Didn’t blog yesterday as I was too fed up regarding pool issues. We had started dropping the water level in the pool the night before and using it to water the garden, but by Saturday morning it became clear that we weren’t going to use enough this way to get the pool level down far enough for the guy coming up at lunchtime to sort out the lights. So we had to start pumping it out via the garden tank and running the irrigation simultaneously. Inevitably the pumping is faster than the irrigation so that resulted in the garden water tank filling, overflowing, and a stream of water running off down the mountain!!! I absolutely hate that….. and also it was very difficult when the pool was full to really judge how far down we were going to have to drop it – there is a kind of optical illusion. Possibly I would have said forget it….. Anyway, enough to say that we had to take it to below knee level in the shallow end, absolutely tonnes of water gone.

Then the guy came up fiddled with the lights and said he couldn’t waterproof the holes because they were still too wet and they needed to dry out. He would be back Monday lunchtime to do that and then another day to dry and so Wednesday for a tanker to come up and refill the pool. Sigh….. It looks very sad all exposed like that! And having lots of water in and out of the pool always makes me nervous because its a big weight being relieved and then put back in, quite suddenly. It stresses the pool, or it can do, and then you might (hopefully not) get a leak or a crack. We have only ever done it once in all the years we’ve owned.

So, today, Sunday, we’ve been doing a few light jobs. Sorting out some curtain hanging issues where hooks had come down etc. Washing…. Bob and I got our approval yesterday for another stage of the Temporary Residency Visa. We were invited to pay for our health checks. You do it online. After a bit of a faff with credit cards, Bob got his through, but mine failed and then I couldn’t get back into the system. Embarrassingly for two IT people, my username had been noted down wrongly. But we got it sorted….and paid for my health insurance too. Am keen to get it done as the next stage is the paperwork goes back and forth various ministries before we are invited to pay for the actual visa. The health insurance was just over £30 for the year. The visa is £80 for a year. It will be well worth it.

Daisy is now all booked up to come. She flies out via Istanbul next Sunday and back direct with BA from Larnaca at the end of June. The border crossing is working very smoothly apparently, no issues and the Greek side border officials are stamping passports in and out. Cyprus is not part of Schengen, so the 90 day in 180 rule only applies to them, it doesnt count against other EU countries Schengen allowance. Plus it is definite that as you cross the border north to south, that is day 1 and when you come back that stops the clock.

Spent the afternoon around the pool reading and managed a couple of wallows in the deep end!!!! Looked longingly down at the sea….. looks so lovely…. so blue! There were some gulets out today. We are really looking forward to getting out and about after next weekend when we should have finished nearly all the “jobs” and just have some meetings left to attend to. Quite a busy week ahead with a mix of jobs, tradesmen jobs, new front door being fitted, a craft workshop, a dinner theatre outing…..