We've only got 3 days to go now before we leave first thing on Thursday morning.  Tomorrow we want to leave free to have a day at the local beach and Wednesday will largely be taken up with closing up the house, packing, seeing friends for the last time and cleaning.  So today we felt we had to make a big push to get all the small jobs remaining finished.

​I am so lucky to have Bob.  For many reasons, but one of them is that he is simply brilliant at diy.  He can do almost anything: tiling; woodwork; painting; plumbing; electrics; mending things.  He's really good at mending things.  This trip he's tackled tasks as small as whittling a new spear for my Kenyan warrior wooden statue, to rewiring terrace lights damaged in a storm; building a cage around an a/c unit to keep out the pigeons, rebuilding from planks of wood an outdoor dining table, mending small leaks in the pool gulley; and fitting all the new small fitments to the bathrooms. 
​He is a genius and has saved us thousands over the years.  It's tragic that schools have stopped teaching these skills and thus consigned generations of young men to reliance on paying tradesmen to do even the most minor household jobs. 

​Anyway, we went out and chose the fitments for the ensuite this morning and Bob has fitted them - towel rails, rings, toothmug holder etc.  They look great.  He also did a host of other small jobs.  I helped where I could but generally my input was mopping all the floors (still a lot of fine dust from the tile cutting ), deadheading hundreds of geraniums, watering the pots.   

​We did fit in time for a haircut and shave for Bob at the local barber shop, Big Men.  Always gives us a chuckle.  He had the full nine yards today - haircut, eyebrows trimmed, ears and nose tapered, head and face massage, hot towels - the lot.  Came to about £7.  While he was doing that I went and got my feet "done".  Pedi, toenails shellaced with a rather fab silver glitter polish.  So very sparkly.  Can't do a lot about my beat up feet but they did their best.  About £17. 

​By the end of the day we were both knackered.  I mean: It's hot too.  So feeling in need of a cooling beverage.  Which brings me to my next topic: alcohol.

​It is fair to say that alcohol is very cheap out here in comparison to the UK.  You can get pretty much anything you want.  The local beer is called Efes.  The most common form of Efes is a lager but they also do Efes Malt and Efes Extra Strong.  Its cheap. A 500ml bottle is about 60p. 

​There are Cypriot wines but all are made (at the moment) in the south so not very available in the north.  Many Turkish wines are available: Doluca, Yakut, Angora being very popular brands.  They run from about £1 per bottle.  All supermarkets sell wine and beer.  You can also buy international wine brands in the supermarkets.

​If you want something a little bit special, then we recommend visiting The World of Wines which is on the main road between Alsancak and Lapta.  Turn left at the bottom of the hill and it is on the left after about a mile.  They have a large selection of excellent wines from all over the world and are glad to advise in a friendly manner.  We really like their South African Silver Boom wines.  Delicious.  Not expensive for the quality and they have all sorts there.  Give them a try.

​All sorts of spirits and liqueurs  are widely available.  We like the Cypriot spirits ie gin, rum, vodka, brandy.  They are generally on the lower shelf of the supermarket under the international branded drinks.  Honestly, in mixed drinks, they are indistinguishable and at about £3 for a 750ml bottle, a heck of a lot cheaper.  Lord Jim is a popular local gin.  The brandy is also very smooth.  

So, we cooked in, some pork souvlaki washed down by nice cold Efes.  Then watched Guardians of the Galaxy which we have on dvd, which was greatly enhanced by the Cypriot brandy.  An enjoyable yarn.  Rubbish really but oddly likeable.   

After those strange couple of ultra changeable days, the weather has settled back into its normal summer pattern of hot, sunny days and warm nights.  The skies have been super clear.  Turkey clearly visible although its over 60 miles away.  In case you were wondering, Cyprus is too far and too isolated for it to be a tempting destination for refugees.  Much easier to cross the few miles into Greece via the Dodecanese Islands off the Aegean coast. 

​We have now begun our last week here this time and are beginning to take stock of the few outstanding jobs remaining.  The ensuite bathroom will be finished today.  To all intents and purposes, it is already finished.  He just came back today to test and then clean up.  We've been so happy with this chap and the Pakdus company in general.  Next year we will probably renovate the downstairs bathroom and they can do that too.  A couple of pigeons have decided to make their home behind one of the a/c exterior boxes and we have to more them on.  Bob is making a wire frame to go around it and to close off the favoured gap between its top and the wooden fascia board of the house. 

