Planting the plants

This morning, I went to the Community Church; Tim and our visitor from Australia went to the Anglican church; Richard and his colleague from Egypt went sailing!

We all converged back here at lunchtime, where Tim had used both kitchens to produce roast beef, roast potatoes, two veg and the best yorkshire pudddings he has ever made - rather to his surprise, since he realised, when they were in the oven, that he had put in 100ml too little milk.

In the afternoon, we chatted awhile, watched the news briefly, and relaxed. Then Richard and his colleague started fitting some ducting for computer wires in the guest apartment, and Tim had a siesta. Our visitor worked, in some frustration, on some complicated knitting she's doing for her prospective grandchild. I got out a tapestry picture I've been working on - off and on - for the past two years. It's about half finished. Still, every little helps. Perhaps I'll get it done by the time Daniel returns, in about 18 months...

At 6pm Tim asked for a ride back to the church, where he had to play the organ for the evening service. So Richard drove him there, then we went on to our old house where we collected a wheelbarrow full of stones. We knew there were thousands, gathered from the garden over the years and nobody else would want them. While there, I noticed my newest bougainvillea looking rather sad, having been knocked down. But still alive. I know bougainvilleas don't like being moved much, but I thought I'd give it a chance as it was still small enough to dig up - and it wouldn't last long if I left it behind. Then I saw two of my geraniums, still just about alive but very dry after a month without being watered. So I watered them and dug them up too. Then I decided to take a few cuttings from the larger geraniums, which are in more shady areas and still thriving despite the lack of water.

We also filled the barrow with stones and managed to get them back in the car. Then with our visitor advising, we filled our pots and a couple of planters with stones, and used the compost we had bought combined with older soil to re-plant what we bought yesterday, and the ones I hope to revive from the old house. We also replanted the palm that was in a broken pot. And then had to do yet more mopping of the porch! Here's the results so far... it'll be interesting (to us, anyway) to see what survives.

The two lavender plants. They don't look as happy as they were yesterday, but still smell wonderful. They were rather badly pot-bound, so having a bit more freedom and fresh soil should help:


The palm in its new pot, and the two geraniums from the old house:


The two hibiscus plants. They look very healthy, at least so far:


The bougainvillea from the old house, and one of the citrus trees (with Cleo observing):


I wasn't going to do anything with our cactus which seems to keep growing and sprouting new pieces, and which was almost falling out of its pot in various places. But Richard's colleague took it out, pulled off the dead leaves, and replanted the healthiest pieces in fresh soil:


Then as there were so many bits left, he planted some more in a small trough planter:


He seemed confident about what he was doing, but admitted afterwards that he had never done this before, and had no idea if they would survive! I'm not a huge fan of cactus, but this one has survived eight years of neglect with occasional watering, so I hope it will do well with increased space and nutrients.

Saturday

Today felt like the first 'normal' Saturday in a month. Since we've moved to our own home, that is. We decided it was about time to buy some plants for the front porch area downstairs, and although we had a few in pots brought from our old house, they looked rather lonely. Our Australian friend from Lebanon knows something about plants (such as which ones do well in full sun during part of the day) and came with us to advise.

I didn't want to try anything too ambitious or expensive, since it's probably not the best time of year to transport anything. We also agreed that we didn't want anything that was likely to grow huge and cut out light from the house. And on principle I vetoed plants that look angular and spiky. We already have a sort of palm thing that someone gave us ages ago:


... and an odd plant with individual tall pointy leaves which seems to do well in a pot:


... so I was more interested in potential fragrances, flowers and fruit.

It was after 10am by the time we got to our favourite plant shop, by the time I'd swept, mopped, showered, put on laundry, put bread ingredients in the breadmaker, and so on. Richard never likes to get up much before 9am anyway, though Sophia got me up around 6am as usual. Even by 10am, it was feeling hot and a bit sticky. It was probably only about 30C in the shade [that's around 85F], but a lot of the plants were outside, in the sun. After much discussion, we chose:

Two citrus plants. Here's one of them:


One is a lemon, the other an orange (we think). The second one was labelled 'Naval' in Greek letters, which looked a bit odd, so we assume it's an orange! Eventually we plan to dig a border at the side of one of the paved areas, and will transplant the citrus trees in there. But they'll be fine in pots for a while. We hope.

Two lavender bushes and two hibiscus plants:


I know hibiscus do well here; we had some at our old house, and they never seemed to grow very big. What's more, they apparently thrive on neglect. Just my kind of plant. I was a little surprised to see so much lavender, but we did see it growing at one of the other houses we looked at months ago, and I love the smell. We'll probably plant the lavender in this planter, where they're currently sitting. But although we bought some potting compost, we need to fetch some stones from our old garden.

Two pots with flowering succulents of some kind, which we thought would look good on these pillars at the front of the porch area.

By the time I took the photo, the flowers had disappeared for the night, but they do look good there.

One 'bird of paradise' plant, something I had not heard of, but our friend assured us the flowers are gorgeous even though they only come for brief periods.


Richard would have liked to buy loads more, but I thought it better to wait until slightly cooler weather, perhaps in about October.

By the time we'd finished I felt a bit overheated so when we'd put the plants on the front porch area, we collapsed for a while, and I read my current book. Then Richard went out to buy some small but necessary part for his dinghy, and went to mend it, while I switched on my computer and read email.

After lunch we tend to siesta, or at least slow down... I read some blogs, replied to some email, read the news site. Richard watched Euronews headlines, then read for a while. Tim played some computer games. Around 4pm Richard had to pop to his office to set off some process needed in the completion of the video he made for our friends' wedding a couple of weeks ago. When he got home, we all went swimming at one of the local beaches. Not our favourite (McKenzy) since the car parking fee there has gone up to £1, for any period up to 24 hours. Fine if you're there all day, but rather a lot to pay for less than an hour! Instead we did like many Cypriots: parked our car near the road, just at the rocky edge of some beach, and swam from there. The water was lovely, the sun not too hot, and it's good to get some exercise and fresh air at the sea. We try to go two or three times a week during July and August, although this is only the second time so far this year.

Then we returned home and had quick showers; we had already decided not to cook, so Richard and Tim went to our favourite local takeaway place, Souvlaki Express. For takeaway food, it's very healthy: Greek pitta bread enfolding grilled meat or halloumi, with masses of salad, held together with either tzatsiki or tahini. But then they also bought some chips (ie 'french fries') which rather reduced the health value of the meal!

