A trip down to Paphos

Today being Wednesday I was off down to Emba to see Mum and take her shopping.  En route I had to call into the posh new Vets in Kissonerga.  They used to be in a small building opposite Paps in Chlorakas and have now moved to this massive state of the art place.  I managed to pull in and park at the entrance (legally and not like a typical Cypriot) and went in to get the cat food that Mum had ordered for Freddo.  What a place, spacious, modern and super clean.  In there I bumped into John from Arodes, literally as he had walked in behind me and recognising it was me decided to stand as close to me as humanly possible in order to provoke a reaction.  I thought it was some weirdo until I had a proper look!!!

It is midway through November and as I passed through Peyia they were putting up their Christmas Decorations and when I went into a couple of shops they already had their trees up - this in a country where Easter is the big celebration!!!

I took Mum to Lidl where I had to meet someone who had made a Christmas present for me and then we went to the Euro Shop (theirs is the tree in the picture) and then we went to Sklavanitis and from there I was going to the bank to get some money.

Mum wanted me to check out if it would be possible for her to get near the bank and get cash when she wanted it as her branch has recently been closed and with the current road works all around Paphos her new branch is quite difficult to get to.  The only other branch down from Sklavanitis is also in the middle of road works so I said I would go and investigate for her.  

Let's just say that access to this branch would not pass any health and safety regulations in any other country.  In order to get into the bank or to the cash point they have kindly placed some blocks on top of one another.  They are too high and not attached to anything so a death trap.  I have advised Mum to try and get to the other branch for the time being or ask me!!!

The photo on the right will show you what I mean - can you imagine my little Mum trying to negotiate this!!!!!

So all shopping completed for Mum we made our way back to Emba where we sat down and had a cup of tea together before I made my way back home via Shuks the butcher and the Smart Shop.

I had left with a massive list but not managed to get more than about half on it.  Lots of things seem to have disappeared from the shelves or are now so expensive I don't bother.   What I did realise, just as I was getting home, was that I had totally forgotten to get cat biscuits so will have to remember to get some soon!

On my return we decided to have a reasonably early meal (neither of us had had any lunch) and then watch a film.  The weather is most definitely on the change - it started to cloud over and rain was forecast for early evening which is exactly what we got and loads of it!

We watched The Outfit - a film which had been recommended by Sonia and starring Mark Rylance who is an actor we really like.  It was a good little film so thanks Sonia.

It is getting cooler in the evenings, even more so tonight with the rain so I got one of my throws out - Charlie was more than happy and got himself all wrapped up before he decided he had had enough and mooched off round to see Jan and Derek, it tickles them that he will actually go and knock on the door to be let in.  At least we knew where he was when it started to really bucket down with rain.