​In taking some photos today, I cannot help but notice the rate of growth of the plants over the last month.  The grapevine over the terrace is really going full tilt.  Guests in August and September are going to be able to lie out on the couches and hand pick grapes!  The geraniums, jasmine and passionflower have also really pushed on.  The perfect combination of good soil, warm sun and water, I suppose.  Certainly we have seen a massive difference in growth rate since we have installed the watering system.  It is fed by waste pool water and now topped up with mains water.  The latter will make a massive difference in the very hot summer months  about to begin. 

​Our lower garden is planted for shade and the trees down there are mature - great for reading under or shady meals in the heat.  The trees are jacaranda and tulip trees.  The jacaranda blossom blue/purple and the tulip trees pink/mauve.  They are just beginning to come into blossom.  We notice that ours are always a few weeks behind the trees down at sea level.  I hope they come out more before we leave.  It is a lovely sight when they are all in blossom together.  The jacaranda in particular are just so exotic.  I mean, a blue tree!!! 

​For the g&t lovers amongst our guests, we have two more lemons coming on the little tree behind the bbq.  Later in the year the figs and pomegranates will be ready.  Please do help yourselves to any of the garden's fruit and veg. 

​Last couple of nights have seen some spectacular sunsets.  We have enjoyed them sitting outside on the terrace with a nice glass of wine.  Must do a blog on the wines available here soon....

Today has been a very good day!  It started with brilliant blue skies and hot sun.  Then, at breakfast we picked the two ripe lemons off our little tree.  There are two more developing.  It's brilliant for such a small tree which started off as a patio plant.  Anyway, I used one of them in the marinade for our leg of lamb which we were having for dinner, cooked in the wood oven in the garden.  The marinade was the zest and juice of a lemon, a head of garlic chopped, olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary.  Which also came from the garden.  So the lamb went into the marinade for the day.

​Then we ran off in the car to World of Wines and John kindly stocked us up for the next 2 weeks.  Some very nice wines of all types and most of them at around 4 or 5 pounds.  Would be at least double that back at home. 

​Spent the afternoon at the pool, multiple swims.  Lunch out on the terrace.  Reading.  Bob went off to get a  few diy supplies and took Sue to Amore for a pedicure.  Her feet came back looking fabulous.  Really nice colour. 

​Then we had the best news.  Daisy has had her dream job offered to her.  As a researcher with an entertainment media company who maintain a massive database of celebrity events for clients such as the tv companies, most newspapers, other websites, theatrical agents etc.  She starts next Monday!!!  Its been such a hard slog to get to this job and she's tried incredibly hard.  So very happy for her. 

​So, tonight we first celebrated with a lovely bottle of Taittinger Rose and we aimed toasting back towards the UK and Daisy.  The leg of lamb was in the oven sitting on a bed of roast potatoes and I also roasted some gorgeous asparagus at the end and dressed that in butter and parmesan.  We had a lovely lamb dinner sitting outside on the dining terrace as the sun set.  Washed down with a lovely bottle of Fleurie, courtesy of John and the World of Wines.   

​Ended the evening with a movie from the massive dvd collection washed down with espresso and liqueurs. 

​A super day.   

It's really heating up here now.  34C today dropping to the upper teens at night.  All the restaurants are now serving dinner outside, which we love.  Because I've been ill, we haven't gone out for dinner yet but tonight we are going to go to one of our local favourites, Tervetuloa.
​Quite a busy day today.  We have some friends coming at the weekend for a stay.  They are flying in and out of Larnaca and so we needed to go and buy the special 3rd party insurance for the hire car so that we an take it over the border into the Republic.  In order to do that we had to get a letter from Gunray, our hire car company, saying that as owners they give permission for us to do this.  Not a problem, but we had to go to Kyrenia to pick it up.
​We have also decided to have full health checks at the medical centre while we are here.  Our friends who live here have been telling us about the superb health checks available on an almost walk in basis in Kyrenia.  They run a whole raft of tests and scans and you get a full report.  It costs about 130 euro.  So, we have booked in for one each of those next Tuesday and today we picked up their paperwork and some "jars" for us to take our samples along in.  To give you an idea of the tests to be done:
A physical inspection by the doctor
Chest X Ray
Abdominal Ultrasound
ECG
​Bone Density test
Mammogram
​Cervical Smear