Now I'm blogging, Richard popped back to the office, Tim's at his computer again. If Richard gets back in time we'll probably watch a film on DVD, since we have several that we haven't yet seen.

Feline/canine miscommunication

I'm not really a 'dog' person, but there are quite a few dogs living in our small street, and a particularly friendly one next door. He's a nondescript grey with wiry fur, about the size of a cat, and loves to greet everyone who goes past.

He would also love to be friends with our cats. I can see his little face, eager with longing, as he spots one of them lounging on the car, or up the steps. Today, we were trying to mop the front porch (most of our neighbours use hoses, despite a water shortage and request from the Water Board not to use them for cleaning patios and porches, but we can't bring ourselves to do so) and Sophia came to join us. The neighbour's dog was delighted! He ran into the street, just outside, and in true doggy fashion stared right in her eyes, inviting her to be his friend.

Sophia, being a cat, interpreted his direct stare as a sign of aggression. So she stared back, challenging him (knowing her humans were around to ensure her safety).

The dog, naturally, thought she was returning his friendly look, so he began wagging his tail in delight at an approaching new friendship.

Sophia, taking this as the typical feline sign of extreme displeasure, started swishing her tail from side to side too.

The dog, thrilled at such a welcome reception, started trotting towards her.

Sophia's ears went almost flat. Her tail took on a life of its own. And as the dog got to within a metre of her, she started growling....

At last she had discovered a language they both understood in the same way. The dog stopped, looked at her in amazement, and then - as the growls got louder - slunk away. Probably convinced, yet again, of the fickle nature of cats.

Quick tour of our house

I don't usually join in blogging parties (as it were) but just as I was thinking it was time to post a few more photos of our new house, I spotted that Boomama is organising a grand tour of bloggers' homes, with links to dozens of them, showing a wide variety of living spaces. The idea is to show one's front door (without any identifying features), living room, blogging space, kitchen, and one other room.

By the time I got around to taking the photos it was dark (as happens around 8pm here even in summer), so here's what our house looks like at night-time. It's four weeks since we first had access to the house, three-and-a-half since we moved in. So there's still quite a long way to go.

Our 'front door' is at the side of the house, at the top of a marble staircase, since our guest flat is on the ground floor. That has a nicer and more photogenic entrance that really is at the front of the house, but this is the door where we come in. Except when we come up the spiral stairs at the other side of the house. Sophia is out enjoying the cool of the evening (and moved slightly as I took the picture).


Here's our living room, the first room we painted, and also the first one we organised and made livable. Tessie is asleep on a chair on the right of the photo. The light coloured bookcase (which originally belonged to my grandparents in the UK) contains our DVDs and a few of Tim's music books. The two darker bookcases, which we recently bought from some friends who have returned to their home country, contain about half of our non-fiction. One is Christian books, the other 'general'. The other half are still in a random muddle on shelves in the guest apartment.


Here's our kitchen. I loved this kitchen at first sight: real wood cabinets, and lots of them! Even the tiling is to our taste, and while the dark counter tops aren't quite what I would have chosen, they look good.

I was particularly happy to find that (a) there's an air conditioner (b) there was a space for a dishwasher. Neither of which we had in our kitchen at the old house. So we bought a dishwasher to fit the gap. I am extremely thankful for both.


Here's the dining room - right next to the kitchen. That might seem obvious, but in the old house it was the other side of the house. I particularly like the dining room because we've combined the best of our teenage and grown-up (I hesitate to use the word 'adult' since none of it is anywhere near X-rated) fiction in the bookcases around the walls. Most of our children's fiction is scattered randomly around the shelves in the guest flat, along with some other books we didn't want to get rid of, but don't read very often.

The door goes out onto a little balcony where the metal spiral staircase leads to the guest flat.


And lastly... my study. Where I do my blogging, much of my reading, and where I plan to do my sewing, knitting, tapestry, writing, and Greek study.

Still not painted, alas. There have been too many other calls on our time. But maybe some time soon...


The sharp-eyed may notice a cardboard box next to my desk. Yes, this is one of our moving boxes, yet to be unpacked. A week ago there were about six in the study, so it's a great improvement. But this one is a bit more difficult, since it contains all the things from the other boxes for which I couldn't find obvious places....

Summer

Richard spent this morning getting the final things from our old house - a few things to give to a friend, and some items to bring here, such as long ladders, outside plastic chairs, wheelbarrow...

He also managed to buy the fixings for his satellite dish, and this afternoon fixed it to the roof. Then he had someone come and get it tuned, so he can now watch Euronews and other channels in English. Without the satellite, we only have Greek television. Not that we watch much TV anyway, but with the Israel/Lebanon war, he wants to keep up with world news.

The people staying in our guest apartment took us out to lunch today. We went to Alexander's a pleasant and friendly restaurant on Larnaka sea-front. It was a good meal, but so hot and sticky that I felt tired when we got there, despite managing to park the car only about 100 metres away. All I could face eating was a tuna salad, although I followed that with a Negrita ice cream sundae - chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate chips and cream. Yum. We were then offered coffee 'on the house' (as often happens at Alexander's when they're not too busy) and I had a frappé - Cyprus iced coffee.

Sitting at the outside tables, we saw a huge number of ships, in varying sizes. Some of them may be bringing more refugees from Lebanon, but we suspect others may be taking aid, or food, to those still there. Or, possibly, providing an escort for larger aid ships. I would have taken photos, but unfortunately both sets of rechargeable batteries for the digital camera were flat. Not sure how that happened! Perhaps I should carry a set of regular batteries too.

This afternoon I was very tired. It was hot, sticky and humid. I sorted some of the paperwork in the study, then had a late siesta.

Right now, Richard's drilling a hole in the study door, hoping to instal network cable so that the people downstairs can use their notebook computer online, rather than having to use mine to get their webmail.

A little busier than expected

The title of this post is an example of the classic British understatement.

Three days ago we learned that two Australian writers Richard knew somewhat, in Lebanon, were hoping to escape on a British warship coming to Cyprus, and wondered if they could stay in our guest apartment. They thought they might be here some time Thursday, but communications were limited. We gathered that the husband needed to go to a conference in Tunis on Saturday, so Richard reserved him a seat with one of the Cyprus estate agents. Just as well, since it's now impossible to get any flight out of Cyprus - they're all fully booked, with extra flights chartered for refugees from Lebanon.

