Happy Birthday Jan

We are taking things quietly for the next couple of days just to recharge our batteries.  

I was up first this morning and got in the coffees.  John charges his phone by the kettle and has a screen saver running which obviously attracted a moth during the night - just occasionally the moth was perfectly positioned with whatever was on the screen!

We wanted to go down to Polis and get in a bit of shopping as Mum and Lilian are coming for Sunday lunch.  Fortunately Lilian is now feeling a bit better but has still to have tests and scans to try and work out what has been going on.

I also had some cleaning and gardening penciled in for today but we are having a late heatwave and so the temperatures have shot back up.  Just when we were planning on packing away the fan in the bedroom.  In places the mercury is set to top 40 degrees on Saturday which is the first day of October.  We need to have a good autumn - it will make winter easier to cope with and as yet we have not received the Mountain Region Fuel Allowance and even when we do good wood for burning is scarce and where there is some it is expensive.  Still we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  We have had our electricity bill come through and that was 20 euros for the last two months so we cannot complain about that.

We have learned that two of our neighbours celebrate birthdays this weekend.  Janet (immediately next door) is today and Pete (across the road from Janet) celebrates his on Sunday.  Richard (round the corner at 5a) celebrated last weekend but he was away but was coming this evening for a few quiet drinks and a catch up.  This meant I had cards to buy or make.  

I am a bit rubbish at men's cards so when we were out shopping I got some in Paps as we were reminded by Google that it is Jeff's 80th next week.  Jeff was my mentor and partner in crime when it came to making an official complaint to the European Commission about not receiving the heating allowance I mentioned above.  He has been pretty poorly for quite a while - put down as being 'long covid' as they cannot work out quite what is happening with him.

I decided that I would make Jan's card and a gift for her which was also to act as a 'welcome to your new home' present - more of that later.

Anyway we went and did our shopping and by the time we got home it was just too hot to do anything outside save for cutting back any straggly growth on the underside of the living gazebo because I was in the shade.  In a couple of weeks we shall give the whole garden a massive haircut.

I got the printer out to print the card which I had previously prepared for Richard - Charlie took the opportunity to take up residence in the cupboard and he eventually fell asleep in there so I left him to it.  We are currently looking after Nicky and Mark's three cats.  We were a bit concerned today because we hadn't seen any of them - seeing Charlie snooze in the cupboard reminded me so I went across and managed to find Tabitha.  John went later and saw Roxy and Richard confirmed he had seen Noodles during the afternoon so that was all three accounted for.

So I had decided to do a three dimensional picture for Jan.  I wanted to incorporate an 'evil eye'.  Traditionally many Cypriots believed in the 'evil eye' - this is the belief that one's misfortune can be caused by another's envy and so it is traditional for people to hang blue eye pendants in the house to ward the jealous eye off.

Jan had also mentioned that her decorating plan had been inspired by a peacock so I thought I would paint a peacock feather and use a Cypriot Blue Eye in the centre.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if she would like it but I made it and framed it in a black frame because her kitchen is black.  I am happy to say that she loved it and I am pleased about that.

Richard mooched around early evening and it was so lovely we were able to sit outside and have a chat and a couple of drinks.  I was so knackered that I threw the towel in early and left the boys to it.