Lab. Tests:
Blood Sugar
Bun
Creatinine
Uric Acid
Sodium
​Potassium
AST
ALT
LCholesterol
​HDL Cholesterol
LDL Cholesterol
Triglyceride
Cholesterol Risk Factor
Complete Blood Count
Sedimentation
Stool Occult Blood Search
Urine
​TSH
CEA

​CA125 Ovarian Cancer Screen

​The above are just the tests for women.  Bob's tests are somewhat similar but include more male oriented tests.  We think it will be money well spent.
​So, having picked up our paperwork, we headed up to the border in Nicosia and crossed over, stopping to purchase the insurance.  It costs 25e for a month's 3rd party cover which is all you can get.
​We made a quick foray to a couple of supermarkets to pick up some supplies.  AlphaOmega which is a sort of Tescos equivalent, and LIDL.  Got some taramasala which you cant get in the north and some filo pastry spinach pies.  Also some Filfar which is our absolute favourite orange liquer and which you can't buy anywhere else.  It's delicious. 
Got home about 2pm and had a swim and pegged out by the pool for a while.  That was nice.   Then I made my Slut's Red Raspberry Jellies for tomorrow. 
​Tomorrow we are going to a special concert/picnic in the gardens of the British High Commission in Nicosia.  Pam and Eddie have a table in support of the British Legion and we are sitting there.  Each couple is bringing a course.  Much more on this tomorrow.  Really looking forward to it. 

​So, tonight we ate at Tervetuloa, our go-to local restaurant.  There really is just too much food!!!  You pay the price for your entrée - in my case this was 4 lovely grilled lamb chops served with rice and chips.  Bob had lamb baked with vegetables in a clay dish also served with chips.  This would be a decent dinner in itself.  However, included in the price is a 15 item meze - hot and cold - and then after the entrée there is a dessert and coffee and brandy.  All in, we paid about 65 ytl each.  Such a bargain. 

Sorry about the gap!  I've been stricken down for a week with a really horrible flu that I brought out from the UK with me and which rebounded with a vengeance here in Cyprus.  Have literally been confined to bed.  Feeling much better today though, although I look absolutely dreadful.  No doubt some fresh air and warmth will help complete the recovery.
​
​Made a new discovery just before all this: a lovely day spa/beauty salon about 10 minutes drive from the house.  The Amore Tanning and Beauty Salon.  A really lovely building on three floors decorated in a mass of pink and Cath Kidston style guaranteed to make even the most tomboyish woman discover her feminine side.  They have a full range of services including shellac manicures and pedicures, facials, non surgical facelift facials, massages, waxing, tanning, wraps.... I had a shellac pedicure which was both expertly done and very enjoyable and it cost about £15.  Will definitely be going back. Would recommend to any of our ladies groups coming out - they offer some great day or half day packages.

​Today, the men began remodelling the bathrooms.  They are doing the family bathroom first and when that is complete they will move on to the master ensuite.  As I write, they are going at it hammer and tongs.  Talk about working flat out....  It's just as well I'm feeling better.  Can't wait to see these bathrooms done.  The old ones were perfectly functional but they are ten years old now and lacked pazazz.  Hopefully these new ones will take us on another 10 years. By early afternoon they had it all stripped out.  Looks dreadful obviously!  They're back at 0830 to start again.  Looks like wall tiling as they have moved some of the boxes upstairs already.  Very tidy workers so far.  Swept up and taken all the rubbish out into a pile which they are going to clear at the end.  You do have to be watchful with some workers here. The Cypriot instinct is to hurl rubbish over any convenient hedge.  Tragic but true. 

​Looking out of the window, the garden is looking so beautiful at the moment.   The geraniums are massive and in such colours and the bougainvillea is out too.  The main attractions to me at the moment are our two bottlebrush trees which are just bursting with colour and blossom.  We thought we'd lost them a few years ago when a builder hit them with a jcb but they are definitely thriving.   