Wednesday was our 26th anniversary. We thought we might go out and buy some plants in the morning. But, knowing guests were coming, we went first to buy a curtain pole for the main bedroom (which has large french windows onto the front porch), then to look for other bits and pieces such as saucepans for the guest apartment. By the time we got to the plant shop it was noon, very hot and sunny. I had had enough of shopping... so after a cursory glance around we decided it would be better to get plants in the Autumn. My head ached, and I felt weak with the heat as well as overwhelmed by all those shops.

During the afternoon I had a phone call from the person who's sorting out a door and sink for the main bedroom in the guest apartment. He said it would be at least five days. Since Cyprus more-or-less shuts down for two weeks in August, lots of people are having jobs done now and the workmen are busy constantly. Since the only way into the room is a hole in the wall at present, and the old hairdresser sink (removed) is dripping, we knew there was no way the main guest room could be used.

In the evening, after an afternoon in air conditioning, I felt better so we went out to eat, taking Tim. We went to Viale's, an open air cafe/restaurant where some friends took us for ice creams a few weeks ago. Very pleasant food, beautifully presented; good service (albeit rather slower than we would have liked), and prices not too unreasonable.

When we got back, we spent a couple of hours moving boxes from the second guest room, where Richard had set up two single beds. He moved some boxes, which we knew we weren't going to need for a while, to high cupboards, and others upstairs. But when we gave up for the night, the kitchen was covered in tools, and other random bits and pieces, and there were still about four boxes on the floor.

On Thursday morning Richard moved a few more boxes, then I spent four hours sorting, tidying and cleaning. What had seemed impossible proved to be doable. I even got to the stage of finding some pictures to hang up, and they made the walls look less boring. It would have been nice to paint before having guests, but obviously there was no chance of that! I washed loads of curtains from the old house, and hung a pair in the guest room, cutting them to size.

Thursday afternoon, Richard had a phone call saying that this couple were hoping to come on a ship leaving Thursday evening, so should be there in the middle of the night. So I made up beds, and we found various useful bits and pieces - a lamp, a fan, bug spray, towels, and so on. During the afternoon we had an hour and a half's power cut, to our surprise, so I decided to spend the time usefully and hemmed the curtains in the guest bedroom by hand. Something which, otherwise, would probably have been left for months.

There was no phone call during the night, but about 9.30 this morning Richard received a quick call saying that they had just arrived in Limassol port. There were long queues, and they expected that it would take at least an hour to get out. Then they would get a shared taxi ('service') to Larnaka. So we did our usual weekly trip to Metro supermarket, and picked up various extra bits and pieces for the guest apartment, knowing that our visitors were arriving with hand luggage only.

They finally got here about 12.30, very tired but relieved to have got out. They said it was unbelievable how quickly Lebanon has gone from a peaceful, busy city to a war zone. They've watched bombs falling, they've seen people who have lost everything. They are thankful that they're safe, that their adult children are safe - one in Australia, the other, newly married, leaving Lebanon tonight with his bride. This son had to cancel his planned large wedding in August, and get married a couple of days go in a small ceremony with only about 25 guests, most of them in jeans as it was last-minute.

They said that the British warship was brilliant, with all the soldiers helpful and friendly. But they're worried about so many people left behind, and about the fact that the embassies are telling foreigners to leave the country. They're trying to be as fair as they can about the whole conflict, and are horrified at how biassed some of the media is, particularly the American channel CNN which is apparently as pro-Israel as ever, and giving a highly sanitised version of the horrors going on in Lebanon. The BBC is apparently somewhat better; but perhaps it's impossible for a reporter to describe accurately what's going on, though, without having lived in the country.

I had wondered, sometimes, why we bought such a huge house now the boys are adults. Now I'm beginning to find out!

Very strange!

Yesterday morning, Richard had a phone call from DHL. They said a parcel had arrived for Daniel, from India, addressed to a PO Box address in Larnaka and a phone number in Paphos. Ringing the Paphos number didn't get anywhere, so they looked in the Larnaka directory, found that we were the only people with our surname, and tried the number. Good thing it was transferred when we moved!

Richard gave them our street address, and they said they would deliver the parcel within the next couple of days. That afternoon, the van arrived and I received the package. So, top marks to DHL for using common sense and being efficient.

It wasn't a heavy package. It felt like some papers, or a booklet. The paper attached to the front said it was from Maruti Suzuki, which sounded a bit odd, and since Dan hadn't mentioned anything arriving from India I thought I'd better open it. Inside was an envelope with a picture of a car, and the message: 'Gift a Maruki Suzuki to someone you love in India'. Hmmmm.

I opened the envelope. My instinct was correct. Dan has been sent some junk mail by a car company in India! Not even a charity, but a company who appear to be targetting wealthy ex-pat Indians, inviting them to buy discounted cars for their relatives back home.

Which leaves a few questions in our minds:

• How did they get his name and address?
• Whose is the Paphos phone number and how was that mixed with Dan's details?
• Why would they send a Brit living in Cyprus, travelling the world for two years as a volunteer, junk mail intended for well-off Indians?

And the most puzzling question of all:

• Why on earth would they send something like this by DHL?? It must have cost at least £20, and in India that's a HUGE amount of money...

Settling down in the new house

So we're more than half way through July. That struck me this morning, when Richard pointed out that tomorrow is our 26th anniversary. Wow. In the busy-ness of recent weeks, I'd lost track of the date. We'll probably go out to eat in the evening - taking Tim along, if he's doing nothing else. We need to make the most of the time when he's still living at home, as it won't be many more years until he flies the nest. In the morning we thought we might buy a few plants since we have no garden as such - just paved carports and a large front porch. At some point we're considering digging up the paving at one side, but not at this time of year. Of course it's not really a good time to buy new plants but it would be nice to have some to start us off. We'll get more in the Autumn, no doubt.

Yesterday and today I unpacked more boxes in the study. There are built-in cupboards along one of the walls, which are now full of paperwork/magazines/pictures not yet hung. But it does look tidier. Tonight Richard's colleague from Egypt is coming to supper and then helping to paint the study. He's very keen to work on the house, so we're making the most of it.

