Let There Be Light…. and Water…. and Handcrafted Masterpieces!!!!

After a bit of an apprehensive night – both woke up at 330 and planned wiring strategies – we got up this morning to a text coming in from Pools R Us. Electrician is on the way! He was there by 845 and within minutes the lights were both bright and more importantly, equally bright!! Oh god… what a relief. This guy looked like a cross between Vin Diesel and The Rock but he seemed to be the best electrician we’ve encountered out here. For instance, a few years ago the switch in the kitchen for the underwater lights stopped working and Marion got an electrician out. He pronounced the wiring untraceable and proceeded to lay a new wire, spurring off an outside light to a switch box on the pool balustrade. It worked, but the switch was all too easy to lean on accidentally, leaving the underwater lights on for days and burning out the bulbs. We happened to mention it to this guy. He went and looked behind the switch in the kitchen, went down to the pool room and rummaged around in the rats nest of wiring behind the control panel and literally 2 minutes later, the switch worked again. We can now remove the switch from the balustrade and fit a timer to the kitchen so that the pool and terrace lights come on together for a set period of time at night. What a result!!!! We got his card! When we find a good worker, we try and hold on to them.

We had a tanker of water on order to come up to the house and do a big fill of the pool. It would take too long to fill it from the mains via the ballast tank, probably 5 or 6 days.

I did some cleaning. Bob did a last coat of blue on the adirondack chair and stool and began rubbing down and readying the kitchen chairs for a coat of pale blue! Will this man never rest????!!!! It was so hot today. Feels hotter when you can’t jump in the water to cool off.

We were just having lunch and Rick had just gone from testing the pool, when the water tanker rocked up! That was quick! They parked out in the road and ran the most enormous long pipe up our upper driveway and in through the gate to the shallow end of the pool. Water started pumping in. After about 25 minutes, they ran out and had to go off to fill up the tanker again.

This afternoon I went to a crafting workshop with my friend, Heather. All the proceeds are for charity. Every week or so there are a different range of projects. So this week, it was taking driftwood or stones and decorating with shells/painting them. In two weeks, it’s lantern making, then decorating pottery tiles. It was held at a bar/bistro in Ozankoy, the other side of Kyrenia. It was a bit last minute for me, so I didn’t have any driftwood or stones, but Heather kindly said I could share hers. Then I realised I was being a dolt!!!!! I do have some nice pebbles scattered in some of my big planters. Anyway, I scooped three up, some glass flat “marbles” and crafting glue from my crafting cupboard.

As Bob dropped me down the road to Kings Kebab Bar where Heather was picking me up, we saw the water tanker going up the road to our house. It emptied itself into the pool and filled it. Bob went down to Pools R Us and paid up. £65 for 2 tankers of water, £40 for the genius electrician and £210 for the pool lights and fitting. It all looks brilliant again.

Heather and I went to 33: Tim, a bistro/bar on the main road in Ozankoy. As it turned out, there were only 4 of us today, and only Heather and I actually did any handicrafts. We painted stones and Heather was very kind and let me use her acrylic pens and paint. It was a lot of fun and there was good chat and some excellent rose spritzers. I will definitely go again.

Got back to the bottom of the hill about: 545 and Bob picked me up. We had most delicious lamb chops for dinner. I deployed my handcrafted masterpieces around the terrace. So wonderful to see the pool full again!

Watched some tv and then went out and switched the pool and terrace lights on and had a lovely night time swim and laze….. so amazing under the stars in the warm night…. the pool lights look amazing and the terrace lights do too. Planning so many great evening out here now….