Chilly weather, central heating... and yet more about shopping

As I sit here, wearing three warm layers, with a cooling wheat bag on my lap, it seemed like a good idea to mention our current chilly snap in Cyprus. Among other things. 

Central heating

I don't remember, now, when it started to feel cold out. Maybe a week ago, maybe more. When we're in a cold spell, it somehow feels as if it's always been this way, and probably always will. I know, of course, that it will warm up again soon. We don't have long winters here. Summer - which lasts about six months - is much more difficult for me to deal with. So I'm not complaining. Truly. 

We have a large gas canister outside, and have to phone the company when it shows less than 25% full. At least, it appears to be a percentage, but we're not exactly sure what it refers to. We last had it filled in March last year, after a chilly period in February. If we weren't using central heating, it would probably last us several years as a supply of gas for the kitchen hob.

We finally replaced our old, inefficient boiler almost two years ago. The new one has to be serviced annually, ideally before we start using it. Because November was so warm, we hadn't got around to calling the engineer, but in December he came and did a thorough service. It wasn't very cold, but sufficiently cool that we wanted a bit of heating to come on in the evenings. 

We're very thankful that we have central heating. It's not normal here; houses are built for the summer, not for the winter. We have double-glazed windows, too. But with tile floors and quite high ceilings, it's not easy to stay warm when the temperatures outside drop below 15 degrees Celcius, as has been the case for the past week or ten days. It's been down to 5 or 6 degrees, sometimes less, overnight. 

When we checked the gas levels shortly before Christmas, it was still showing 55% full. We used the heating sporadically over the Christmas/New Year period. We kept checking, and it seemed to go down very slowly. It wasn't until about ten days ago that the levels were approaching the 25% level, so Richard got in touch with the company, and the truck came just over a week ago. 

And yes, the sky was blue, and the sun was out, so it didn't feel all that chilly outside. But the clear sky meant that the nights were very cold.  At least, very cold from our perspective, and cold enough that we needed to wear extra layers in the house. Yesterday the heating came on even during the daytime, when it has to be lower than 15C to click on. We haven't checked the level recently, but I expect it will be going down rather more rapidly than it did in December. I'm sure we'll need at least one more gas delivery this year.  Maybe more. 

Shopping, continuing from previous posts

Early in January, I wondered how long we could go without buying anything other than fresh fruit and vegetables. We still had quite a lot of food left from Christmas, several frozen meals from November and earlier December, and plenty of other things in the freezer. I quickly realised we also needed nuts, seeds and dried fruit, as well as packaged fruit juice... so changed to thinking about only buying unprocessed or minimally processed foods. Which is what I prefer anyway. 

However, until the end of last year, I would buy - without really thinking about it - products such as wholewheat pitta bread (from the fruitaria), and I regularly bought commercial coconut milk (both the drink and the canned versions) and oat milk. I wrote about starting to make my nut and oat milks at home again in my last post, as well as vegan 'cheeze'. 

While I mainly use fresh fruit and vegetables, there are some which (in my opinion) are a whole lot better when bought frozen. And we were running low on frozen peas. We have tried many different brands, and have come to the conclusion that it's well worth paying a bit more for the Birds Eye variety. The fruitaria stocks this, in their freezer section, rather less expensively than the supermarkets. 

So this was my fruit shop purchases on Friday: 

And yes, it does look remarkably similar to the previous photos, albeit with the addition of frozen peas.  Taking photos each time has been an interesting exercise, demonstrating that, although we do eat quite a lot of fresh produce, there's not a whole lot of variety from week to week. The large number of carrots is so that I could make carrot soup for guests on Sunday evening. 

Having said that, in the summer there are many more fruit choices than there are now; peaches, plums etc are quite seasonal. And although I've seen some early strawberries, experience tells me that they're usually a bit tasteless at this time of year. 

In addition, we were given a couple of aubergines by a friend. I do occasionally buy them, but don't often think about it. We had one, simply sliced and roasted, a week or two back. With the other, I made ratatouille, something I had not made in many years.