The downstairs guest flat is still fairly full of boxes, but Richard's put together the two single beds in one of the guest rooms, and the living room of the flat has two sofa-beds, so if necessary we could have four guests (more if they were small children). We need to have a door knocked into what's going to be the master bedroom downstairs, since it was a hairdresser salon, separate from the main house. As it was originally part of the living room, the dividing wall is easy to cut through. But unlike in the UK, we can't buy doors and wood for frames from a DIY store and then put it in place ourselves. We have to employ a carpenter, who will make the door exactly as we want it. This probably won't be too expensive, and we've asked someone to look into this, so we can get the guest flat at least basically organised.

Some friends had considered coming to stay at the start of August, which would have motivated us to get the guest rooms painted and in good condition rapidly - however they're not now coming until next year.

But... a couple of days ago Richard had a phone call about someone who was visiting Lebanon, is currently elsewhere in the region, and now - obviously - strongly advised not to return to Lebanon. So she may be coming to stay. We don't know if there will be other refugees: yesterday a boatload of Italians and French people arrived here, and apparently there will soon be some Brits. There are a significant number of ex-pats in the Christian/mission world in Lebanon, so there may well be a call for temporary accommodation. If so, we'd like to be ready. It's only about six weeks since we were briefly in Beirut; hard to imagine that this busy, European style city is now under siege.

What we still need to do in the main part of the house:

- paint study (this evening, we hope) then hang curtains and one or two pictures
- paint Dan's room and put his cabin bed together
- paint hall/stairs/landing and then put up family photo gallery
- fix ceiling fans and/or light shades for bedrooms
- sort out Dan's and Tim's curtains
- buy mirror and light fitting for loo
- find some kind of mirror for our room
- find some way of fitting a cat door

Which isn't really all that much, certainly compared to all the houses we've lived in before. We might well get all that done by the end of July.

At some point we need to ensure we get a final certificate of approval for the main part of the house. Just in case anyone actually wants to follow the plot - so to speak - and hasn't a clue what I'm talking about, I described the potential problems here, what we learned here, and what transpired here.

In a nutshell: the main part of the house, ie the top two storeys, had planning permission, but the building did not entirely follow the plans. Nor were the plans totally accurate. An architect can sort it all out for us (at a cost) so long as we do it soon. It's not dangerous, or even illegal - but until we have the certificate, we could have problems if we wanted to sell it. Not that we do, of course. But one day we might.

As for the downstairs part of the house, that still needs a LOT of work. Painting everywhere. Light fittings almost everywhere. Curtains - which I shall probably adapt from the curtains we had at our previous house - almost everywhere. The door cut through to the front bedroom. Beds in place. Kitchen equipped with more than the 'spare' stuff we don't use much. And all the remaining boxes need to be unpacked, with homes found for the contents.

It would be much easier if we could leave this until the weather gets cooler, but it's probably best to keep going. A little at a time.

Cypriot wedding

Yesterday afternoon we went to a wedding, of the Irish-Cypriot daughter of some friends. She's been in the UK for a few years since leaving school, and married an Englishman. But they wanted a Greek style wedding in Cyprus. Being Protestant Christians, they were married by the Greek Evangelical pastor rather than in a Greek Orthodox church, but other than that it was fairly typical for weddings here - and rather different from what we expect in the UK.

The wedding service itself was in both Greek and English, with two pastors officiating, translating each other where necessary. The bride made her vows in Greek, the groom in English. Since the bride's family are from the Reformed Presbyterian tradition, the only two congregational songs were Psalm based, however as the couple attend a very different church in the UK, one was accompanied by a guitarist. The church was packed, with standing room only for about forty people, including me! Richard was making a video of the wedding, Tim was assisting and doing the sound, so they went early. I had plenty of time to walk there, but left rather later than I should have done. Still, the service was only about forty minutes.

The biggest difference from British weddings is that the Reception attracts the majority of the guests. There were perhaps 150 people in the church, and over 700 at the Reception, which was held at the beautiful Palm Beach hotel starting at 8pm. There were photos taken beforehand - the wedding service ended about 6.45 - so we got there by about 7pm for Richard to take some extra video. I sat with friends at a nearby table and watched the preparations.


There isn't a big meal provided at a Cypriot wedding reception, but drinks and extensive nibbles. There were chicken pieces in batter, little pitta breads with halloumi, a selection of savoury hors d'oevres, and some beautifully made small sweets.


The official reception began with the small orchestra playing a wedding march, while the bride and groom came out of the hotel, and then cut their cake. After that, they stood with their parents, and grandparents, while the guests formed a lengthy line. Not everyone was there at 8pm, but they continued arriving through the evening. It must have been extremely boring for the wedding party, since they remained in place for over an hour and a half, simply shaking hands with the guests who filed past! They didn't even get anything to eat until much later in the evening when there was a proper meal for the family and very close friends starting at 10pm.

Another difference is that there aren't wedding lists circulated beforehand with household needs. Instead, guests simply give the couple money. In the past, I'm told that they used to dance while the guests affixed bank notes onto the bride's dress, however these days it's simpler: each family simply hands the groom an envelope, with a card and whatever sum of money they feel appropriate, while shaking his hand in the reception line. Much easier than having to find suitable gifts, I suppose, and nice for the young couple to start married life with what probably amounts to quite a large sum.

I had been very efficient and bought a card about two weeks previously, knowing that I probably wouldn't think about it at all while moving. I remembered it about two hours before the wedding. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember where I had put it! However I pulled out several of the boxes marked 'study' and eventually found it, along with a few birthday cards I keep in stock.

Oh, and for anyone interested, shortly after finding the card, I delved into yet another 'study' box, underneath some books and a box of pens, and discovered our missing canteen of cutlery:


So we used the contents today for our lunch guests.

Hunt the cutlery

In our old house, we had three distinct sets of cutlery.

1) a nice-feeling stainless steel set which we bought when we were in the USA in the early 90s. This is what we use for everyday meals, and it still looks good. There were originally eight of each item (ie knives, forks, spoons and teaspoons, plus four serving spoons) but over the years we've lost one or two, so we probably can't make more than seven complete sets. We brought this with us from the UK back in 1997 when we first moved to Cyprus.

2) a set of random bits and pieces, mainly from the Thift Store, which we have bought over the years to supplement the main set when we've had parties or potlucks, for church, work or home educators' gatherings.

