Stormy

 I had such a lovely day yesterday - just doing simple things, sometimes those days are just the best.  

As I had not seen Mum yesterday I had arranged to go today and have a spot of lunch with her.

On many occasions when we have traveled down to Paphos or back from Paphos via Stroumbi we have encountered an old Morris Van like the one in the picture (it is not the exact one but very similar).  Today as I got to the traffic lights at the top of the Mesoghi the van was in front - the van sports new number plates which declare that it was registered in 1966 - 1966! bloody hell it is nearly as old as I am!!!   I had hoped to take a photograph of it but we didn't stop at the lights and at the other side there is now a contraflow at the top before you get to Sklavanitis so you drive on the right hand side and cross over just before the supermarket carpark.  The van went into the carpark, as did I because I wanted to go to the bank but obviously knew a short cut through because it disappeared.  I managed to get to the bank - in the next week or so that is going to prove rather more difficult as they start working on that side of the road.  The cheery girl on the counter was cheery and helpful - we are expecting some money coming over from the UK to enable us to live for the next couple of years and it is in Cyprus but requiring paperwork to clarify its source.  She organised for it to be released as soon as I sent an email with proof of where and how it had originated.  (She was true to her word - we have received it.)

From the bank I had a right old voyage of discovery to find the shop where we bought our toilets as we had ordered a replacement toilet seat for one.  The road system in Paphos is a mystery to me at the best of times but with so many diversions and closures it is even worse then ever.  Miraculously I managed to get to G&C Marmaras without any problem and even better they have improved the road outside and provided proper parking.  Our seat was waiting for us (thanks Mum that is where my birthday money got spent!).  Driving back to Mum''s from here was also a nightmare as the traffic lights at Kennedy Square weren't working properly or weren't working in sync with the ones further down the road so I was sat in a queue for ages.

I had a nice time at Mum's.  She and I sat and finished the jigsaw she had purchased in Jumbos last week - to be fair it was a bit tricky and the pieces were smaller than she normally manages but between us we did it and we had a companionable lunch of cheesy beans on toast together.  She was concerned about the fact that her cleaner Kim is going back to the UK for a month and may actually return permanently so I arranged for the lady who is coming to clean George and Pam's to cover temporarily or maybe even permanently if Kim does leave.  That was a relief for Mum.

On the way back home I stopped at the Grand to pick up some bits and pieces - one of the resident cats had positioned itself propped up against the window in a warm spot and was absolutely sound asleep - not moving when anyone went back and forth in front of it!  I thought it could teach me a thing or two about sleeping like that - I am supposed to with this hernia thing but I really struggle not to be lying flat - actually the trick will be to prop up the end of the bed so that I am flat but tipped up rather than sleeping at an angle.

The weather was cold and blustery - this picture doesn't capture how wild the waves were but as I drove along Banana Bay my windscreen got covered.  Above is a photograph of Sea You Beach Bar - it is hard to believe that people will soon be swimming, sunbathing and enjoying a drink here - it really is bitter for March - much more like we expect February to be.  This coupled with the crazy fuel prices and our loss of the winter fuel allowance is making it a very expensive time trying to keep warm.

We had the remainder of John's lovely meal for our supper this evening.  We were lucky enough to have had our food before an unexpected power cut.  In fact the weather this evening was infinitely worse than forecast.  We had flurries of snow and some massive claps of thunder with accompanying lightning (hence the power outage I think) and then gale force winds.

We were cosy enough at home with the fire lit and candles to provide an ambience and light and actually a little warmth.  Initially the outage was estimated to be about 2 hours but AIK got it sorted within an hour which was pretty impressive because the recorded message indicated that it was a pretty widespread issue.

We watched the end of Season 2 of The Bay and I availed myself of a little snifter of my pomegranate liquer - purely for medicinal purposes obviously!  It was very nice - quite sweet so I would only one at the end of an evening.

We retired to a night interrupted by thunder, lightning, high winds and power cuts.  Welcome to Sunny Cyprus the island with 340 days of sunshine????  No Shit Sherlock.