I had noticed that our supply of sweet chili sauce - bottled - was getting lower. This is something we've only discovered fairly recently. There are a few different brands available; obviously I avoid any with chemical-sounding additives. But even the best brands are, essentially, sugar water with a bit of chili and garlic. Surely, I thought, I could make some myself. 

I had browsed many different recipes before finding one that used apple cider vinegar, and which gave the option of using chili flakes or powder rather than small hot chili peppers. This was a good thing, as the fruitaria doesn't have any hot chilis. Cypriot food doesn't tend to be highly spiced, and even supposedly 'hot' food at restaurants or fast food places is, to our tastebuds, quite mild. 

So I experimented. The result was surprisingly good, similar to the bottled variety in texture. I was concerned about making it too hot - chili powder is a bit unpredictable - so erred on the side of caution. Next time I'll use a bit more chili powder. But as it's so quick and inexpensive, I don't suppose we'll buy the bottled variety any more. 

On Saturday I realised that we had run out of wholemeal pitta bread. We usually have that with our weekly curry - and I was still using up curry portions that I had frozen last year. So I decided to make naan bread, something our son used to do regularly when he lived at home.  The breadmaker deals with the mixing and kneading, so all I had to do was divide the dough into eight, rest it for a while, roll it out thinly, and then cook in a pan. 

Last time I made naan, I used a tortilla press instead of rolling, but it was a bit messy. Rolling was quite strenuous, but the dough was stretchy, and I could roll each one as the previous one was cooking. And they were pretty successful. We used two, and froze the rest in twos for future curries.

By Monday morning, I realised that we were getting very low on wholemeal bread flour, and also the lighter wholewheat flour which I use for cakes. I did have some white bread flour, and also white cake flour, but didn't want to have to make fully white bread, though I use a small amount of white flour in bread, and about 50/50 in pastry and cakes. I had started my reserve bottles of both sunflower oil and olive oil, too, and I hated the thought of running out of either. And I was craving Greek yogurt... 

So I before I went to the fruit shop in Monday, I went to the mini-market opposite. And here's the result of Monday's shopping:

Packaged flour and olive oil are 'minimally processed', as I understand it. And Greek yogurt is processed. The only additive is gelatine, which I would prefer to avoid - but this brand is, in my view, much the nicest. It's the only dairy product I have on a regular basis. 

And if anyone's wondering why I have some produce in plastic bags, it's because the fruitaria has a kind of colour code: the green bags are for their best quality products, the blue bags are for their mid-range, and the pink are for the ones which are either in excess, or which need to be used up quickly. I mainly buy blue-bag and pink-bag products (I have taken most of the fruit and veg out of their bags for the photos). And I re-use all the bags, for things like cat litter. So at least they're not 'single-use'. 

A cold February in Cyprus

 While January was apparently warmer than usual - and it certainly didn't seem particularly cold - February this year has been decided chilly. Almost from the start of the month, the temperatures dropped. We were very glad that we decided to replace our central heating boiler last year. It has a control system that allows us to set the maximum temperature without heating for different times, during the day. 

So overnight it won't come on unless the temperature drops below something like 14 degrees C. In the morning upstairs it comes on if it's cooler than 18C for an hour or so, which warms the towel rail in the bathroom and raises the ambient temperature.  Similarly, through the day, there are different states and temperatures which trigger it to come on.  

And it works perfectly. If we want extra heat, we can turn the thermostat up a degree or two. If we're going out, or not using one floor of the house, we can turn it down so as not to heat an unused space. Individual radiators can be turned up or down, too.  

In December and January, it barely came on at all. We did notice that the gas level was running low early in January, so we ordered more. We have a large tank outside our boiler room, and a man comes with a gas truck to fill it up when we request it. 

The winter of 2023/2024 was so mild that we only had to have it filled once. Our kitchen stovetop is powered by gas too, so we use small amounts for that through the year. And the heating was working in January, and more so in early February when the temperatures dropped. So much so that we had to order another refill of the gas tank around February 10th. 