3) a nice-looking stainless steel set that we had for a wedding present almost 26 years ago, in a design called 'Love Story'. The basic set came in a wooden canteen, with six of each item - but as there were smaller and larger knives and forks, and soup spoons as well as dessert spoons, we could actually make up 12 place settings, particularly if some of the people eating with us were children. We had this packed away in our house in the UK until last November, but shipped it out here and have been using it on occasion.

With me so far?

When we moved to our new house here in Cyprus, I made sure that the everyday set came with us so we had it for meals early on. Even with the dishwasher, running just once a day mostly, seven place settings is sufficient for the three of us. So I hadn't really thought about the other two loads of cutlery. There are boxes and bags and bits all over the downstairs guest flat, so I assumed they were amongst them.

Until yesterday evening.

At 6.30 we were expecting our house group for a potluck social, as the first meeting in the new house. Eleven people in all. At around 5.30 it occurred to me that seven sets of cutlery wasn't going to be enough. So when Richard got home, I asked him casually to find some more. Preferably the canteen, but the spare bag of random pieces would be fine.

Twenty minutes later, he hadn't found anything.

Well, he had found a nice ornamental clock, and some games and jigsaws, and some cables... but no cutlery. I remembered that we had some plastic forks and spoons which - for some reason - were unpacked early on, so we got those out and used them. Not ideal, but it worked.

We heaved a sigh of relief. Plenty of time to find the cutlery as we slowly unpack over the next few weeks.

Not so. At lunchtime today, we remembered that we've invited people to Sunday lunch tomorrow. There will be nine or ten of us, including three children. And we still only have seven sets of cutlery.

So Richard and I did a more thorough search of the unpacked boxes. We looked in the study, in Daniel's room, and then went fairly methodically through the downstairs rooms. We discovered two summer dresses of mine, brought out from the UK. We discovered more games and puzzles. We found a pile of saucers to match our everyday crockery. We came across several ornaments we had almost forgotten about.

But no cutlery.

So much for my happy idea that we would take one box at a time and unpack each fully before moving on to the next!

I begin to think that the bag of random cutlery may well be at the old house, sitting on a sofa waiting to come. Richard can pop over tomorrow morning to check, and fetch it if necessary.

But we're very puzzled about the canteen of 'Love Story' cutlery.

Slowly unpacking

On Wednesday evening Richard and a friend put up the last of the ceiling fans (in the study), and fitted three blinds at the dining room and kitchen windows. They look surprisingly good. We used blinds rather than curtains due to lack of space for the pelmet - but we like the effect, and I particularly like the lack of sunshine pouring in during the morning!


Yesterday I finished one crucial task: getting our fiction books in alphabetical order by author. We've combined mine, Richard's and some of the family fiction in the dining room, moving most of the children's books downstairs.

Curtains

What a difference it makes having some curtains!

To our surprise, the six sets we ordered on Monday morning were ready by yesterday afternoon. They even came with hooks in the correct places, and the living room ones have ties to hold them back during the daytime.

Tim says they're very Cypriot in style, but he's ambivalent about whether that's a good thing or not. I like them a lot when they're held back, not quite so certain when they're closed at night, but they do deaden the echo somewhat and add a patch of colour to the room.


We've put up one or two pictures, as well.

As for our bedroom, we chose the only kind of material we thought would go. Oddly enough, having decided that blue paint was definitely NOT going to work with the floor tiles, we've found that our blue bedding - and now, blue curtains - are just fine.


Tim decided to keep the curtains he had at the old house - they need to be made shorter to fit, but the colours go well and he likes them, so that's easy.

To my surprise, the cats all slept peacefully on when I got up this morning around 6am. Two in Tim's room, two in ours. Perhaps having curtains makes the rooms darker and quieter, so they don't decide to start the day as soon as the sun rises.

This evening the young Egyptian man staying at Richard's office is coming to eat with us, then will help to fit three wooden blinds we're going to use in the dining room and kitchen, and also to paint the study. He's very keen to help in anything practical like this, which is nice.

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:

It's been a busy week

Since Wednesday, life has been rather a whirl of unpacking boxes, buying extra bits and pieces, tidying up the old house, and generally getting used to being here. I suppose house moving has its own culture shock in a way, and right now we're in the initial holiday/vacation period that happens in any new place - it all feels exciting, and interesting. Finding homes for our stuff is enjoyable, in a strange sort of way, but part of me feels as if it might as well stay in boxes for a while longer. The neighbourhood is unfamiliar - it takes me ages to find my way around a new place anyway, and although I can walk where I want to get to, map in hand, I have no clue when we're in the car. Richard takes a different route every time we go anywhere, since he's getting to know all the different streets and working out the best ways to get places. But that doesn't help me! When the weather gets cooler - October, probably - I shall explore a bit more. There are plenty of little shops within about five minutes' walk, including a small supermarket, an excellent greengrocer, and a bakery.

Since the living room is also the entry to the main part of the house, we've made that reasonably sane, unpacking boxes and sorting books into bookcases. Here's how it looked shortly after we moved in:



We found a TV unit we like, and yesterday Richard and Tim set up the new television. So here's how it looks now:


Tomorrow we're going to order some curtains. It's not possible to buy ready-made curtains here, other than a few plain colours in huge sizes. However it's very inexpensive to have them made, so that's what we'll do rather than make them ourselves. On Friday we managed to find a warehouse that was recommended by two different people, with loads of material on rolls. None of it really leapt out at us, but we did find some we thought would go well in the living room, and some for our bedroom. We wanted to check measurements and think a bit more about it, so we didn't order at the time, but will probably do so tomorrow.

This warehouse also sells carpet-like rugs, at good prices and in quite nice patterns. We may well consider one for the living room once the weather gets cooler. At present, though, we'll just use the tile floor - it's not hard like the marble we had at the other house, and we found that carpets or rugs made the place a lot more humid. Cypriots often take up their rugs during the summer and only use them in the cooler weather.

Richard has installed the four ceiling fans we bought from some friends who are leaving Cyprus, and today he plumbed in the adaptor that was necessary for our washing machine - very useful!

