Half-way through August in Cyprus...

... and so far, it really hasn't been too bad at all. The power cuts have been fewer than expected, with none at all since the end of last week. Yesterday was a public holiday, and the EAC website said, yesterday, that they did not expect any emergency cuts throughout the long weekend, or even today. It's now nearly 4.30 and electricity has been on all day.

We still have to be careful - but we never ran our air conditioners at lower temperatures than 28C anyway, and turn off lights when we're not in rooms. Mid-August is the main holiday period for Cyprus, with lots of businesses closed and many families away in the mountains, or abroad; at the same time generators from Greece and elsewhere have been installed. So it seems as if the crisis may be over, for now. At least for the majority of the population. Those who lost loved ones in the explosion a month ago are still grieving, of course.

Moreover, the temperatures have not been too high this year. We have not had a major heatwave this summer - at least, so far - and although the evening are humid, the daytimes are not too bad at all. 30-32C in the shade, and while we run air conditioners to keep the computers at less than 30C when they're on, we haven't needed to use a/c much anywhere else, other than at night.

Having Tim home has been very enjoyable - six weeks have gone past quite quickly, with plenty of time to relax, and play games, and see friends. I haven't aestivated as much as I usually do. With milder temperatures than usual, I haven't needed to get all my household chores done before 8.00am, and have tended to potter a bit more, through the morning. I've worked a bit on my websites, and read plenty of books - aided by the power cuts which forced me to turn my computer off mid-afternoon - and enjoyed being with Tim.

Usual activities with friends have continued, including one morning when I babysat for my three smallest friends while Richard started teaching their mother to sail. Tim came back after an hour or so and read to Katie and Helen from my favourite children's book, 'Dogger', since my voice was running out by then after reading so much else.


Meanwhile Elisabeth, who is usually a contented little person, played with Lego:


We don't usually do much entertaining during the summer, and I thought it would be even more difficult with potential power cuts - but when our other friends Mark and Joan returned from a long time away, we wanted to have them over for a meal and a game:


However, I haven't taken many photos at all recently. We had more friends for a meal (which Tim cooked) on Sunday evening, but I didn't even think about getting out my camera.

This week Tim is helping at a church holiday club every morning; next week he will be away in the mountains for the inter-church youth camp where he will be leading one of the groups. Then after a couple more days in Cyprus he will be back to the UK for a few days before starting his PGCE course at Newman.

I'm surprised how easy this summer has been, at least so far. There's always time for a heatwave, as it won't really cool down until mid-to-late September, but either I've acclimatised at last, or Cyprus really has been far less oppressively hot and humid than usual.