We didn't think that was too bad. With our previous boiler, we sometimes had to order new gas every two or three weeks in colder periods. This time it had been over five weeks.

But it got colder. Gradually, day by day, I added more warm items of clothing to wear when I went out for an early morning walk. By February 20th, it was warmer in the UK than in Larnaka. Which was fortunate for Richard, as he had flown there for ten days.  There was even snow in some parts of the island, quite extensive in the mountains. 

I felt quite sorry for families who had come to Cyprus for the UK half-term break (either last week or this week, depending on location), hoping for a bit of warmth. 

Yesterday, I took this screenshot from my phone just after 6.00am, shortly before joining my friend Sheila for a walk around the Salt Lake:  

Yes, that says one degree Celcius, 'feels like' minus 3. Maximum of 14, and a note at the bottom saying that temperatures would be a little higher than the previous day.

Wrapped in scarf, knitted hat, gloves and an extra jacket, I still felt cold, although walking helped to warm me up. For the first time this year, there was ice in the park on some (though not all) of the wildflowers:

There was ice on the park benches, too, although in this photo it looks more like a kind of mould:

I had kept checking the gas - we have someone staying in our guest flat, so the heating is on there as well as in the main part of the house - and by yesterday it was quite low, so we ordered some more. It took not much more than two weeks this time, but then the heating has been on almost continually for the past four or five days.  With fairly high ceilings, tiled floors and poor insulation, Cyprus houses are not built for the cold. So the temperature never reached the figures we had set.

Strangely, though, when the heating is on, even if the thermostat only shows 14 or 15 degrees, the house feels warmer than when the heating is off and the thermostat shows 17 or 18. 

Then today it was six degrees at 6.00am. It felt so much pleasanter when I went out to the froutaria. I didn't even wear gloves, though I still put on my knitted hat. And the forecast is much more reasonable - and seasonably normal - for the next couple of weeks:

So perhaps we won't have to have the gas tank filled again until next winter.

April, and restrictions ease in Cyprus

So it's over two years since the pandemic started. Case numbers are still fairly high in Cyprus, given that the population is not much more than a million. But restrictions are easing, as they have in many other Western countries in the past couple of months. We still have to wear masks in shops and other indoor public spaces, but safe passes haven't had to be shown in supermarkets or other grocery shops for a couple of weeks, and as of Monday they won't need to be shown anywhere. 

I mentioned in my last post that March had turned chilly, as often happens during the first week of March. I didn't expect that it would continue to be decidedly on the cool side for Cyprus. We've had to have our gas tank refilled at least three times this winter - it was only once a year ago. The central heating was coming on, if only for half an hour or so, every day until the end of the month. 

We realised how unusual that was the day after the clocks went forward (the last Sunday of March); we didn't change the central heating timer clock, and realised it had not previously occurred to us that we might need to. Never before has the heating come on during the daylight savings/summer time period.

I was still wearing several layers of clothes, using a microwave wheat bag every night, and still using our double thickness of duvet (13 togs and 4.5 togs together). Although I change the sheets and pillowcases every week, I only change the duvet cover once a fortnight - and both times, during March, I pondered whether to move to just the 13 tog duvet, and quickly decided against it. It's only in the past week that it started to feel over-warm, and today I put away the 4.5 tog duvet. At some point we'll have a couple of weeks when we just need that, then I'll wash them both and pack them away for the summer.

So it was no surprise to learn that March was the coldest ever for Larnaka (and other parts of the island). 

I took very few photos. I didn't even take one of yellow foliage - perhaps it took longer to appear. I did take this photo, however, which is mostly yellow, about four weeks ago:

A crate of lemons, brought to us by a friend who had been employed to cut down an old lemon tree that was growing too close to someone's house. That wasn't all of them - we took maybe 25% of the lemons we were offered.  I don't know how many kilograms there were, but I spent a fair bit of time grating skin to freeze zest, juicing them - to freeze, or use.  