We've started letting the cats out - we couldn't keep them in forever. At first they were surprisingly nervous, not going more than a metre or two outside the doors. Today they've done more exploring, including going into some of the neighbouring yards. Each time they've rushed back and up the outside stairs, so it does seem as if they're beginning to feel that this is 'home'. There are several dogs in the street, and a white cat over the road, so we hope our cats will soon learn which is their territory, and respect their boundaries.

Moving day itself - Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, early, I packed the rest of my study. I started on the kitchen but it was too overwhelming. I was really tired and feeling very stressed too.

Our first helpers arrived at 8am. Richard had organised the start of the day well, with three open pickup trucks, the Antidote truck - which is rather bigger - and about 9 students, five guys and four girls, who were going to do the actual moving. The idea was to have half the people at each house, so some would be loading while others would be unloading, and the pickup trucks would drive to and fro.

To complicate matters, a large quantity of boxes we had been storing in our garage for the last eighteen months (for someone from our church who returned to the USA) were being collected by a professional shipping company the same morning.

We started with the heaviest items in the Antidote truck - the piano, which is going downstairs, and our fridge-freezer (for upstairs) and washing machine (for downstairs). Then a steady stream of other furniture and the packed boxes.

It was very tiring, and by mid-morning pretty hot too. I stayed at the old house to ensure that we only moved the items we wanted (we're leaving a few sofas, and there were one or two things belonging to our landlady) and Richard directed operations at the new house. Amazingly, all the heavy stuff was moved shortly after noon, and although the old house looked as if a bomb had hit it, we decided it was better to leave it there. So we all went to the new house, had coldish drinks (the fridge had only been on for an hour or so) and ordered pizza. We were very, very thankful for our assistants - about 18 in all.

And the cats?

Sophia complained a lot, most of the morning, then went to sleep in her favourite basket. Jemima kept out of the way. Tessie watched everything, crying a little. Cleo - the most nervous one - to our surprise kept climbing on or in boxes, being as involved as possible.

At 11am I had to go and rescue Tessie who had climbed into a bookcase on the back of one of the pickup trucks. She was very distressed. Tessie is our fourth cat, the one who had evidently been abandoned by a family with children when she was just a few months old. It occurred to me that perhaps this family moved house and left her behind... which would explain her huge distress, seeing us moving. So I phoned Richard (on someone else's mobile - I don't have one) and he came back, got Tessie in the cat basket, and took her to the new house. He said she cried all the way, but when she saw Tim she was very happy and purred loudly. Tim shut her in his room with food and a litter tray, and she was fine.

After that success, Tim returned in the next truck, with the cat basket, and we tried to get Jemima inside. The first time she struggled and escaped. We caught her again, and shut her in the basket. She started crying, and somehow managed to burst out before they got in the car. Then she vanished.

So the driver of the truck suggested Tim take another cat on his lap, rather than using the basket. Tim took hold of Sophia, and succeeded despite a few scratches along the way. He shut her in Daniel's room.

By the time we were going for lunch at the new house, Cleo had vanished entirely and Jemima was sleeping on the patio, but running away any time she saw me. Clearly I had betrayed her trust. We decided to leave them for a few hours.

We also decided, during lunch, to let Sophia and Tessie out of their rooms. So we closed all the windows and turned on the air conditioning. We were surprised to find that neither of them wanted to come downstairs to the main floor at all... having lived in a bungalow, they had only experienced a few concrete steps outside, and the slippery marble ones in the new house clearly defeated them.

After the helpers left, Sophia did venture slowly down the stairs, with much persuasion, but Tessie wouldn't even try them until much later in the afternoon.

About three o'clock we went back to the old house, and found both Cleo and Jemima inside. Since Cleo likes cardboard boxes so much, Richard put her in one with a few airholes, then taped the top. Tim said he would carry Jemima rather than subject her to the basket again. And we got them both to the new house and up the stairs, thinking they would both stay up there for a while. They surprised us... Cleo ran straight down, as if she had been using marble stairs all her life, then up again, then down again. Jemima was a little more careful, but managed them without problem. However they both refused to talk to us at all, and kept hiding behind boxes or under sofas. By that stage, Sophia was purring and washing, and Tessie following us around the house, so we thought perhaps it took awhile to adjust.

In the evening Tim had music rehearsals at church, and Richard and I were asked out to eat with some friends. We realised we hadn't collected a few essential items like toothbrushes from the old house, so we returned there to find what we needed, then back to the new house where we still had to assemble our bed! This is the pine bed we had as a wedding present 26 years ago, which was in the UK until last October, and has been sitting wrapped up in pieces until yesterday. Thankfully all the pieces were there, and Richard remembered how to do it.

Cleo had evidently decided to forgive us, and started following us around the house wanting lots of cuddles. Jemima continued to hide behind boxes, looking very sad.

Finally, by 10pm,we fell asleep in our new house.

We've moved!

At last we're in our new house. We're all tired, drained, and somewhat excited at the same time. So much to think about, so much to write about.

In a nutshell: we completed the purchase on Tuesday, we did the main move (with much help) yesterday, and are now living in our new house.

For those who want the long version, read here....!

Moving house, the long version. Tuesday.

Tuesday was set for completion day. The vendor told us that he had some contact in the Land Registry office, so it might be a bit quicker (typical for Cyprus!). He also said that his tax wouldn't be sorted out fully until about noon, and that he would call Richard's mobile phone to tell us when to go there. Not 8am as our lawyer had suggested, to get first place in the queue.

So we all went to the new house, with the contents of our freezer in cool-boxes in the back of the car. Richard had switched the freezer and fridge on before we left on Monday night so they could get cold enough. We were astounded at how much frozen food we had...! I was also surprised at how full the huge new freezer (a seven-drawer upright) became.

We didn't feel at all inspired to paint, but decided to do our bedroom. We had chosen a pale creamy colour, much more suitable than the blue, and with all three of us working it only took a couple of hours. At 11.30 Richard suggested we go to the old house to have something to eat, realising that if we were indeed called to the Land Registry office at noon, we might be sitting there until past two o'clock, getting very hungry.

It was excellent foresight. Just as we were finishing our lunch, the vendor called saying we should go there at once. So we gulped down some too-hot coffee, and - with a little confusion - found the correct place.

The vendor wasn't there.

So Richard phoned him, and he said he was still at the tax office! But he would be there soon. So we waited about half an hour, thinking we could have had our coffee in a more leisurely way...

