Year: 2016

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It was a nice blue sky and not too cold and so we took Ellie for a lovely long walk around the orchards. On the way back I stopped at Gibson’s Farm shop which is now full of things for Christmas and no fresh coriander etc, things I wanted for now!

We watched the football in the afternoon. A good game from Spurs but I think Mal was quite relieved to be “getting ready to go out” rather than watch all the Hammers game!

Our going out was to the Theatre Royal in Margate. I love that theatre, it has such a nice atmosphere and is so cosy. This time we went to see Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. It made me think it is over 40 years that I have been going to listen to her, way back in the day with Steeleye Span and many other bands since. A very good night as usual, some excellent acoustics.

There is a lot of musical talent in this band and Andy Watts is even a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

Thought for the Day – “A man’s true wealth is the good he does in the world.” ~ Mohammed

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Mal was back at work, a half day only so we went for an early morning walk. Ellie met some friends she hasn’t seen for a while.

Rhys came round lunchtime and stayed for a couple of hours. He’s so busy nowadays so it was really nice to see him. We had a major catch up.

I collected Mal from the station and he said how much he really enjoyed his half day. The only problem is no one seems to know what they are doing at the college and it took him ages to establish if he is working next week. Yes, he is even if not many kids will be there!

I also heard from Torin who has been off work with a bad back from an accident at work. He is on extremely strong pain killers. We will be spending Christmas day with him and yesterday I booked our “alternative Christmas lunch” out. I’ll reveal that on the day ! We even thought of helping out with the homeless and then decided we would all get too involved/upset! Having worked in housing for most of my career, I know just what it can be like. Where I worked, we had a block of flats with concrete fatigue and we let a group of nuns make use of them for over a year and they had a drop in centre and other facilities there. It’s so sad to see people who often were down on heir luck and homeless through no fault of their own.

Thought for the Day – “As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”  ~ Audrey Hepburn

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Thought for the Day – “Understand that you own nothing, everything that surrounds you is temporary, only the love in our heart will last forever.” ~ Leon Brown

There was a horrendous storm and 4.00am it sounded as though the roof was coming off! Sol slept through it all. We were getting up at 5 anyway to catch our flight back home. The plane was on time. A lot of people got off the plane at Istanbul and then next to me across the aisle John Partirdge, got on at Istanbul. He plays Christian in Eastenders. I thought it was him and this was confirmed by the fact that he spent the entire journey watching back to back episodes of Eastenders. So, I took a sneaky selfie!

We landed at Stansted and again Mal’s passport wouldn’t work at border control! We then waited for our baggage. My case came and so did Sols. We waited ad waited and waited. Mal’s case was nowhere to be seen. We ended up going to lost baggage with the bar code we were given at Ercan. No his case had definitely not entered Stansted!! When it did arrive they would arrange for it to be sent to him. Great. We collected the car from the car park and we were half way home and someone phoned Mal saying they had taken his case in error and could we go back to the airport. Erm no!! They ended up saying they were going to take it back and find theirs. By the time we arrived home the airport called and said they would not pay to send it now as it was not their error even though they denied it had even arrived at Stansted!! We now have to organise a company to deliver it to us. I am not driving all that way back again.

Of course we took Sol home and collected a very excited Ellie. She went mad when she saw us, doing laps of the front garden!

Later we watched the Man Utd v Hammers game. After Man U’s third goal Mal decided he was too tired to watch any more!! It had been a long day. Considering Cyprus is now 3 hours ahead, that means we had been up since 1am UK time!

Thought for the Day – “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start  with the person nearest you.” ~ Mother Teresa

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We were to have had a nice last evening meal out. That didn’t happen, the “boys” had a cooked chicken from the supermarket! That was followed by an early night as we had to get up early the following day for our plane home.

Thought for the Day – “One small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”

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A day off and so we went into Girne. It was really nice to have a wander around in the sun and then we went to the harbour to have a very leisurely lunch.  We ate at the Harbour club mainly because it was the only one that didn’t try and drag us in. The restaurant owners were told not to do that but they obviously don’t bother listening. It was a really nice day out.

After a lovely day we went home and watched Fantastic Creatures and then about 8.30 I started getting really bad pains in my stomach again. I couldn’t lay down in bed all night because it was so painful. I think it was gastro enteritis but this is the third bout I have had since I came out here but this was the worst. I only managed about an hours sleep.

Thought for the Day – “If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask the answer is always  no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.” ~ Nora Roberts

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I had forgotten, the hunting season is obviously in full swing as we were woken by the gun shot.

In yesterday’s Cyprus Today there was an article about Willy (our neighbour) as he gave a talk about his time here in 1964 which led to him being arrested, deported and serving a prison sentence. I wish we had been here for the talk. He is such an interesting man and also has a wicked sense of humour. Now we will have to wait for the book!

Having spent a lot of money on textured paint, we have decided it is not as “textured” as we have used before. One wall is complete but we have decided to leave the others until our next visit when we will buy some more and so we turned to the gardening and lopping bushes/hedges etc! We never have enough time here.

Then of course we had to go to Açmenya for our 25tl (£5.80 at today’s exchange rate).Sunday lunch. Yes, they are still doing it for 25tl, 3 courses with help yourself desserts, coffee and brandy and the waiters are amusing too. As always, a brandy sour, they make good ones there, and a toast to Sue. I miss her every time we come over.

The “boys” had seconds on their desserts, oh too much food!

Back home we sat out by the pool until the sun went down then indoors to watch the football with the log burner roaring.

Thought for the Day – “Character is how you treat someone who can do nothing for you.” ~ Ramandeep Singh