I've frozen two biggish boxes of lemon 'cubes' to use when I need just a tablespoon of the juice in the months when lemons are more difficult to get hold of, and several small boxes with 100ml each of lemon juice to use in various recipes that need more than a tablespoon. I've also frozen a couple of boxes of lemon slices, to use in water, or on salmon.  And during many of those chilly evenings we drank hot lemon and honey. 

I had to throw out maybe three or four that started to go mouldy, but I kept the crate outside, and the colder weather meant that most of them kept very well. I haven't used them all, even now. But the ones that remain are very small and getting a bit dried out.

As usual, I walked three times a week with my friend Sheila, along part of the Salt Lake trail. I say 'as usual' but for a couple of weeks in January I didn't walk due to having Covid, and for a couple of weeks in February she didn't walk, due to isolating and then having Covid herself. But in March we were both fine, and although we sometimes had to wrap up extra-warm, with woolly hats and scarves, it was good to get out first thing. 

In addition to being cold, there was a fair amount of rain, so that the Salt Lake was about as full as it ever gets: 

The picture doesn't really show it well, but usually there are several metres more of 'beach' before the water starts.

Flamingoes, of course, have been much in evidence, though never close enough for good pictures:

My freesias came out, over a week later than their usual date, and didn't last long, but they were pretty for a few days:

At the end of the month, I popped around the corner to buy something from 'Kritikos', our convenient supermarket which was previously 'Savemore', and before that 'Micro', and before that 'Orphanides Express', and before that 'Kleitos'.  Yes, all those different supermarkets in the not-quite-sixteen years since we moved to this house (how can it possibly be sixteen...?)

And, like all its predecessors, it had closed. Abruptly, with no warning. 

I wonder what its next incarnation will be... or whether it just isn't commercially viable to have a supermarket in a residential area like this one. 

I don't even take as many photos of the cats as I used to. Alexander and Lady Jane are eight years old now, and Alex, at least, is just starting to slow down a little. He, like me, seems quite sensitive to both extremes of weather; he doesn't like it being cold, but he doesn't like heat either. Here he is, worn out after being outside in the unexpected warmth of April (and it was VERY hot for a couple of days - up to 27 degrees, with a dust storm from the Sahara)

Jane, however, likes the heat so much that even in July and August she pointedly departs from any room where the air conditioning is turned on. She has spent much of the winter curled up in a beanbag right against a radiator. And even in early April, when I was, at last, shedding a layer or two, she was clearly hinting that she wanted the heating on again:

Yes, Jane is such an unusual cat that she actually sleeps in a bed that is intended for cats! 

Winter and Christmas preparation in Cyprus

I have evidently been neglecting this blog recently. I've been busy with various things, and somehow blogging has slipped off my radar. My last post was early November, when I was writing about October. Since then, winter (such as it is in Cyprus) has appeared, and Christmas will be here very soon. So here's a brief summary of the past six weeks or so:

The temperature always takes a downward turn around the second week of November. So around that time I got out our two cat beds. I made one of them, a few years ago, and we bought the other one. To my surprise, the cats decided to sleep in them.  However, Alex, who is really quite a large cat, squashes into the smaller bed:

While Lady Jane, his petite sister, spreads out comfortably in the larger bed:

On November 20th, we went into the large and somewhat random shop Kleima. I forget what we were looking for, but we spotted some large poinsettia plants at just €4.99.  We usually pay more than that for much smaller ones.  It felt much too early for a plant we consider to be a Christmas decoration.  And I was dubious about buying it from Kleima; the shop isn't known for great quality. But somehow we decided to buy one anyway.  The pot was a little small, so I re-potted the plant:

In the process, a couple of the stems fell out. They didn't break off, or anything; they were stems that had apparently been pushed into the soil to bulk the plant out a bit. I trimmed them and put them in water.  Over the next few days, I noticed other stems starting to droop... and on gentle pulling, found that they, too, were just loose stems.

