Snakes and Ladders

My post last night was delayed  because we had a bit of excitement last night which meant it went forgotten - but more of that later...

We haven't been out for a meal with Lakis and Argy so we had decided this morning to go and treat ourselves to a late breakfast at Peggy's.  We had our favourite table which, when it is not hot and humid, would afford a view of the coastline.  It was muggy this morning which was made more intense by being under a gazebo.  I was leaking.  Anyway, despite the digger just down below us which dug the whole time we were sat there and then finished the minute we had paid the bill!, we had a really nice breakfast.  There is good choice and the food is cooked nicely and it gave us a leisurely start to the day.  We were discussing photo-voltaic systems at this point and showing Lakis and Argy our monitoring system.  They are hopeful of getting their system installed soon.  With the price of electricity only going one way it is a bit of a no brainer really.

On our return we went down to Polis to do a bit of shopping and to pick up the replacement new dehumidifier from the electric shop after we had taken it back for a second time after it had been repaired.  The girl in the shop thinks it may have been knocked or dropped on its way back to us and kindly insisted we got a new one as we had waited sometime for the repair.

We didn't need much by way of shopping which was just as well as it was super hot and sticky down in Polis.

When we returned home we found that we had some undesirable interlopers in the kitchen.  A colony of ants were robbing Boris of his biscuits and Boris was sat looking on in disbelief as one by one his favourite treats were being lifted from his bowl!!!  We had to take everything up and clean it out and wash it and hope the little buggers wont come back again but this is a bit like fighting a losing battle at this time of year.

The work in George and Pam's shower room was completed today - I wont post photos because this is for them to see first but it is a massive improvement.  Light, bright and modern - we think they will be pleased.  The only problem is that John wasn't with them when they did their final decision making with Martyn from Peyia Renovations so there were a couple of things that we need to talk with them about to make sure that this is the end result they were anticipating, John really worries about managing other people's expectations and it isn't always easy when work is being carried out in their absence.

It was our 'date night' tonight and we had decided not to go with our usual steak supper in favour of a curry for some reason as it was a very hot day but we had to delay eating it because of the little bit of excitement I mentioned above.  Sonia had discovered a small snake in her garden which had slithered into some netting and got itself firmly stuck.  She did not want to kill it but needed to try and save it from further discomfort or injury and set it free.

John contacted her to say he would go and help.  I don't know if you can make it out from the picture but it was a young black whip snake which was firmly trapped in the netting and was getting exhausted and its struggling had made matters worse so the net was beginning to cut off circulation.

Whip snakes are good snakes - they are not poisonous.  They keep down vermin in the neighbourhood.  Cypriots are inherently very afraid of snakes which is a shame because they often go out of their way to kill them when this is not necessary.  

Anyway anyone who knows us knows that we don't kill anything it we can help it - we would prefer to remove whatever it is snake/scorpion/spider etc to another location where they can go off and do whatever it is they want to do.  

Fortunately Sonia had a great pair of sharp scissors (her kitchen scissors) and with some care John eventually managed to snip it all away without causing further damage to the snake which shot off into the shade.  We put a bowl of water nearby as it would have been quite dehydrated from its struggle.  Hopefully it will recover.

I said to Sonia I had not anticipated sharing our date night with her and a small snake!!!

We returned home for our supper, hence forgetting to post my blog!!!!  The curry was an inspired choice, absolutely delicious!!