This morning we got up early and began painting the kitchen at about 0830.  A very pale duck egg blue emulsion that will look lovely with our creamy yellow units and with the new curtains and blinds.  It didn’t seem too bad a job as a lot of the walls are covered by cabinets.  Well….  I guess it’s been a while since we did a lot of decorating.  I have decorated A LOT over the years.  Wallpapered a massive 4 storey Victorian house from top to bottom including the stairs and landings…. rag rolled, marbled, sponged…. painted ceilings… wallpapered ceilings… you name it.  But…. it has been a while.  Honestly, putting one coat around this kitchen absolutely knackered us!  Bob fell off the stepladder.  I put my foot in the tray of paint!  It was pathetic.  We are obviously too aged to attempt such tasks anymore.  Anyway, it is done and it looks lovely.  Waiting till tonight to see if we need to go round again…. please, god, no……..

In fact, if it does need more I am toying with doing some sponging onto it in a cream colour, like the cabinets.  We’ll see what it looks like tonight.  Very pleased with the colour so far though.  Will take some pictures tomorrow when we have put it all back together again.  At the moment it looks like a nicely painted bomb site!

We then did a few small jobs before we got too tired.  Filled some holes round the front of the house that we’d made with the cabling.  I painted an old coffee table that I am refurbishing with silver hammerite.  We found it in Bob’s mancave and it will do very nicely on the terrace for people to rest their drinks on.

A massive thunder storm rolled in from the mountains at about 3pm and that put an end to outside work.  Thunder, lightning, lashing rain….. a real belter!

OOOh…. we also put up the new blinds in bedrooms 3 and 4 today.  They look fabulous and really brighten the rooms up.  Mermaid have done a smashing job.  So pleased.

We are nearly at an end of our springtime refresh now.  Just have to finish the kitchen and then we have the new curtains to hang in there and also the curtains for the side windows in the hallway.  After that, we are about done.  We have to be!  We have friends visiting for the next three weeks and we want to enjoy them and show them the island.

So, couldn’t face cooking tonight and we decided to go out for an early, quick dinner.  We loaded the back of the car with the last few bits of our “roadside rubbish” to take to some large bins for collection.  We intended to go to dinner at the Blue Door restaurant in Alsancak which is pretty near us, but the bins were in the opposite direction near Escape Beach, and there was a massive line of traffic heading back towards Alsancak – must have been an accident – so we decided to eat somewhere near Escape Beach and let the traffic pass.

We got the rubbish into the bins but there was a load of mud around them and my sandals got absolutely caked in it, although I didn’t notice at the time.  We thought we might eat at the Kervan Terrace, and Italian restaurant that overlooks the sea, but there was no parking so we drove on to Karaoglanoglu and ate at the Dogus Adres, also right by the sea.

This restaurant is on the site of one of the first restaurants we ever ate at in northern Cyprus, the Address.  We loved it and we always ate there several times each visit.  Then in about 2009, it closed and remained closed till last year, when a new and super swish Address arose from the ruins.  A really upmarket building with a lovely location of course.  The menu is still the same as the old one: you get a meze starter, you pay for your main course and then there is a dessert buffet and coffee and brandy all included.

After we sat down waterside, I noticed the waiters were brushing and mopping the terrace all the way to our table.  Imagine my chagrin, when I looked down and saw my shoes all caked – literally caked – in mud which was leaving a tell tale trail!!!!  The meze was very nice: salad, humus, tahini, olives, couscous salad, breads, spicerub chips (divine), home made spicy potato crisps (double divine), haloumi, and cheese garlic bread.  Then for main, I had lamb chops with pitta, sweet peppers and rice which was delicious.  Bob had chicken curry which came with lovely nutmegy mashed potatoes.  We were stuffed.  Really nice lamb chops.  Very tender.  Then we had ice creams for dessert, coffee and brandy.  It came to about £12 each including a beer, a Bombay Sapphire and tonic and a bottle of water.  Such good value.

I crept out praying I was not leaving mud across their terrace again!