However, the actual plant, while considerably less voluptuous than it originally appeared, has survived well and is looking good.

Our closest friends here had been away for over two months, so although winter was approaching I hadn't done any early morning walks in October or November. But they returned at last, and I woke early enough to see a sunrise on November 25th:

A few days later, it was my turn to travel, though I was only away for a week.  My flight was quite early, though after sunrise; as I looked out of the plane window I spotted part of a rainbow:

My trip was to the UK, in order to help my father celebrate a special birthday.  While there, visiting a garden centre, we saw this display of mechanical toys:

They were delightful to watch, but then we saw the boxes. Each one cost at least £30, some of them more, and one alone would be rather dull. They're not toys, and they're the kind of thing one would only get out at Christmas. They were a great display for the garden centre, but I did wonder who might buy one!

At the weekend there was a family party, with twenty of us in all, and a magnificent cake made by my father's wife:

Since I was seeing my siblings and their spouses, with whom we still exchange gifts at birthdays and Christmas, I did all my Christmas shopping online before I flew out. I then wrapped everything, and distributed appropriately.  I also wrote all the Christmas cards for UK friends and relatives, and got our newsletters printed and posted too.  I even made this year's Christmas puddings and mincemeat before my brief trip.  I don't think I have ever been so organised, and it was a good feeling.

A week after my return to Cyprus, the Christmas season was well underway.  The Larnaka Christian Writers' group had our annual Christmas potluck lunch with lots of good food and enjoyable company:

Among other things, I took along some of my first batch of mince pies.

Then, the following day, Sheila's daughters helped me to decorate our Christmas tree, something which has become an annual tradition:

A couple of days after that, Richard and I celebrated the 40th anniversary of our first date.  We had a take-away lunch, had some professional photos taken, and saw some of the lights of Larnaka:

In the evening we went out to eat, and then - along with many other people - took photos of this rather strange giant bauble at the end of the small pier:

At the weekend, I hung up last year's Christmas cards, something else I do each year since so many don't arrive until January. And I sewed up another shepherd I had knitted for our Nativity scene:

I made the first of this season's lemonade on Saturday, after buying a crate of thirty lemons for a couple of euros. On Sunday I made the second batch of mince pies, and some veggie 'sausage' rolls for freezing.  On Monday I made some gingerbread and chocolate chip cake.  I also opened up and made up the sofa bed in Tim's room, which made Jane very happy:

Tim arrived last night and she was even happier. He has always been her human of preference.

Today I made marzipan and put that on the Christmas cake. I need to make some more mince pies, within the next few days, and ice the Christmas cake... but that's about all until we cook the turkey on Christmas Eve.

The house is not as warm as we'd like because one of our central heating pumps needs to be replaced. We've bought the new pump, but the central heating engineer recommended by the shop hasn't come to fit it, though he said he would do so yesterday evening or this morning. However it's not particularly cold out, so an extra jacket is sufficient, at least at present.

I hope to write another blog post on Christmas Eve, as I tend to each year, and will then make a 'resolution' to write at least one post per week in 2018. 

Lacy Beret

After spending most of the year knitting soft toys for friends and grandchildren, I thought I would try something entirely different. I browsed through my Patons accessories booklet, something I acquired many years ago but, as far as I recall, have never previously used.

I decided to attempt the hat labelled 'lacy beret'.  I'm not one to follow fashion, but this kind of hat seems to be 'in' at the moment, and - more importantly - I rather liked it. The pattern looked complicated, but is only one piece. I felt more confident than I did a year ago, after trying so many different items, so I found some grey yarn - to match, roughly, a grey scarf I have already - and got started.

Here's the top view of the finished hat:

The first part is deceptively easy. 3mm needles and fifteen rows of simple rib. Then a switch to 4mm needles, and the lacy pattern part.  I had to learn a new acronym: 'tbl' means 'through back of loops'.  I didn't just have to knit through the back of loops, but knit two together 'tbl', after moving the yarn forward to create an extra stitch. This, combined with knitting two together (in regular fashion) was what created the lacy effect 'holes'.

