Wow!  Even hotter today, 35C in the shade on our terrace and going to be hotter tomorrow apparently.  We try and do jobs in the morning and then peg out by the pool in the afternoon.  Sometimes this actually works out!!!!

Today, we headed off after breakfast to find the awning shop that Marion had used for our dining terrace.  Easy!  They were in the same little precinct in Lapta that my favourite beauty parlour, Amore, on the Lapta coastal strip.  Two gentlemen on sewing machines, one chap re-upholstering a car seat and a greeter who spoke English.  We ordered up the material for our new pergola roof.  Installed, it is going to cost about £200 which is not bad.  The fabric they use is a special canvas that has plastic woven into it that resists mold.  Normal canvas tends to get black mold marks quite quickly.  He’s going to be ready to do it next week.

We then went on to the garden centre where we’d ordered the wood for the oven.  He wasn’t there but he rang us before we drove away to say he was coming this afternoon.

Our final stop was at a curtain shop a bit further up on the Lapta strip.  I wanted some suitable material for the end curtains for the pergola.  Found some nice muslin type cloth and he is making me 4 curtains with tie backs for the sides.  It was more of a challenge communicating here as he spoke no English at all and neither did the lady assistant.  So, we played a sort of game of Pictionary, where I drew the curtains and measurements and we went from there!!!  The curtains will be ready on Monday and they cost £100.  Now all we need to do is get the pergola built!!!!  He promised it by Wednesday of next week so we will be ready!

We spent the afternoon around the pool.  It is all back to normal now, Bob’s maintenance finished and totally successful.  Soooooo hot.  I had bought two “noodles” in Lemar supermarket.  We have big floats but the noodles are so easy to use…  Lots of floating, chatting….. It is so peaceful up here.

The wood delivery turned up about 3pm.  The man and his two young sons with all the wood in a trailer behind a small van.  He massively revved the van trying to reverse into our upper drive and there was a bit of a bang, and then a load of water ran down the hill….. oh dear….. he wasn’t in a very cheery mood after that.  Anyway, they unloaded a great load of wood into our pile.  Then Bob helped push the trailer back to the road, but it went one wheel down the storm drain…. The fella then attached it back up to the van, gave another great rev, more banging… but pulled it out.  Bob thought his radiator hose had gone and we prepared a watering can.  But, on investigation it was his engine expansion tank which had literally exploded and collapsed.  He drove off anyway, aiming to get home with it!  Hope he made it down our mountain road.

Tonight, the lighting man came and delivered the garden lanterns.  He also speaks no English (very sweet guy) and we had fun guiding him in.  In the end, we had to use the third party fella again and Bob stood out in the road ready to flag him down.  He made it anyway, wife and family in the car.

So, tomorrow we go out to buy the electrical stuff that Bob needs to install the lanterns.  Aim to get them in place over the weekend.

We ate outside tonight of course.  Slow cooked beef ribs with green beans and Bob had divine Cyprus potatoes with some melted butter.  We are so lucky to have this wonderful place to come to.