Friday 20 October 2017

Mid Week...


So we know that my sister got home safely and in good time which is good news and it was a successful visit and we are looking forward to the next one whenever that will be.  How fabulous that my parents got to see their great-grandson and that he interacted with them with no fear whatsoever, in fact nothing phased him at all during his holiday which was filled with so many new experiences.


We were somewhat confined to barracks today as we were awaiting the guy to come and clean and service the woodburner ready for the winter.  We started the day as we have been doing with a dip in the pool - brief though it may be we are still going in - I am increasingly more grateful that our pool is a small one as the shock of swimming a couple of lengths is getting more intense!  I am nearing my limit now although the pleasure pain thing is quite nice - the rush of blood around your system as you get out is great!

The man arrived to do the fire somewhat later than we had anticipated which sort of threw the whole day out as we had planned to go shopping in the afternoon to stock up for the weekend.  As it turned out there were no smoke bomb leak things on the van so he had to go back to Paphos and get some which meant we couldn't risk nipping down to Polis and missing his return.

We also had a visit from Soteris today to resolve the conundrum posed by us changing our Cyta router for the most modern sort.  In so doing the monitoring system for the photovoltaics no longer spoke to the router and we were unable to record the electricity production which John likes to do.  Apparently this was because the box which records the PV production is an old sort where you cannot change the IP details to talk to the new router.  We needed a switch in between and Soteris kindly went and got us one and gave it to us - it was a simple plug and play resolution once we got the right piece of kit - much easier than the hours we had spent changing IP addresses, subnet masks and default gateways only for it to fail!!  For a minute I felt like I was back at work and I have to say I really didn't like that feeling at all - I don't miss all that troubleshooting.  Still tick in the box this is now all working perfectly and John is happy that he has the information to hand - that way he knows whether we have an issue with one of the panels and a big thank-you to Soteris for sorting it so quickly for us.

Once we decided not to go down to Polis but to stay at home and await the return of said man with said smoke bombs we went next door to prune the olive tree that would otherwise have soon been in danger of messing with our electric cables.  Gregoris and Theodora were more than happy that we reduce the size of it by about half and we cleaned up any cut branches and piled them up for them so that if they do come and want to use it in their kleftiko oven it would be there for them in the future - having said that it is going to take quite some time to dry out!

We got the job done and their courtyard cleaned up and then smoke bomb man returned and tested our woodburner for leaks having replaced the ropes and resealed bits that needed resealing and swept the chimney - pleased to report that it all worked beautifully so we are good to go which means that John will be itching to light it now - this normally does not occur until much nearer December but the last few nights have felt really chilly so it could be much sooner than that - we really must be getting acclimatised - I can't believe that the first winter we were here which was the wettest and coldest for 40 years we had nothing more than a gas fire and had to run between the buildings when we wanted to go to bed.


Anticipating a trip to the supermarket I had sorted out the fridge and earmarked some items which needed using up - namely the soya milk and non dairy spread which we got in for Jack.  I had recently been given some fresh dates by my neighbour Galatia and so I had found a vegan recipe for a sticky toffee pudding which I thought I would try - I have to say I wasn't expecting it to be very good but it was absolutely delicious and definitely one for the future so I will add it to the food page of this blog.

Tea was store cupboard and freezer surprise - I managed to cobble together a chicken curry which turned out to be a winner - thank god for a jar of red thai curry paste and some cashews!

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