There were 141 stitches when I started the lacy pattern section, which is the bulk of the hat, and I quickly realised that the 'pattern' instructions were for 20 stitches, meaning that they were repeated seven times, plus an extra stitch at the end.  Alternative rows are straight purl.  And while I usually enjoy 'knit' rows more than 'purl', I found myself looking forward to the purl rows as I didn't have to concentrate or count what I was doing.

I did just four rows per day over the course of a week; each knit row, with its complex instructions, took me about ten minutes.  Knitting through the back of the loops was often rather painful on my finger; I had to remember to purl as loosely as I could, but it was still, sometimes, very difficult to make it work.

I also decided I would count each row of purl, to ensure I hadn't gained or lost a stitch. It would be very easy, for instance, to miss one of the 'yarn forward' instructions, or indeed to do an extra one, as the first and third rows were not the same.  And, sure enough, at least twice I found that I had only 140 stitches.

I then had to try and work out where I'd gone wrong, and put in an extra one on my next row... and that wasn't easy. In fact, the first time I got in such a muddle that I gained an extra stitch and then had to work it into the pattern on my next row.  It's a good thing that I'm not a total perfectionist. I decided that if the pattern went a little awry, it probably wouldn't matter. There was only one time that I actually back-tracked and undid about half a row. I knew instinctively that it would be very difficult, and that I would probably end up losing stitches entirely if I did that.

I'm relieved that it did turn out reasonably well - looking at the top of the hat, as in the photo above, it's not immediately obvious where the pattern is askew. By the time it's on my head I'm pretty sure it won't be noticed at all.

The last twenty or so rows were a little more complicated still, changing each time as the number of stitches decreased to make the top of the hat. I completed all that in just one morning, and then it took less than five minutes to sew it all together.

This is what it looks like when laid flat:

And my problem now is that I don't know how to wear it. The first photo shows it as a beret, but the ribbed section is quite deep.  If I pull it on my head, it looks like a beanie-style hat. If I fold the rib under and push it up, it looks a little like a beret, but rather floppy.

I remember, now, that when I was a teenager, in the junior red cross, I had trouble wearing a beret. It never looked quite right.  So after all that effort, I may find myself just pulling it down over my ears to keep warm in the colder months.

I'm glad I tried out this lacy style - and it's relatively simple, compared to some other patterns I've seen - but think I'll stick to soft toys and more straightforward patterns in future!

A Cold and Frosty Cyprus

I know. It happens every year. Just as we think that Spring might be around the corner, as the days get longer... wham! We're in the middle of such a cold spell that it's almost impossible to stay warm.

December was bad enough; for most of the time Tim was here, hoping for a bit of sunshine, it rained or was grey and rather miserable. But although chilly, it wasn't bitterly cold.  Perhaps ten or twelve degrees, but the cloud cover meant that it didn't get much cooler at night. And our house isn't too badly insulated, at least compared to the majority of Cyprus homes.

Since we returned from our UK trip, it's been quite sunny, around 15 degrees in the daytime. Not too bad at all, I thought. We've been running our central heating for a couple of hours morning and evening, and the house has mostly stayed reasonably warm.

On Tuesday I could see quite a few clouds so took my camera when I went for my morning walk with Sheila. The flamingoes were in evidence, but I didn't want to get any closer to the Salt Lake, and my camera doesn't have much of a zoom... but for anyone interested, those little dots are hundreds of flamingoes; clicking the small photo should take you to a larger version:

And yes, there was a pretty sunrise too, if a little spoiled by the overhead cables....

But this weekend was predicted by the local paper to be the coldest in a long time. As it was due to be around 2-3 degrees this morning, I wore a very warm jacket and gloves when I went out for my walk with Sheila.  That on top of two other warm layers. I did shed the gloves after about three kilometres of fairly fast walking, but put them on again before I got home.