Well, we're here again! Back for around 5 weeks to oversee the installation of the new bathrooms and have an early summer break. 
​We arrived last night and our trip was "eventful" to say the least.  Firstly, the good.  We flew out from London Heathrow on Turkish Airlines who we like very much.  We generally fly with them when we come to Cyprus and often when we go to India.  We like the short stopover at Ataturk Airport to stretch our legs and we like their service aboard, especially the food.  This time we decided to spoil ourselves a bit and we used our Miles and Smiles miles to upgrade our outbound seats to business class.  This gave us access to one of the executive lounges at Heathrow too so we started the journey with a lovely breakfast washed down with champagne.  Nice start.  The plane was really great.  A brand new 777 and business class had flat bed seats and all the bells and whistles.  More champagne.  A really excellent 4 course lunch.  Most pleasant.  The only problem was that we had a very tight connection in Istanbul, just an hour, and the flight out of Heathrow was an hour late..... oh well, we resigned ourselves to missing the Cyprus connection and spending a pleasant hour or so in the utterly stupendous Turkish Airlines business class lounge - It's unbelievable!  However, when we landed a man was waiting for us (and others) at the gate and we were rushed the 200 yards or so to the waiting Cyprus flight.  It was like one of those film scenes where the Secret Service have to rush the President out after a security scare!!!    "What about our luggage?" we kept asking.  "No problem, we check"... came the reply.  I had a bad feeling.  However, first the ground staff manager and then the chief steward came down the aisle and assured us that our luggage had been loaded onto the plane.  In fact, they did it twice. 
​Of course, when we got to Lefkosa airport, it wasn't there.  We trailed off (with another couple) to the Lost Luggage office and filled out forms and lodged a search.  "They will come on the next flight" we were assured.  We had a hire car waiting outside so we decided not to hang about till 2am.  Lovely Gunray car rental were still waiting for us even though we were by now an hour late.  They escorted us to our car - Ford Fusion and we were soon on our way.  Light of luggage. 

​All we had was our small cabin bag which contained my camera, valuables, a bag of chargers, laptops, kindles etc. We had literally the clothes on our backs and no toiletries.  I felt really stressed.  We got to the house and felt cheerier. Marion had it looking really beautiful and had stocked the fridge up for us, so at least we could drown our sorrows in a cold Efes and some nice Chilean white wine.  It was too dark to see much but the garden looked to have grown.

​This morning it was lovely to push back the curtains and see the sun on the sea and the mountains.  I had a quick shower and put on my travelling clothes again.  Nice. Not.  Then the airport rang and said the cases had arrived.  We opted to go and pick them up rather than wait for their taxi at an unspecified time.  So, drove back to the airport and we were taken back to the luggage belt area where it transpired that only 2 of the 3 cases had arrived.  The one with all my clothes, most of Bob's clothes and all our toiletries had not been found yet.  We had to open one of the bags for customs - and they confiscated a gunsight Bob had brought out for a friend's air rifle.  You can't buy them as a separate item here.  Anyway, the man was perfectly nice about it, but it's prohibited and that's that. We are now probably logged as international gun smugglers. 
​Came home and spent time loading the tinned and packaged food cupboards and  putting away what stuff has arrived.  Began to make a spreadsheet of all the items I could think of in the suitcase for insurance purposes.   Then, about 3 pm they telephoned from the airport to say that the case had been found and that it was coming in on the 8pm flight tonight. A slight battle over whether we would get it tonight, yet to be resolved. 
​Had a look around the garden which is looking fabulous after Habibi's winter efforts.  Everything is really blooming.  We've had a lot of oranges and grapefruit  At the moment we have 2 large lemons on the little tree growing behind the bbq.  I will take pictures.  The pomegranate tree has grown so much but that fruits in the autumn.  The almond has also grown and has almonds on it which is exciting.  Finally, we have Mirabelle plums on the tree in the orchard.  I must admit that when I bought this tree, the nurseryman was trying to tell me what it was but he didn't speak English and I didn't speak Turkish and I thought he was saying it was a Medlar.  It is only now that the fruit has come that I realise it is a Mirabelle.  Anyway, they are delicious. 
​Bob went down the hill to the supermarket to get some fresh food in and some gin. 
​So, after a bit of a strange start, we are settled in.