lunch together but we will be frequenting the KFC on the Tombs of the Kings Road which is hardly going to cost us an arm and a leg and is something which Mum will enjoy.

On the subject of food we hadn't really planned what we were going to be having this evening so we had a rummage in the freezer and found we had another pork tenderloin in there so John put in a request for the crispy pork stir-fry which I did the other week.

I have to say it was absolutely delicious and John was ecstatic that there was enough left over for him to have for his lunch tomorrow when I am running some errands and having lunch with Mum before we go off to the Mall for her to buy me something for my birthday.

We didn't do much this evening - we watched the end of the Responder which I found a bit depressing as a series and the ending looks like it is open for a second one which I am not sure I will be rushing to watch.  We are holding off on the final series of Peaky Blinders so that we can binge watch that all in one go!!!

I managed to sell the grey rug I bought to replace the grey fluffy one which used to be under the coffee table in the lounge.  It looked like it was charcoal grey online but when it arrived it was more silver grey.  It wasn't really what we wanted but we held on to it because it was going to be more trouble than it was worth to return it.  I hadn't put it on the market place more than about 2 minutes when I got someone contact me to buy it.  To be fair we had never unwrapped it so it is basically brand new.  I have to meet the buyer at the Droushia Heights tomorrow morning to do the deal!  It will make the new one I have ordered a bit cheaper which is good news.