Year: 2010

I started hammeriting railings but it was still so hot that I only managed one panel and gave up as I was dripping, perhaps when it is a bit cooler.  Margaretha came round and she asked what we were doing today and as it is Bayram, she said she would take us out for lunch. She took us to Kervan Terrace. It is another lovely spot to sit and have lunch (aren’t we lucky?!)

The three of us had chicken fajitas, I think we have them every time we go there! A really lovely relaxing lunch. Thank you Margaretha. It was made all the more pleasant because it was a lovely surprise.

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Thought for the Day :“You only live once – but if you work it right, once is enough.” –Joe E. Lewis

A busy day by our standards for the last month. We managed to get a lot of jobs done, Mal chopped all the wood, taking great care not to get any stuck in his leg this time. Incidently, the last piece that shot in his leg stayed in there for 4 months and then worked its way out. Hopeless. He has just told me there is still another piece in there from last September.  What on earth makes you think he hates doctors?!

I managed to get more gardening done, followed by a swim.

We had just got to bed when Rhys rang. A rare occassion as he is so busy with his business. Of course he rang on my mobile, so out of bed, turned the computers on and went on to Skype. I think we must have chatted for an hour and a half. It was nice talking to him.

Thought for the day : “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” –Ernest Hemingway

More gardening during the day, much better weather now.

Well, we had a very interesting evening. We had arranged to meet Christa and Robin for a meal. They had friends staying with them who were coming along as well. I would rather not say where we went as Mal and I thought it was all quite funny really, a little like Fawlty Towers. AND I am sure this was an unfortunate one off.

Firstly Robin’s friends son knocked his apple juice over the table, which made Robin’s and my legs quite sticky. We ordered a round of drinks and our food. All the drinks arrived, minus Christa’s brandy sour.

Another half hour wait and Christa’s drink still hadn’t arrived and nor had the food.  By this time I said that I would have a brandy sour (the second round). The brandy sours eventually came and they were awful. Christa and I agreed but still asked for Mal and Robin’s opinion…the same as ours.

Our food then arrived , one of the party had ordered a chicken pie and strangely a savaloy and fish cake arrived, no pie. When we queried this they just said ‘there are no pies’. Erm, why didn’t they tell us that when ordering and ask if we would like something else?  The plate was left on the table. He then asked if everything was alright and we said actually no, the brandy sours were awful. He then offered to make new ones…apologies as he said his barman was ‘at school’, well that made us all fall about laughing.

Anyway, as he picked up the bad brandy sours, he accidently knocked the complete contents of one of them all over Christa, Robin and myself and the table.  Boy were we feeling wet and sticky.  In the middle of the meal we were then told our cars had been left on the road and the Police asked if we could we move them. So, I went and moved my car. At least when I returned my seat wasn’t wet as the cushion had been turned over.

We were then offered free coffees, brandies, actually it seemed anything we wanted as an apology. We declined feeling we had enough liquid already floating round the table.  Money was also deducted from the bill. Our theory was following Ramadan, the staff were probably on their knees after all the fasting. It made an interesting evening anyway.

I am not quite sure whether Christa’s wet top (and trousers) in the picture was the first soaking or the second!

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Thought for the day :“You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.” –Michael Pritchard

It has been announced today that David Haye will be fighting Audley Harrison on Saturday 13th November in Manchester. I wonder if he will be wearing the TRNC flag on his shorts this time?

In the morning we took Rosie to the beach. A few days ago Mal threw a ball into the sea and Rosie couldn’t keep up with it and the tide took it away. We arrived on the beach and there was her lost ball, almost in the same spot that it had been thrown days earlier. So now Rosie had two balls but decided she didn’t like the one we had brought with us that morning so proceeded to rip that one to shreds…something she never does! Back to one ball again.

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Thought for the Day : Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined. – Henry David Thoreau

Mal and I went into Girne to collect my second pair of glasses. Nowadays it is difficult to know where the roadworks will spring up next on the Girne road. Having driven along the by pass, we ended up still hitting the roadworks and so left the car and walked! Excellent job at Akay Optic. Now I have to keep track of two pairs of glasses. I had enough trouble keeping track of one pair and then I have to remember which one is for reading and which for the computer.  Life gets more confusing the older you get!

An afternoon spent gardening and swimming. The pool temperature seems to have dropped quite a bit, probably the slightly lower temperatures over night.

We discovered this in one of our pine trees. Not sure what species they are.

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Thought for the Day : “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.”
–Unknown

A lazy Sunday! I know every day is much the same here but we do enjoy doing very little on a Sunday. The day started off with Rosie nudging me with her nose to wake me up at 7.00am. Very late for us, obviously because of the early morning going to bed. So, we took her out to the mountains.

A few days ago when walking Rosie in the ravine, we found this tree and were intrigued to find out what it was. Always curious as to what things are around us. Mal’s degree is in biology and he always has an eye out for new things  we find, or at least ones we haven’t noticed before.

We discovered it is Storax (Styrax officinilas) Styrax is used as a herbal medicene.

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Thought for the Day : Be yourself, everyone else is taken  – Oscar Wilde

Down to the beach with Rosie and another great sunrise.

In the evening we were invited to Lena and Willy’s and Ingrid was there as well.  We had a lovely evening. They are our neighbours but we don’t meet up with them often enough. We had crayfish, nice and messy but delicious.   Tariq rang while we were over there, so I said I would call him when we got home. We did and he was full of his football match that day playing for Canton Rangers, they won and he scored two of the goals. His brothers said he was the best player there…praise indeed! He also said he enjoyed his first day at big school. That’s good. By the time we had spoken to the whole family in Cardiff, it was 1.00am when we went to bed.

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Thought for the Day : Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.
Charles Dickens