It was a strange place. Very busy, with doors that banged every few seconds and people rushing in and out. Thankfully it was air-conditioned. Unfortunately the seats were uncomfortable and hardly anyone thought to close the doors carefully. About 12.30 the vendors came in, went and talked to one of the officials, and then asked us to sign some papers.

We usually like to read what we're signing, but they were all in Greek - so we trusted that everything was all right, and signed anyway. We also had to produce our copy of the contract. Then the vendors had to go and pay yet more tax, and told us to wait about an hour!

So we did so, entertaining ourselves in the meantime by writing a lengthy list of things we knew we would need for the new house - like extra bins, dustpan and brush, rope to tie items onto trucks on moving day, new toaster... thrilling stuff.

Eventually the vendors came back having paid their capital gains tax, and shocked at the amount which was twice what they had expected. In the UK, this tax is only due on second properties, or those used for rental. But here in Cyprus, it's payable - at a rate of 20% - on any house sale. it's not surprising that people move so rarely!

We waited a bit more, then were asked through to the other office where we had to hand over our passports and the paper giving us permission (as foreigners) to buy a house. Then they told us to go back to the waiting room.

So we waited yet more, talking a bit with the vendors about details of the house - like the washing machine problem, and how to change the water filters - and eventually, at two o'clock - when everyone else had gone from the outer room, and the place was about to close - we went back to the inner office where we had to sign yet more paper, and hand over the bank draft for the balance on the house. We also had to pay for the deeds transfer. We were told it was £500 more than the lawyer had told us, so our bank draft was not enough. We phoned him, and he said that the Land Registry people were correct - he had made a mistake. Thankfully they didn't mind a cheque for the final amount, so we wrote that, relieved that there were no more serious problems.

So at last we were the legal owners of this house. We didn't receive the deeds then - I don't know why the computers couldn't just print them out, but apparently not. They will come in the post.

What a relief.

We spent most of Tuesday afternoon buying the bits and pieces on our list, pleased to discover that Orphanides non-grocery departments were having a 10% off sale. In the evening we tried in vain to pack the rest of the bits and pieces that were still lying around in our rental home, but there seemed so much clutter - despite a month's packing - and I was so tired I had to get to bed before 10pm.

Moving house, the long version. Monday.

Monday was going to be a crazy day, at least in the morning.

Richard had to meet the vendor at the Water Board at 8.30am so we could get the water utility bill transferred to our name. Apparently both seller and buyer have to be there together to agree the current meter reading. Our bank is round the corner from the Water Board, so after that he planned to go and get the bank drafts necessary for completion on Tuesday.

Before that I planned to go to Metro, our local supermarket, to buy some dishwasher powder since we were having our first dishwasher installed that morning.

Then we were going to go and buy the rest of the paint we needed to do our room and Dan's, and finish the dining room. We were expecting delivery of our new freezer from Dalco, and a few other items from George (our favourite white goods shop), during the morning; Richard knew he would have to go to George's shop to guide them to our new house, so planned to do that after leaving me there to start the painting and wait for Dalco. At 11am he had to be at his office for an online Skype meeting with several people in Limassol and elsewhere.

Alas for the best-laid plans.

Well, it started all right. I went to Metro, found various other things we needed, and then perused the dishwasher powders. I had no idea what was needed, and most of the options were too heavy for me to carry back to our house on foot, but I found one type which seemed good value, said it was recommended by the top brands, and wasn't too big.

Richard then met the vendor at the Water Board and that was sorted out. But when he was there, he had a phone call from George, saying their truck was packed and they wanted to deliver immediately. So Richard came to collect me. I had just discovered that our Internet connection had been cut off (as we had been told would happen, in order that it could be reconnected at the new house on Wednesday or Thursday) but the phone was still working.

So we went to George's, and the drivers followed us to the new house. They brought in the television and microwave, changed the plug on the microwave to standard UK-style three-pin, and tried to plumb in the new washing-machine. Problem #1: the waste pipe had a different fitment to the outlet. They suggested a method of solving this, but couldn't do it themselves. Richard said he would do it. Then they started plumbing in the dishwasher, only to discover that they didn't have all the tools they needed.

By this stage, Richard was getting a bit worried about time - the banks are only open from 8.30am - 12.30pm here, and the bank drafts were vital. So he left me at the house to supervise the dishwasher installation (ha!) and went to the bank. There he had quite a time of it - a lengthy queue, then concern over the amount of money he wanted in the draft. He had to have an interview with the bank manager, who was temporarily under the impression that we wanted a loan... but eventually was given the rather worrying piece of paper worth a large amount of money to complete the purchase.

He also had to get a draft for the Land Registry, and it took some phone calls to work out who it should be made out to. But at about 10.30 he arrived back with the drafts in an envelope in a folder which we didn't let out of our sight for the next 24 hours! By then the delivery men had left, having given me complicated instructions for the dishwasher in rather broken English, which I didn't really understand. The most important item seemed to be that I needed 'salt'... not table salt, but dishwasher salt.

They assured me that there were instructions which I could read. Indeed there were - in Greek, Portugese, Italian, German, or French. But not English! I could make out most of the French instructions and was still reading them when Richard got back. There was a little strip of paper with instructions about testing the water for hardness, enabling us to set the 'salt' intake, so we tried that. Chemistry at home! We knew the house had some kind of water purification and filtering system, and sure enough it wasn't as hard as the delivery men seemed to think. Still, we apparently needed to buy some salt.

We also needed to buy some paint, so we went to the Crown shop, chose our colours, and then returned to our old house. Richard had his online Skype meeting at 11am and got there just in time. I tried (in vain) to pack some of our kitchen while I waited. We had lost a morning's painting, but I wasn't too worried since we were very tired. So long as we finished the dining room, we decided, we wouldn't worry.

At 12.30, Richard arrived home saying we had to rush to the new house again. CYTA had phoned his mobile, saying they were ready to connect our phone and Internet at the new house already! So he grabbed the various bits of equipment we needed, and we drove to the new house, where it took the engineers about 45 minutes to get it all installed and working. By then we were very hungry so we returned to our old home for a bite to eat, and coffee, and then had a siesta... it was hot, and we were really tired.

At 2.30 we drove to Richard's office, to collect a fridge we're going to use in our guest flat. We waited for his colleague to help us down the steps, and brought it to the new house.

