28th February 2010

Another dismal day with more rain and water over the living room floor again, mop and bucket out again. We took Rosie out but not for her usual long walk as we all got wet!

Three power cuts during the day but we did manage to see some football and cook dinner before it went out again.  Well done Man U …winners of the Carling Cup!!

Ollie, thankfully is back home from hospital.

Rosie made us laugh, bored with being indoors she kept throwing her rope at us to play with her!

I must say we have to be thankful that we still have a home and not too much damage and at least we have had some electricity during the day. I also have to compliment Alsancak Beledeysi who have been out the last few days clearing the masses of large debris covering the roads around us.

27th February 2010

No rain when we woke up,thank goodness, in fact the sun was out and clear skies. We went to the mountains with Rosie and on the way saw some of the damage caused by the torrential rain. One of the valleys in the mountains had become a fast flowing river.

Mal and I then went to get some shopping and were horrified that the house on the corner of the bend in Incesu had lost a lot of its wall and also half its terrace, broken off just by the edge of their pool.  On the way back up from the shops the Muhtar was there with two workmen and their diggers trying to clear all the masses of debris from the road. It was awash with mud and the car in front of us did have trouble getting through the mud.

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26th February 2010

One of the many reasons we left the UK was 6 months of constant rain and every dog walk was wearing wellies and a wax mac. At least in Cyprus we know it is only going to be a few days.

This morning I was woken at 4.30 am to the sound of torrential rain, thunder and lightning.  I remembered that all the cushions were on the chairs under the terrace, so did a quick rescue mission on those before they were drenched. I then saw water was about to come through the kitchen window, so woke Mal to go and shut the shutters as the last time I did this and the wind caught them, I managed to break a piece off. Mal did fix it afterwards. Next thing I see Mal out in the garden, completely naked, shutting the shutters. A good thing we have no near neighbours and I suppose his sense of logic was correct, anything he wore would have been drenched!

The rain was torrential and just continued, so that we couln’t even take Rosie out for a long while. According to Nigel Heasman’s weather site, it was falling at the rate of 8mm an hour and I think most of that was down our chimney!

By 11.00am Rosie was crossing her legs, so waterproofs on and out we went. Not our usual walk but the devastation I saw on the way, one villa with the whole of their front wall collapsed and the plants uprooted, another drive with water pouring from underneath it and the block paving all lifting. Meanwhile Mal was on mopping duty in the living room, all the water coming down the chimney. As I walked back (Rosie and I drenched I have to add) I looked over into the ravine and where we walk was now a full flowing river! The water was also pouring down past the front of our drive.

By lunchtime we had half of February’s rainfall and a quarter of the years! I wondered what the rest of the day would bring! By the end of the day we had a third of the years rainfall in one day!

We recieved a text from Rhys to tell us that little Ollie was in hospital with suspected pneumonia. It seems Lou and Rhys were taking it in turns to be with him in hospital while the opposite number looked after the other children. They wouldn’t let Josie in during the day but thankfully allowed Lou to keep her there overnight. Poor Ollie.

We continued mopping the floor until late in the evening when the rain subsided but reading the bulletin board, one of the dams had overflowed and people had water up to their waists. Horrendous. Many didn’t get off as lightly as we did.

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25th February 2010

The internet had been down since the previous evening so Mal called Extend and we were told it was an update that had created a problem and they would have to visit homes individually and it would be a minimum of two days. Oh dear, Mal without a computer!

We managed to walk Rosie before the rain started. I know they forecast 4 days of rain. In the morning Mal and I went over to have coffee with Lena and Willy and we had some of Ingrid’s delicious carrot cake (highly recommended!) Whilst we were there a workman arrived to give a quote for leaks in their roof. Mal asked them to come over to ours for a solution for our leaky chimney. They said they would ring us with a quote in the evening.

Early evening two engineers from Extend arrived and fixed the error. Well done Extend, faster than you told us! Extends prices have also reduced.

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24th February 2010

I felt much more alive in the morning and so Mal and I went into the mountains with Rosie. We just happened to see a broad bean growing on one of the slopes there. Goodness only knows how it got there and had we not spotted it, we would not have noticed the bee orchid behind it. It was beautiful. We love going on walks and seeing what we can spot.

In the evening I went to the “coven” as it is fondly called by one of our numbers husband’s! In other words our ‘Pizza night’. It was nice to meet up with everyone again and the cocktail was a very nice Pina Colada.

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23rd February 2010

I was so tired after the journey, a busy week and not getting to bed until the early hours, so Mal got up and took Rosie and then brought me breakfast in bed when he arrived back. That was a nice welcome home! It was good to be back and the weather was considerably warmer than the UK!

22nd February 2010

Time to leave. The boys got ready for school and Ollie insisted being in the picture with them because he was going to school in the afternoon! I packed up and Rhys drove me to Heathrow. We did get a little worried on the way driving through the snow and more was falling but arrived in good time. I do hate airport goodbyes so told Rhys just to drop me off and go. When I checked in the girl told me that the plane was only half full. We were an hour late taking off by the time the plane had spent so long queueing for take off. It certainly is a busy airport.

Jill met me at Ercan. I was so tired by the time I arrived home but it was lovely to see Mal having only spent a day together in between his arriving and me leaving.

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