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.   

Another absolutely glorious day here.  Pleasantly hot - low 30s - and with a gentle breeze just to keep it bearable.  Lay out around the pool with a book this morning.  Bob did a few odd jobs.  Our bathroom fella was hard at work upstairs. Pleasant day.  I had made my raspberry red slut jellies yesterday afternoon and they have been setting in the fridge to wobbly perfection.  It's a Nigella recipe if you couldn't guess from the name and I've made them before.  Really delicious and really easy.  A perfect end to a summer meal.  Here is the recipe:

Slut Red Raspberry Jelly

​300g raspberries, fresh or frozen
1 bottle fruity chardonnay wine
​250g caster sugar
​1 vanilla pod, slit lengthways.
​16 gelatine leaves or 3 sachets gelatine powder

​Pour the wine into a bowl and add the raspberries.  Let them infuse for about an hour.  Drain the wine into a saucepan, retaining the raspberries.  Add the vanilla pod to the wine.  Heat the wine almost to boiling and then let it sit for about 30 mins.  Remove the vanilla pod and discard.  Add the sugar to the wine,  stirring till dissolved.  Bring it nearly to the boil again, remove from the heat and add the gelatine stirring till dissolved.  If you are using leaves, soften them in a small amount of boiling water first.  Put the raspberries in the bottom of individual glass bowls.  Clear is best so that you can see the colour.  Pour over the wine mixture and put the bowls into the fridge to set for at least 3 hours, or overnight.  Offer cream with the jellies.  They taste as good as they look believe me. It's a very grown up jelly!

​So, a very special night  ahead.  We were invited to join one of the tables at the annual Music Concert Picnic at the British High Commission in Nicosia.  Our friends, Pamela and Eddie, are very active fundraisers for the Royal British Legion and they were hosting a table  and invited us to join.  The concert is held in support of the Army Benevolent fund which supports our service men and women.  Each table brings its own food and drinks.  Some people come in fancy dress.

​We were travelling by coach which picked us up at the bottom of our hill and took us to Shakespeare House, the home of the British High Commission on the Turkish side of Nicosia.  The house itself as absolutely stunning. A lovely Levantine style mansion surrounded by beautiful gardens.  There were around 40 tables set up in the garden with somewhere over 400 picnickers in place when we arrived.  We quickly set up our table and settled down to tuck in to the fabulous food and drink.  We had amazing savouries from Brenda and Tony, Pamela and Eddie made some gorgeous salads, we contributed the jellies and Heather and Chris finished our meal with an amazing cheeseboard.  To say we were stuffed would be an understatement.  Once we had finished eating we were welcomed by the High Commissioner and then the music began.  We had a band made up of two military bands: The Band of the Prince of Wales's Division and The Band of the Army Air Corps.  Wow!  They were tremendous.  They played a great programme which combined some traditional pieces with other very lively pop and rock hits.  Excellent singers too.  Not what you might expect of a military band.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Of course we ended up with a "proms" section and all the flags came out for that plus the mansion was illuminated with the various flags of the UK.  Everyone had a great time and we raised something like 6000 euro for charity. 
​Got back to the house about midnight.  Very tired and still chock a block with food and drink.  We really felt privileged to be part of such a great evening and to see the High Commission mansion under such special circumstances.  An amazing night and our great thanks to Pamela and Eddie for letting us share it.

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.

We''re planning to entirely renovate both bathrooms at the beginning of May 2017 and have been spending some enjoyable time over the last two weeks visiting bathroom and tile shops and planning the work. 

Obviously, both bathrooms are obviously completely functional now, but they are decorated in a decor that is now 13 years old and we felt they definitely needed freshening up in a more modern, clean and bright style.  Anyway, we are really thrilled with what we've been able to source here on the island, and at prices that make B&Q look extortionate. A lot of top quality ceramic ware is produced in Turkey and that makes it cheap here. 

We have already taken delivery of the tiles so that they are available immediately at the start of May.  The floors will look like aged, golden oak but they are actually ceramic.  The walls are a very brilliant white tile with a contoured design in it.  Hopefully they will give the bathrooms a very bright look.  All the sanitary ware is white.  The sinks are mounted onto a golden oak unit that has an undersink cupboard, a large mirror fronting a cabinet and some shelves to the side.  The showers are full width of the bathrooms, walk-in style, with both a rain shower and a wand shower. 

​The shower in the family bathroom replaces a bath with a shower over it.  This was quite a difficult decision to make. Most of our guests prefer to shower and would rather have a luxurious, large shower unit.  But, some people like or need a bath.  So, in order to accommodate small children and older people we have chosen a Turkish style shower tray in there.  This incorporates a raised bench-end so that someone could sit and shower or a mum could sit and shower a small child in front of her sitting in the tray like a bath. Its a great idea and we've never seen one in the UK.   It stems from the Turkish custom of the hamam, where you sit and either shower or pour water over yourself from a large jug.  Rather a relaxing experience.

Anyway, can't wait to get the work started now but we have to......  Will post pics next May as it all begins.  Summer guests are going to be in for a treat!