We realised that Dalco had not delivered the freezer, so we drove there to find out what was happening. As we went in the door, Richard's mobile started ringing... it was Dalco, trying to find exactly where our house is! So we guided the delivery men there, and they installed the new freezer. They told us to leave it to settle for three or four hours before switching on.

Then we went to Metro to buy some dishwasher salt and a few other things we had realised we needed. At which point Tim phoned to say the coach had returned from camp. So we went to collect him, then dropped his heavy backpack at the old house and collected painting clothes.

So by the time we were actually ready to do some painting, it was past five o'clock. Neither of us felt at all like painting, but although Tim was tired (they never seem to sleep much at camp) he was enthusiastic about painting, and happy to use the roller so he completed the dining room with a little assistance from me. Richard, meanwhile, experimented with the dishwasher on various items we had brought from our other house, which had been wrapped in newspaper. We were impressed...

By seven o'clock we had finished, and decided on fast food yet again. Tim was shocked to hear we had been to MacDonald's on Saturday, but said he could cope with KFC so we ate there. Then back to the old house to collapse once more.

Moving house, the long version. Sunday.

On Sunday morning, we decided to visit Grace Church, the local charismatic 'New Frontiers' fellowship which meets about five minutes' walk from our old house. There weren't many people there as several were on holiday - maybe 20 in all - and we knew most of them. I was very tired but it was air conditioned (!) and quite a nice service. Two of our friends who go to Grace Church regularly were going to the UK the following morning, so we brought them to the new house for a quick guided tour - and brought a few more boxes with us.

Because Grace Church doesn't meet till 10am, I had extra time in the morning after getting up. So I thought I'd check email, and was pleased to see Daniel online. I explained to him about the problem with blue paint in the new house - he had wanted blue for his room too - and he said he could see the problem, and suggested something the colour of milk coffee, or a frappé.

In the afternoon we started to paint the dining room. Gradually we realised we would have to paint the kitchen too as there's no clear divide. A bit awkward for Richard having to climb on the kitchen counters to paint above the cupboards, but it did look good. We were a little concerned that the colour might be too bright, but gradually decided we liked it. However it was clear that some of it was going to need a second coat, and because we were doing more than we had expected, we ran out of paint. Not really a problem since we were so tired that we really didn't want to continue anyway. We knew we could buy more on Monday morning.


The friends who saw the house spotted that it's near a takeaway place called Souvlaki Express. Souvlaki is the Cyprus equivalent of fast food, being meat with salad and some kind of dressing wrapped in pitta bread. Our friends told us it was excellent, so we decided to try it. Richard had pork souvlaki, and I had halloumi - a local sheep's milk cheese that can be toasted - and they were excellent! Full of fresh salad, with tahini or tsatsiki, and huge. We ate it at the new house then cleared up and went back to our rental house to collapse....

Moving house, the long version. Saturday.

So. We painted the living room with much enthusiasm on Saturday morning, as described, and were pleased with the result. Here's the photo I took of it when Tim got back from his camp:


In the afternoon we thought we would do our bedroom. We had chosen a pale blue, since most of our bedding is blue and we like the colour. Unfortunately, we had not really taken in the pink/brown nature of all the tiles throughout the house. We painted one strip of blue, and stopped. We pondered. We went away and thought about it and returned.


No, we decided, we did not like it. It was a horrible clash. So we were not going to paint the room, only to find we had to re-do it. Richard's colleague at work needs his office painted, so he decided to offer him the blue paint! Unfortunately, it being Saturday afternoon, most shops were shut so we knew we'd have to wait until Monday to find a replacement. Instead we did Tim's room, in a colour called Warm Apricot. It was rather brighter than we had expected but effective.

We were quite tired by then and Tim's little room took almost as long as the living room. By 7pm we were shattered. We had planned to go out to eat, but to do so we'd have had to go to our other house to shower and change, and at a normal 'slow-food' restaurant we wouldn't get food until after 8pm. We didn't like that idea for two reasons: (1) we were extremely hungry (2) 8pm is when Cypriots tend to eat. Many Cypriots smoke, and most restaurants allow smoking.

So we decided to opt for something quick. We did change out of our painting clothes, then parked in town. The sea-front has dozens of eating places, all eager to welcome us. Unfortunately the majority of them were showing football on large and noisy televisions. We had forgotten that the World Cup was still going, since neither of us is remotely interested in sports. So we kept walking... and the first place we found that looked quiet was, I hate to admit it, MacDonalds. In eight years and eight months since we came to Cyprus, we have never eaten in this brightly-coloured symbol of capitalism consumerism. But we knew it would be quick, and inexpensive, and most importantly it had neither smokers nor football.

So Richard had a beefburger with chips, and I had a veggieburger with chips. We even enjoyed them, despite feeling a bit old to be in there, since most of the other people were in their 20s or early 30s, with young children.

Maybe we'll go there again in another eight-and-two-thirds years.

Starting to paint

So, finally we have access to our new house. Richard packed the car last night with the paint, brushes, dust-sheets, useful tools, our new stepladder, a couple of folding garden chairs to sit on, and also a few small boxes he had marked as 'fragile'. So that's our first load taken over. The owner had a few things still to remove - some upstairs curtains and light fittings, one of his satellite dishes, and some toys belonging to his children. So he worked around us while we started painting the living room!

We chose a very pale apricot colour, not quite 'hint-of-a-tint' but not much darker. I had forgotten that the tiles on the floor are a kind of pinkish brown, and wondered if the colour would clash, but we quickly realised it worked extremely well. We managed to do one coat on the whole room this morning; I suppose it took about three hours in all. I can't take a photo because Tim took the digital camera to camp this weekend, and although I found my old camera, we packed the spare films away weeks ago and have no idea where they are! Since we no longer use film regularly, it seems a bit pointless to buy a new one specially. Anyway, it will be more interesting when all the painting is done, and when we start to move in furniture.

We had been painting for about an hour when we remembered that we could use the air conditioner to cool the room down a bit .... and what a difference that made!

Tomorrow Richard has to go with the house vendor to the Water Board, since they couldn't transfer to our name without seeing both of us, and knowing the meter numbers. We read the water and electricity meters too, with the vendor, just to make sure the meter readers get it right.

Completion is now set for Tuesday morning. So we should be the official owners of the house before we actually move in.