Hello Neighbours

We helped Pete walk the dogs again today or at least John did.  Gail is back on Monday and Pete has really missed her.  

It was a lovely bright and warm day.  Unusually for us we were not having Mum up - we had been together yesterday and we were going to the airport mid afternoon to pick up Jan and Derek our neighbours and on the subject of neighbours as we were walking we bumped into Nicky and Mark who were doing the same thing.

The island is beautiful at this time of year, the colours are so vibrant on a sunny day.  It makes us realise how lucky we are.  It is a bank holiday weekend - Monday is Clean (or Green) Monday - the first day of Lent when traditionally Kites are flown but in the last 12 years I don't think we have ever had a day that was perfect for kite-flying, certainly some which have been hugely windy and others flat calm.

It was lovely to just please ourselves as to what we did today before we set off for the airport.  It was really relaxing.  

I had organised with Jan and Derek that I would make a casserole so that they could have a hot meal when they arrived - we had planned to go out but Kaponas is still closed as Eleni is still recuperating from her operation.  Anyway by organising to have meal late afternoon we didn't bother with lunch but had brunch when we returned from our walk just to keep us going.

The flight left on time and was due to arrive at 3.15pm  We knew that they had a lot of luggage and that Derek was bringing his E-Bike and that there was a flight coming in about two minutes earlier so we didn't anticipate they would be through that quickly so we planned to leave around 2.30pm-ish and park up at Bona Mare and await a call to say that they had their luggage and were making their way outside.  We were taking both cars so that we could get everything in and I wanted to call in to see Yola in Konia as she had a couple of plates I wanted to buy from her either to use as plates or to use as decoration.  

I got my plates, as I left Yola said she hoped that we would find parking at the airport.  I didn't take much notice of the comment - perhaps I should have done!

As we drove along the airport road a RyanAir flight passed directly overhead coming into land and as we parked up at Bona Mare Jan and Derek's Jet2 flight came in and it was on time.  Bona Mare was not open but we didn't want anything so we just got out and stretched our legs - it was sultry warm down by the sea and some mad fool was in the sea.

They have made some changes to Bona Mare - John and I are not sure about the false grass - we don't like false grass at the best of times but it covers up what was quite a nice paved patio area and we certainly aren't sure about the giant cup and saucer - we guess this is something which they use as a photo prop for the weddings they hold here.

After a reasonable wait for luggage offloading etc we decided to take a chance and drive to the drop off/pick up point.  As we approached the terminal building I realised what Yola was talking about - it was chaos with cars everywhere and men moving cars on.  We were driving along the front of the building when we saw Derek and Jan emerge with all their luggage and I decided to be very Cypriot and stop there and then to get them in, John was behind me and to be fair none of the cars in front of me were moving very far so we managed to pack them in pronto and get off home to a nice cooked meal and a catch up.

It was like Christmas - bless Jan she had managed to pack all the things I had ordered plus some into her luggage and bring it with her.