Stormy

Fortunately Mum continues to improve so she was going to the Doctors today for her sodium infusion and then to the hairdressers in the afternoon and then Lilian was going to see her so I didn't have to worry about her today.  We exchanged texts in the morning and I rang her later in the day and all seemed well save for the fact the her cat Fred had taken exception to the jigsaw she was doing, again, and battered it off the table and all over the floor.  The jigsaw has now been abandoned and the cat is in disgrace.

John and I went down to Coral Bay to check out the outside furniture in Phil's place because the chairs we saw online overnight were out of stock which was a shame but we decided upon something else and got them ordered along with a table which will go in the corner of the garden we are dedicating to Joani.  Whilst we were down there we did a bit of shopping in Philippos's supermarket - we don't go there often so can't find anything but there is an amazing choice although some of the prices seem a bit rich.  

We toyed with the idea of grabbing some lunch in Phil's Bar but only wanted a sandwich and they didn't seem to do anything light so decided to get a breakfast bap at Arabica because we needed to return to home via Skouli which meant getting across to the Mesoghi Avenue.  We knew Mum was out and about so there wasn't any point swinging by and we will be seeing her tomorrow when we are having lunch in memory of Dad.

It was lovely down by the coast, it had been lovely in Droushia when we left so we weren't overly dressed for sitting out to have breakfast.  A breakfast bap and large mug of filter coffee is only €4.95 and you get sausage, bacon and egg in a roll - brown or white whichever you prefer.  It set us up for the remainder of the day because, it being Friday, we were having steak for our supper later.

There seems to be quite a few tourists about at the moment - they have been lucky that February has bucked the normal trend of being the worst month of the year - we have had some reasonable sunshine even though the evenings are still cool and even more so up in the hills.

We set off for Skouli.  There is a peculiar 'House of Treasures' which sells 'stuff' - a mix of antiques, vintage and tat.  I had seen that they were advertising miniature statues of the Terracotta Army and Joani and Roger had a full-sized one in the garden which I think they shipped back from China and which they called 'The General'.  When they lived in Wembury he was never erected upright but used to lounge in one of the borders.

As we headed to Skouli the weather deteriorated and we came through torrents of rain and in one place the road was flooded with water coming off one of the hills.  The House of Treasures is situated at the top of a very rough track - fortunately we had Kenny - I wouldn't attempt going there in any other sort of vehicle.

So there were about half a dozen different Warriors to chose from.  The one I chose, in the picture, was as close to The General as I could remember but as it was a long time ago I could be completely wrong.   Anyway we need to think about how and where to display him (he is only little) in the area we have set aside.

I think Joani would be tickled pink (and she loved that colour - somewhere I have a picture of her in a shocking pink wig when we, as Soroptomists, formed a pink flash mob like mass across a bridge in Newcastle in aid of Breast Cancer) to think I have my own General.

We got stuck in the House of Treasures - the owner was clearly hopeful that we would like to part with more of our money and took us through every jewelry drawer he had and every item he had that he thought was worth a shedload of money.  It might well have been but this is not the sort of place anyone is going to part with cash for an alleged genuine Calvin Klein diamond ring without any sort of provenance.  I know having looked up on the internet that these little statuettes are relatively common and not expensive and the price was pitched accordingly.

The weather going home was truly appalling - not what had been forecast at all so we got home and battened down the hatches and were toasty warm inside and enjoyed a magnificent fillet steak supper before calling it a night.  I was convinced it was Saturday!