A Stormy Day

Yesterday I completed crocheting the runner which is going on our bed.  Mr Boo is very appreciative because he loves a knitted blinkie.  My crocheting is basic and my technique laughable but it keeps my legs warm whilst I am doing it and that has been very much required today and will be required for most of next week which will be the coldest week of the winter and hopefully a one off.  As I say this is not unusual for February but is unwelcome.

Knowing that the forecast was for a wild Sunday we had agreed to take a meal down to Mum rather than her come up to us.   We took the opportunity to set off early and go to a couple of shops on the Mesoghi Avenue which are open starting with Cycleband (actually called Ikoagora but people will always refer to it as Cycleband) where we came across an impressive selection of ginny gin gins which we will take John's Mum and Jackie to visit when they are here so that they can select a favourite or something new to try as they are a bit partial to a gin or three!

We parked at Sklavanitis and wandered down to the bank so that we could get out some cash for Mum and for us.  At long last this section of the road works is nearing completion and you can begin to see it taking shape.  It will be better and the designated parking pull ins are going to help with the chaos and congestion the 'park as close to the front door' mentality used to bring.  We then went and had a shufty around the supermarket picking up a few bits and pieces and getting the cat litter Mum wanted for Freddo.  Sunday morning looks like a great time to go shopping there if you can find what you are looking for, unfamiliarity breeds frustration!

For the time we were at Mum's the weather was much better than forecast and although there were cloudy skies the sun did try and break through a little.  

I bet Mum thought we had been telling porkies about the weather but later in the day we were proved right and it would have been right at the time Mum would have been driving home.

We had lunch.  I had taken the casserole down in the pressure cooker and the veggies ready to ping in the microwave along with a bread and butter pudding that I had cooked earlier in the morning and a gallon of cream (just for Mum).  It seemed to go down well - the beef might have been expensive but it cooked well, keeping its shape and full of flavour.

Around 3pm we decided to make a move.  It was beginning to look a bit stormy all the way round and we managed to get to Stroumbi before we encountered heavy rain then in Kathikas it stopped but as we parked up in Droushia we were greeted with some huge raindrops.  It was the start of what was to be a wild and wet night which included an earthquake for good measure (centred somewhere in Turkey where buildings collapsed and people lost their lives.)

We had an evening of hail, rain, thunder and lightning.  Two claps of thunder directly over the top of the house were followed by a sort of sparking noise - we couldn't locate what had been affected and then realised we had lost the spare TV box in the conservatory which hadn't even been on.  This is a bugger as this was less than a year old and we replaced it last year because the previous one got knocked out in a storm and we have no idea how or why that happens.  We shut things down until the storm had passed.  It rumbled on and game back, went away and came back.  At one point the sound of hailstones was terrifying particularly on the glass roof of the conservatory.  I hope poor Kenny Kembara was ok out in the road - let's just say we didn't rush to investigate.