Winter Fuel Allowance

Now that we have had official confirmation that we are indeed entitled to the Winter Fuel Allowance and back pay on any sums which we didn't get previously we wanted to strike whilst the iron was hot and went off to find Marianna this morning - she had our forms waiting for us!!!  

I checked with her what other paperwork was required and she thought that my IBAN banking details where not recent enough even though they haven't changed for a while but have changed since we last received the allowance.  I decided to shoot off down to Paphos to get a new print-out whilst John was having his regular catch up with the Bobster in the village.  We then planned to get the forms sorted and return them straight away.  Interestingly we haven't seen any invitation from the Council Offices for people to go and get their forms so John was going to tell Bobby today because the paperwork has to be in within a couple of weeks.  The form for 2022 is different to previous ones because there are now extra sections which needed a bit of translation to understand.

It is a bit of a challenge to get to our bank because they are digging up the Mesoghi Avenue and making it dual carriageway - they will soon be digging up directly outside the bank.  At the moment you have to take a circuitous route around Lidl to get to Sklavenitis car-park and then you are forced to go down through the roadworks to find a way back out.  I realised that just after Lidl where the diversion offers you a left turn there is a park and a 30 minute car park which would allow me to nip to the bank and then drive back in the reverse direction without going all round the houses.  This was good and what else was good was that the bank was quiet and the miserable man on the counter  was having a jolly day today and was very happy to provide me with not one but two copies of my official IBAN details.  He even wished me a nice day - perhaps it was his birthday!!!

I even managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the London Road Garden Centre to grab a bag of compost on my way home.  The garden centres here are currently a riot of colour and beginning to introduce some different plants - today they had wisteria and they also had two different hostas - I think I have both of them from the ones which Ellen brought out for me.  I remember that Aunty Joyce and Uncle David bought me a hosta from here on their last visit a few years' ago but I don't remember it costing 12 euros!!!!  

I got back to Droushia and called into the cemetery to check on Dad and the plants which needed a bit of a water and then met John and Bobby walking down from Finikas to meet me.  I offered the Bobster a lift but he was happy to walk back home so John and I went home and tackled the forms and then took them to Marianna to be checked.  She went through them and was happy with what we had done so gave us an official receipt which I think is our green light and now we have to wait to see the money go into our bank account.

The remainder of the day was a quiet one watching the Jubilee Celebrations on the BBC - John particularly wanted to see the fly past which featured 70 aircraft and a spectacular display in close formation of 15 Typhoons in the shape of the number 70.  

It was all pretty amazing and something to be proud of - sadly the same could not be said about the England Cricket batting collapse - New Zealand only scored 132 all out themselves and initially England were coasting it but ended the day 116 for 7.  There was nothing for it but to console ourselves with one of our favourite suppers - Shakshouka (baked eggs) with a green salad and a jacket potato!