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Oh dear, I am still on Cyprus time and was awake at 4.00am! Mal was not too impressed and put the pillow over his head!

Play time with the twins and then we had to leave them to head off for Stratford Upon Avon. We were staying in the Stratford Hotel. It was a nice hotel with very comfortable rooms and close to all the attractions.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Stratford and ended up in a beer garden where we polished off a bottle of wine and several beers. We also chatted to a really nice young couple there. He came from Stratford but they both now live in Argentina. Interesting people.

It looked a bit like rain and so in the evening we ate in the hotel. The tapas sharing platter was excellent which is more than could be said for the main course. In fact I had breast of duck and gave most of it to Mal and his lamb was tasteless.

Thought for the Day -“A mother becomes a true grandmother the day she stops noticing the terrible things her children do because she is so enchanted with the wonderful things her grandchildren do.” ~ Lois Wyse

Chris gave me a lift to Ercan where I caught the 8.10 plane. It was with Pegasus and I have to say for probably the first time ever we took off early. The flight was OK but I really get bored with flying nowadays.

Mal was waiting at Stansted airport and we collected our Hertz hire car. I think we have tried all of the car hire companies and Hertz are consistently good. We then drove to Torin’s. Scarlet and Jack are so funny and for twins they are so very different.

When it was bedtime Grandad told them one of his stories and then we had an excellent Chinese take away.

Thought for the Day -“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.” ~ Evan Esar

I spent most of the day cleaning up the house and watering the garden. This was fine until Mustafa, behind us, had a digger clearing more of his land, as fast as I was cleaning, more dust was accumulating from where the digger was disturbing everything. I even cleaned the pool and by the time he had finished it was covered again. All rather a waste of time. Late afternoon I took Rosie over to Lena’s for her ‘holiday’. To be honest, I think it may do her leg good being more restricted than she is at home.

I packed ready for my few days in the UK and then the house sitters arrived. I gave them their instructions and had an early night.

Thought for the Day - “Grandchildren don’t make a man feel old; it’s the knowledge he is married to a grandmother!” ~ G. Norman Collie

I was very sad to hear of the death of John Walker yesterday. For those that don’t know, one of the Walker Brothers. It makes you stop and think when you grew up listening to their music. He was only 67. I had all their LP’s!

I went to the shops in the morning and just popped into Starling while I was waiting for the water shop to open. I only bought four items and one of them they overcharged me by 3tl. I showed the girl the receipt, the usual shrug and so I just stood there until she called the Manager. A good 5 minutes later she appeared and I took her to the shelf, showed her the bar code on the bottle and the bar code on the shelf. Another shrug, she went back to the till and just gave me my 3tl. No wonder I rarely go into Starling.  Of course I didn’t get an apology…..I am a nuisance!

An article some may (or may not!) want to read see link. They say Cyprus would be ‘the hands down winner!’

I swam in the pool in the afternoon and remembered (not that I ever really forget!) what fantastic views we have as we are swimming and just how lucky we are.

Thought for the Day -”Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint on it you can.”  ~Danny Kaye

I am now getting up early and sitting on the terrace watching the sun come up behind the mountain…wonderful!

The pool temperature has risen to 24 degrees, so is lovely for swimming.

I heard from Mal in the evening and he fell asleep in the afternoon. I can’t say I am surprised after his three days of meetings and all that travelling. He says he has a lot of washing and ironing to do…a man’s work is never done!

Sunrise at 6.00am

Thought for the Day - “Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower” ~ Hans Christian Andersen

Summer is here! The pool is warming up nicely, so time for daily swims.

Rosie seems much improved back having her pain killers but still walks doing a kind of bunny hop trot.

In the afternoon Rhys and co came on the webcam for two and a half hours. It was a bit like having them all in the living room.

I watched the big game, Man U v Chelsea. A good game and the correct result. Man U won 2-1, almost champions now. About 15 minutes after the game finished we had a power cut. Thank goodness they waited until the end of the game.

Mal finished his three days of meetings and went back to the caravan. I should think he will be having a rest after all that until all the exam papers start arriving.

The pictures are very early morning from our bedroom.

Thought for the Day - “Everyone needs to have access both to grandparents and grandchildren in order to be a full human being.” ~ Margaret Mead

Mal managed his first days meeting at Warwick Uni yesterday, I guess it all came back to him pretty quickly.

I went to the shop and bought Cyprus Today. I can’t say there was much real ‘news’ in it see link. I did my best to pick out one or two articles in it!

The rest of the day gardening and watching Spurs. Oh dear, they really needed that game.

Thought for the Day - “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows” ~ St Francis of Assisi

Thunderstorms forecast for today, it certainly didn’t look like it. It was a lovely day.

I met up with the “girls” for lunch at Ezic Premier. We had a really good time but unfortunately the meal was not as good as the company. Four of us had the chicken fajitas. It was fine when the chilli etc was added but as soon as we tasted the chicken on its own, it tasted mouldy.  We tried to explain to the waiters who offered us more food but after the mouldy tasting chicken none of us really wanted anything else.

They gave us free coffees which we hadn’t actually asked for and when the bill came it was for the full price. I wonder when these restaurants will learn to listen to their customers. We were sure this was a one off as we have all eaten there before and the food was good but they really should have given us some sort of deduction. They didn’t end of story. I am sure four of us couldn’t be wrong.

Thought for the Day - “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart”. ~ Elisabeth Foley

We were up at 5.00am as Mal was flying back to the Uk to do his stint of marking and moderation. Rosie and I took him to the airport. At the other end he was travelling straight to Warwick Uni for three days of intensive meetings. That will be a challenge after doing nothing like that for months. But he has been doing this for years.

Still, at least his first three days he has hotel meals!

He rang in the evening and had lost one of his bottles of water and thought he had lost a pair of trousers that he packed…oh no he found them later!  He had better get his head in gear for his meetings!

Thought for the Day - “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one is watching.” ~ Satchel Paige