Very hot day today. We did some inside jobs to keep out of it a bit, especially as we’d got up a bit late, so we’d missed the cool of the day. Had breakfast and lunch out on the dining terrace. What a pleasure that is to eat in the open! Bob always says that it makes the food taste better and is one of the highlights of a visit.

Then jobs! Firstly, fixed several of the roman blinds. Clearly people had applied brute force to the controls because they’d managed to pull the ribbons out of rows of the “hooks” and they had to be rethreaded. I’ve amended the villa notes now to try and offset this. We have them at home so we know how they work but perhaps not everyone does???? It’s a fiddly job and that took quite a while. And hallelujah! I’ve found the curtain hooks so tomorrow I will have a go at putting up the pergola curtains. I hope they are ok. They’ve been to the laundry and they are a bit keen on the “boil wash”. Not sure it will have done the fine lawn cotton a lot of good, so fingers crossed. They’ve probably gone from being billowing full length, to being just the right size for a Toys R Us playhouse!

I went through the toy cupboard, discarding broken things and making sure all the inflatables worked. We have an absolute plethora of children’s armbands, sand toys, buckets and spades, bat and ball games, some snorkelling equipment, water goggles and 2 children’s inflatable swim vests….. and a pump…… and sun hats…… our mega-dread water pistol was in pieces so that went to the “sack”. A good job done. I check at the start of the season but then parents must make their own assessments as Marion does not have time to check between lets. You can buy some amazing pool/beach floats out here. Massive ones as well as the normal. They are pretty cheap, don’t last more than the season and are great fun. We used to supply floating chairs with cup holders but they always got broken so we don’t anymore but you can get them down the road at the supermarket.

Bob did other man cave jobs…. ran the watering lines and we made up a bag of rubbish from the works. We put the dustbins out at the end of our carport drive. The dustbin men will come sometime during the night or tomorrow morning. Never quite sure when they’ll come in that time window. They used to take everything but now they have a new super duper modern dusbin lorry, they don’t. However, if you have something bigger to get rid of and you put it out on the roadside, there is every chance someone will come along and take it and use it. We’ve done that a lot and we love to hear a car coming up or down the hill and then…… the sharp breaking…… and then a pause……. and then the car motoring off again!!!! We love it if someone wants something we havent got a use for anymore or can mend it.

We had a quiet afternoon. I sat around the pool reading and Bob read indoors. About 3pm a man in uniform suddenly appeared up the stairs from the carport! It was a quarantine official come to check I was there. Not interested in Bob at all, just Alison Boler. He checked my wristband, looking to see if it had been tampered with or possibly removed and he had a look at my app on the phone and that the internet was connected. Then “ok, everything fine” and off he went. He’d got quite a checklist of people but most of them will be in the casino hotels.

Tonight Bob bbq’d for the first time this visit! We have sheftali which are a sort of local kebab: lamb mince and herbs shaped like a sausage and wrapped in cawl. They are absolutely yummy, so succulent after grilling. The cawl bastes them and completely disappears.

I am writing this with my g&t as the sun sets and the birds are singing away around me! It’s just about the only sound…. So happy to be back.