I say it’s the first day of quarantine, but I’m not sure if it’s the first or the second…… Did yesterday count as Day 0 or Day 1. I don’t know but I guess when the get out of jail sms comes through, all will be revealed.

We managed to stay awake till about 930 last night. So nice to have those long awaited g&ts on the terrace. Set a mental alarm to wake up at 2am (midnight UK time) to renew the data passport so my wristband would stay online. Didn’t want to take the chance that my link to Alan’s house wifi would go down while I was asleep. Amazingly, it worked and I bought a new one, went back and slept till about 0730.. No monitoring calls today so all must be working well.

Still felt woozy and knackered when we woke up but a cup of Nespresso soon put the world to right and we were up by about 9, Bob having eggs and bacon. So lovely to look out on the green mountains.

First job was to find out why the garden watering lines hadn’t been running. Our gardener, Jami,(Habibi) went home to Pakistan on holiday about 5 days ago so I think it must have been off a week because he said it was running when he was last up here. He’d planted some new shrubs and they were looking a bit like we felt…… It turned out the pump had stalled for some reason so we pressed the reset, reprogrammed the control panel and set it going. There are 4 watering lines so we walked each one of them looking for leaks or other problems. There were a couple of places where the pipes had uncoupled but otherwise all was looking good. We have a couple of small oranges on the tree down in the orchard, lots of loquats and there are pomegranates on the way. I picked a lemon from the little lemon tree today. It’s not so little anymore. Getting the water back on will make everything look fresher in a couple of days.

Then I took all the ornaments from the main house dining terrace and washed them and washed down the tables. At the moment Cyprus is subject to sand coming from north Africa. You can’t see it really but it’s there and it does settle, like fine dust. Also sorted out the automatic watering bottles for the pot plants and gave them all a big water, particularly those around the pool terrace where they are in the sun. Again, a few days of regular water in this warmth will see a big difference.

At this point, Multimax turned up to mend our internet cable so we all mimed and waved at each other all masked up. They had to climb up onto the top of our covered terrace to get at the dish which has the receiver on it and they replaced that and the length of cable from it to the router. Working perfectly again now so we don’t have to have mobile roaming and our phone data on anymore! It’s not as good as the 300mbs fibre link we have at home ROFL but it’s perfectly good for all we need generally. We have downloaded tv programmes over it etc. It was slow this afternoon for some reason and our video calls with Lucy weren’t any good though.

I went round and tested all the outside lights. As expected we will have to replace the 5 pool terrace “stick” lights this year. 2 are working, the others have all been “decapitated”. Once we are out and about again, we can do that. They’ve been there since 2003 so they have done good service. All the other lights – over the gate and around the bbq are all working fine. One of the underwater pool lights didn’t come on. Probably left on a long time by a guest. It’s hard to spot in the daylight. We will have to get a replacement and they are very awkward to fit as they are a totally closed unit that you sort of slot into a hole in the poolside under water. There’s a knack to it. Might have to get the pool guys to do it.

Our pool guy, Rick, came up around lunch time, so we chatted to him from the dining terrace across to the pool terrace. He brought us up to date on pool related matters and other goings on. He’s a lovely chap. English, grew up in Florida and married an American Turkish Cypriot lady and they came to live here decades ago. Our pool is still a bit low from yesterday but nearly back now. He gave it his usual twice weekly clean.

Bob then hooked up the power washer to clean the big main covered terrace. It had been swept but there was still a load of dust, thick in the corners and the stone tiles were looking orangey… The difference with the power washing is just amazing. Get’s everything clean so easily and also much easier than brushing to drive it off the terrace and down to the garden so we use the precious water. Of course we had to mend several holes in the hose pipe and it’s connectors first. It’s not a problem getting soaking wet out here at least. Like paddling as you clean! The hose will have to be replaced as soon as we can get out. It was leaking from every orifice really….

So, I guess our days of quarantine will continue on this way, doing what we can, making lists of things we need to get and jobs we will have to sub out. The poor old front door is looking very sad. Bob’s been patching it up for years but it’s gone beyond the pale now, we think. There are a couple of suppliers around here, one down our hill, so once we are “free” we will go and have a look.

Tomorrow, I will hang up the pergola curtains if I can find any curtain hooks! They were taken down for laundering but the hooks have disappeared. Hopefully they are around somewhere.

It was announced today that the N. Cyprus government will look to open up to double vaccinated tourists or tourists who have two negative PCR tests (one within 3 days of arrival, one on arrival) soon after June 10th with no quarantine. A bit later than they hoped but it will be something for the tourist businesses. They want to get a large percentage vaccinated first. I will be keeping my eye on that to let the girls know and also to start bookings from the beginning of July.

Anyway, worked till about 4pm. Bob decided to cool off and have his first dip so went straight in! He said it was a lovely temperature. BTW the wristbands are fully waterproof!

Tonight it’s some sort of chicken concoction around the pool.

Beginning to really relax now and enjoy being here, away from 24 hour news.