Year: 2009

We were awake at 5.30am, well, I was which meant Mal was woken up, so a walk in the mountains as the sun rose. We walked past a new building just past the Muhtar’s café which we have heard maybe a restaurant. I cleaned all the floors when we got back home.

Great excitement in the afternoon, thunder started rumbling around the mountains and black clouds appeared, surely not rain in August….yes, it was and for about 40 minutes. It was lovely and Rosie thought it was great just walking around in it. It really cooled off and was much needed and very unusual for August. We were so excited that we forgot we had all the doors and windows open all round the house. So much for cleaning all the floors, water had come in everywhere and a very wet dog running in and out, she thought it was great fun.

The other good news of the day was a phone call from Rhys and number 7 grandchild in their family, after 6 boys is going to be a GIRL! Lou had a scan today and thankfully all is well. Her arrival will be the end of December. Mal made a jug of Pimms to celebrate!

Mal and I did some jobs in the morning. David called over to take some photos of their house with their new drive. Mal and I played cards most of the afternoon.

In the evening I went to girlie Pizza night. Pizza King was really busy and there were a lot of us and so Margaretta, her sister and family had to sit at another table.

We have been reading all about the meteorite showers starting tonight and it is great here without any light pollution. So, what happened this morning? Yes, they came to put street lighting in, which incidentally none of us want. We were quite happy to pay for it without actually having any. They certainly chose the wrong time.

We went to Turk Bank to pay our electricity bill. Our number was 49 and as it appeared to be a long way ahead, the number up was 32, we went to get some shopping and also paid the water bill. That took us half an hour and when we returned to the bank with our ticket it wasn’t much further forward. In fact our waiting time in total was over 2 hours. For the last hour there was only one cashier working and they were then up to 72 with people waiting and when we left they were closing for lunch in 5 minutes time! I suppose all the rest had to go back after lunch.  What a way to spend a morning.

It was very warm in the afternoon and so we went in the pool. We have left it on main drain and not overflow to conserve water.

We were up early and out with Rosie. Mal managed to fix one of my ‘broken’ cameras. The other one is now beyond repair.

In the evening we went to Green Heights with Robin, Christa and Leoni, their grand daughter. We had quite a nice meal there but they only serve food up to 8.00pm.

Lena’s cat Bubbles was waiting for us when we arrived home the previous night and again as soon as we opened the door in the morning, she was there again. I think she was making the most of her second home before Rosie came back.

We went to collect Rosie from Lena’s and of course she was pleased to see us but I think she treats the kennels as her second home, she is so well looked after over there. (www.willenco.com –highly recommended). As she always does she ran up the drive, ran to the terrace and tipped her water bowl upside down.

Later I went to Starlings to buy some food. Mal wanted salad as Cyprus is the only place he likes it because it all tastes. Cucumber 1tl a kilo and tomatoes 1tl a kilo and the most delicious rocket.  Yes, they still had some cherries although I think they are now at the end of the season. Grapes and figs are now in season as well. We had a lovely salad for our lunch.

In the afternoon Lena invited us over for coffee and had made an apple cake especially for us to welcome us home. That was so nice.   It is nice to be back with such nice neighbours, weather and fresh food. And of course to be back with Rosie.

Mal and I were up and packed again and headed off to Stansted. Our luggage together was 49.6kilos, so just the right weight. We had taken several books out of our hand luggage and stuffed them in Mal’s pockets but this time they didn’t weigh our hand luggage.

We think we were on CTA’s new plane and the air hostesses had a new uniform and were very pleasant. The new crew got on the plane at Istanbul in the old uniforms and miserable faces, so we are presuming the first crew had been borrowed from another airline.   The plane left 15 minutes late but the pilot made up the time and we arrived 15 minutes early and bless him, our neighbour David was waiting there for us at Ercan.

We arrived home and jumped in the pool.