The cats are spending a lot of time either racing around the house looking for things to knock over...

...or huddled up near radiators.

Jane doesn't go out at all, other than on our balcony, but Alex has always liked running around the rooftops nearby, so we let him out when he asks in the daytime. Today he's been out briefly perhaps three times, quickly returning through the incoming-only cat flap. At lunch-time I opened it for him and a blast of cold air came through. He turned and looked at me with a shocked expression. Surely I couldn't expect him to go out in THAT...?!

This morning I stayed somewhat active and warmish in the kitchen. The oven was on as I made my next month's granola, and I also needed to process 5kg tomatoes that I bought (for a euro) yesterday at the local fruit/veg stall. I made around 800ml tomato ketchup:

I stewed another couple of kilograms gently, then froze in four portions to use in place of canned tomatoes in future.  And I also decided to dehydrate another kilogram and a half, to give me dried tomatoes to use in one of our favourite bread recipes.

The dehydrator gives out a lot of hot air. While it's not exactly an efficient way to heat the kitchen, it's a great by-product at this time of year.

Even so, I gave the central heating an extra hour boost twice during the daytime, something I almost never do. Just as well it's only infrequently this cold.

Here's what the hourly weather forecast showed when I checked it just a few minutes ago:

Yes, it's due to be down to zero degrees, freezing point, by 8.00pm.

Still, I really don't mind the cold weather nearly as much as I dislike the heat and humidity of Cyprus in Summer.

Family visits (not in Cyprus)

Ten days ago, we flew from Larnaka to Gatwick. Winter is not a time when we normally choose to be in the UK, but events came together this year in a way that really gave us little choice. I wrote in an earlier post about our new granddaughter, born a couple of weeks early in Carlisle (and now in excellent health). Naturally we wanted to meet her as soon as possible.

I had also mentioned back in September that our younger son Tim is now living and working in Surrey. At the time he had a temporary job and was living in temporary accommodation. So a great deal of his stuff (particularly books and kitchen equipment) was stored in Cyprus. In November he was offered a permanent post, and was then in a position to look for a flat to rent longer term. He found somewhere and took possession in the middle of December, but since he was spending Christmas with us in Cyprus, the only things he had bought for the flat so far were a bed, bedding, and some crockery.

After Christmas, Tim prioritised his stored stuff, and we booked two 20kg suitcases for each of us (yes, that's 120kg of checked luggage!) on our flight, and Richard - who is excellent at packing - worked out what would go where.

We needed two cars to get to the airport, and happily two of our friends were willing to drive us there. Checking in was no problem, the flight was on time, and all the luggage arrived safely. Since we got to Gatwick after 11pm we had booked overnight at the Travelodge which, as usual, offered good value and a large breakfast.

In the morning, Richard and Tim went to pick up the rental car we had booked. They were expecting to pick up a VW Golf. Tim was then planning to get the train from Gatwick to his new place, while we hoped to fit the luggage in the car in full estated form.

However, the only Golf available was 500 miles away from needing a service, so they were offered a free double upgrade. It's a car which Richard likes very much, and which easily took all the luggage, plus the three of us:

Our first view of Tim's flat was a bit mixed.  The living room area was bare and empty, the second bedroom filled entirely with packing material from Tim's purchases so far - but no furniture at all. However, we very much liked the kitchen. It's quite compact, but fully equipped with oven, hob, a large fridge-freezer, and even a dishwasher.

After we had brought the cases in, my job was to sort and tidy rubbish and packaging material, and unpack suitcases (other than the two containing books) while Richard and Tim went to collect a transit van, rented for the day, and then to drive around collecting various second-hand furniture that Tim had ordered through 'GumTree', a classified site that, in Surrey, seems to have a great deal of inexpensive and high quality items.

By the end of the day,Tim had acquired a sofa bed for us to sleep in, an office table and chair plus a computer monitor, an Ikea sofa (in pieces, still) a dining table and chairs, bedside cabinets, and - his favourite purchase - a gliding chair, all for a fraction of their worth. Thankfully, although it was very cold outside, it was not raining.

