A lovely clear hot day. Lucy had to work, Leon had the day off. We lolled around this morning, swam a bit. Bob took them both down to the hospital to get PCR tests so they can fly home to Dubai tomorrow. They thought there might be queues of locals at the free centres getting ready for work tomorrow so they went to the private hospital again. It’s only £12.50 each so a good choice.

I stayed back to make lunch and to make reservations up at the vineyard for dinner tonight. They recognise my voice now…… unfortunately we cannot eat in the chef restaurant tonight because at the moment they are not opening 7 days a week, but we have a table in the bistro for the tapas menu. We loved that last time so not a problem. We booked for 7pm so that we had plenty of time to eat and be home again in time to watch the football match.

Very hot, very lazy afternoon around the pool… all bobbing….all talking……. Bob and Leon played cribbage, Lulu worked….. I read……. Lucy and Leon had stress trying to convert their previously converted open ticket to a new ticket for tomorrow. Just as Bob and I did when we came out here. In the end, we gave up and just purchased new tickets. God knows what is going on at Turkish Airlines…… Anyway, their tickets are more costly than our’s so naturally they were pursuing. The ludicrous situation is that TA wouldn’t even give them a price for conversion over the phone (just like for us), it had to be escalated to another team etc etc and all sorts of paperwork submitted. Frankly, Lucy just said to them, look, tell me the conversion fee and if it’s reasonable I’d rather pay it than go on with all this and they couldn’t give her a figure…… absolutely mad.

So… we went up to the Etel Vineyard at 7pm and got a lovely table overlooking the vineyard. The grapes look so lush stretching away down the hillsides. It could easily be Tuscany. We had a whole number of plates: a cheese selection, 2 types of Bao buns, steak bruschetta, tuna carpaccio (2 orders, it’s that divine!), … fish and chips…. I lot track. 2 bottles of white and then a round of glasses of red. