Now there is real digging in our street...

It was at the end of June when we received a notice in our mailbox about the sewerage construction in our neighbourhood. Lasting up to three weeks, they said. I was dubious... but then a week later, we did indeed have workmen digging up the road, somewhat.. not very deep, and it only lasted one morning. So much so that it only warranted a brief mention in the update I wrote at the end of the week.

It seemed odd to me, since other roads nearby have much deeper channels built, and far laster-longing disruption. But Richard thought that perhaps we didn't need deeply-laid pipes in our road. It all seemed to have been done, anyway, and there was no sign of anything else happening despite plenty of work going on in other roads around our neighbourhood.

This morning, I was just on my way out of the house to go to the bank, at around 7.30am, when I saw a man in some kind of digger machine driving slowly up the street. His English was fair - just as well since my Greek is not - and he told me that they were going to dig up our road in an hour, so we had to move the car.

I went back inside, squeezed orange juice and made coffee for Richard, then apologised for waking up him, but said that if he wants to use the car today, or perhaps any time this week, he should move it before 8.30. I suggested he wake the people staying in our guest flat, too, who have a rental car at present which was parked out on the street.

Then I walked to the bank, only to find that the ATM was out of order. The bank itself doesn't open until 8.30 and I didn't want to wait around. So I walked on to the place where I thought there was another Bank of Cyprus... only to find that it had closed. By then I was not far from the sea-front, so I walked on... and found a bank with a working ATM enabling me to withdraw cash.

I had been planning to walk back via the froutaria, since we need some more fruit and veg... but since I was already at the sea-front, decided I might as well walk along and go to our PO Box, which I haven't checked for a week or so. On the way I spotted that Estia, my favourite stationer was open... so I went in, and browsed around, and was delighted to find that they had one of my favourite kinds of photo albums available. Sometimes they don't. So I bought it, plus a few new ballpoint pens that I needed, and on to the PO box where I found my latest order from Kodak Gallery - 160 photos from the past four months.

And then home, feeling decidedly warm but not as hot as I would have done a month ago. I had been out for over an hour, rather than the twenty minutes or so I had expected. Richard had gone to work, the rental car was moved.. and there was, indeed, a large digger making deep holes in our street:


A couple of hours later a man with almost no English knocked at the door, telling me I had to move the two cars parked in our driveway. I tried to explain that I don't drive, but I could call my husband if they really needed them moved... although I could not understand why as they are parked well away from the street. Eventually he managed to explain that if they were not moved, we would not be able to get them out as they were about to fence off in front of the drive. Which, I said, was fine. One is our 'old' car, used by guests if they don't rent a car, the other is our 'big' car which we really want to get rid of but haven't yet managed to do so.

Right after lunch, there was yet another knock on the door. A problem with water, they said. It would be fine tomorrow. At least, we think that's what they said. Either that, or it would be a problem tomorrow as well. Sure enough, the mains water has gone off. Perhaps the digger went through a water main. We have plenty in our tanks for showers etc, and if we run out of drinking water (which comes from our mains tap) I suppose I can buy some in bottles.

I suppose it's pretty good that the street digging is happening only six weeks after it was supposed to have finished...