On the following day, which was cold and frosty, they returned the rental van and then we drove in the large car to Newbury, where my brother and sister-in-law were hosting my family's annual post-Christmas gathering. It's the first one Richard and I have been to since the tradition started about twelve years ago. Fourteen of us sat down to an excellent lunch, followed by present-opening.

Yet more of Tim's stuff had been stored in my father's garage in Alcester, and that had been transferred to Newbury, so we collected a couple of boxes of kitchen and computer bits and pieces, and his bass guitar. We drove back through freezing fog, which was not pleasant: a cultural experience that we have never had in Cyprus.

On the Friday we spent the day with Richard's mother in Sussex, with lunch at a garden centre; then we managed to find some winter jackets, reduced by 70% or more. I'd been wanting a new waterproof winter jacket for a long time as my previous one was over thirty years old and rather falling to pieces.

On Saturday Richard and Tim put his sofa together, and he bought some more important items: a biggish bookcase, a digital piano, and even a picture for his wall. His living room was starting to look quite cosy by the end of the day:

On Sunday - New Year's Day, though it felt like weeks since Christmas! - we visited Tim's church, which was friendly and welcoming, then had a rather worrying phone call from our friend Sheila who is cat-sitting for us while we're away. Cleo, who is now about eighteen-and-a-half, had been getting confused, wandering around in circles, and got herself into a tight spot where she had to be rescued after some furniture moving.

I happened to take a picture of Cleo shortly before we flew out; she was getting frail, and thinner than she used to be, but her coat was still reasonably clean, her eyes bright, and she was eating heartily. As far as we could tell, she was quite happy, and in full possession of her sight, hearing and other senses. She slept a lot, and had some arthritis and a swollen (but not painful) leg... but otherwise was fine.

We wondered if she had suffered some kind of stroke.  However, since Sheila assured us that Cleo did not seem to be in any pain or distress, we suggested waiting to see what transpired. There would only be emergency vet services on New Year's Day, and it's not as if a vet could 'cure' such an elderly cat (she's around 112 in human year equivalency). Cleo has rallied before when we thought she was on her last legs...and indeed she was better on the Monday. Worse again on the Tuesday, but then livelier and very friendly to Sheila for the rest of the week... at least, so far. More than one person has suggested that Cleo may be missing us.

Back to our UK trip... we played a board game after lunch before setting off for Alcester, where we admired my father's wooden Santa collection, some of which was on display on the mantelpiece:

We relaxed there for a couple of days, though my father was plagued with a nasty chest infection and I was suffering from a nasty lingering cough. Then on Wednesday we drove the longer distance up to Carlisle to meet Esther:

She was four weeks old yesterday, and still sleeps most of the time, though she's quite windy at night which keeps her parents awake rather too much. She's gorgeous, but not yet reacting much to other people. So, inevitably, we're spending more time with David, who, at two-and-a-half, is delightful. He rarely stops talking, and has an amazing imagination as well as an apparently insatiable appetite for books, something we're all happy to encourage:

I had a bit of an adventure with him yesterday when I took him out for what I thought would be a fairly quick walk around a few blocks, to give him some fresh air and let him splash in puddles. I didn't take my bag, thinking I wouldn't want my camera, only to realise after he'd led me along several different roads and paths that I had NO idea where we were... and did not have my phone to call for help!

Thankfully he has a much better sense of direction than I do, and although we must have walked for more than a mile he led me back to the end of his street and home in time for lunch.

When he's not being read to, or playing with his diggers, or Duplo, or Postman Pat figures, or doing jigsaws (I was impressed to find that he can do a 12-piece puzzle without any help, and a 16 or 20-piece one with only a few suggestions) he's role playing in some way; here he is, in a cool hat, having clicked on his imaginary seat-belt, and donned his imaginary sunglasses, driving a car:

It's going to be harder than ever saying goodbye when we return to Cyprus in another week.