Slowly getting sorted

Oddly enough, despite full air conditioning in this house, we're hardly using it. The weather's fairly hot - 30-32C in the shade outside [that's about 86-90F] but since none of the house faces South, and it's high enough to catch some breezes, it doesn't feel unpleasant at all during most of the day. The ceiling fans we bought from friends make a big difference in circulating the air, and the only time we're really using the a/c is overnight, when it's quite humid. So nice to sleep without feeling hot and sticky.

However, my computer has crashed twice in the past two days, for no obvious reason. It's not a computer which crashes, so I'm wondering if it's due to the heat. A good excuse to run the a/c in my study, anyway, to see if it makes a difference.

Last night Tim had some friends over to watch the DVD of the first Narnia movie, which one of his friends recently acquired. Several of his friends are leaving the country soon - some are away at college and are just back for the summer, one is going on a course in Scotland for six months, some are leaving Cyprus to return to their home country. So although we still have a long way to go in unpacking, he invited them for yesterday and I think they had a good time. Only problem being that they all arrived late - quarter to nine rather than eight o'clock - and since we don't yet have any rugs or curtains, the living room is very echoey. By 10.30 I wanted to get to sleep, but the louder parts of the movie were disturbing; after it had finished, they chatted for a while and had some cake, and although I don't suppose they were particularly noisy, I couldn't sleep. Our plan is to have a TV and DVD player for the guest flat, so Tim can have friends down there as late as they want, so long as nobody's staying. After last night we realised that's definitely a good idea!

The cats all seem to be contented in the new house, showing no inclination to run away. So far we've managed to keep them all in overnight, and they don't mind much. They've started exploring neighbouring yards; Jemima and Cleo went for a short tour of the local garage roofs this morning, but they all return. I can't say I like cleaning cat litter every few hours, or having to sweep the entire house every morning due to the accumulation of cat hairs, but it still has novelty value. Besides which, we're thankful that the cats have adjusted so well.

We're now using our dining room, which we cleared a couple of days ago after beginning to sort books. This was how it looked on Sunday:


If you think that looks surprisingly organised for a few days after moving, here's what it looks like when I turn about 45 degrees towards the kitchen!


Here's how we get into the main part of the house, and the reason my calves were aching for a couple of days after we got access to paint:


And here's Tessie, part way down the outside stairs, considering whether to explore across the car-port: