Catching up....

... with sleep, and jobs, and laundry. Very slowly, but I'm beginning to feel like a human being again. Tim managed 14 hours of sleep on Tuesday night, but I can never do that. However for two days I didn't wake up till 9am. Amazing. We realised we don't need to adjust our body clocks fully since this weekend is clock-changing time anyway; they go back an hour, to give more light in the early morning and less in the evening.

I've done seven loads of laundry so far, and still haven't caught up. It seems an immense amount, but we couldn't easily do any clothes-washing in the last 9 days of our stay in the UK. Also there was some laundry remaining from before we went away. At least I can get the lid on the basket though! Thankfully too it's dry and sunny here, so easy to get everything dry.

Weather's changed a lot in the past month, but it always does at this time of year. Before we left in the last week of September, it was still humid. We were sleeping with just sheets over us at night, and feeling hot in tee-shirts and shorts. In the UK of course we wore long trousers or jeans, and now we're back it's comfortable to continue in the jeans. In the evenings we even need sweatshirts as it feels quite chilly, and we've got out the duvets again for overnight. I prefer it this way, but no doubt in another couple of weeks it'll feel like winter again. Autumn is much too short in Cyprus.

Unfortunately mosquitoes are rife at this time of year, buzzing around our heads at night. We don't get bitten much - or if we do, we barely notice it - and there's no malaria risk here, but the noise drives us wild and keeps us awake. Eventually we plug in an insecticide pellet but the smell is horrible; I'm never quite sure which is worse. We bought - supposedly - an ultra-violet light thing that should attract mosquitoes and kill them, but they seem to ignore it mostly. Eating lots of garlic reduces the biting, but they still buzz around annoyingly.

The garden doesn't look as bad as I expected - it's still mostly brown as there hasn't been a huge amount of rain. There are leaves and pods all over the patio and elsewhere, but so far I haven't had the energy to sweep/rake them up. Maybe at the weekend. The pomegranates are almost finished, but the oranges and lemons are ripening fast.

Oh, and our local supermarket, Metro, has expanded. There has been building work going on for months, still evident on the outside. But inside are some extra aisles, with more space for things like cereals, and a new chilled fish counter. Several other things have moved too, and a lot of people seemed to be hunting for products (as we were) when we went there yesterday.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to have thought about the design. The fish counter, for instance, is positioned such that a strong fishy smell greeted us as we went in. Not very pleasant. Moreover, the chilled meat section has expanded, but is no longer on the last aisle before leaving. We used to buy all the chilled and frozen produce last when doing our weekly shop, as the fridge and freezer cabinets, and the delicatessen were all in a row. Now they're in various places, so either we have to go back for the ones at the beginning, or risk them getting warm in the trolley while we buy other things.

There are other confusingly placed shelves, but no doubt we'll get used to them once we learn where everything is. It wasn't exactly logical beforehand; I don't suppose it's any worse. After all, as is so often said, 'This is Cyprus'.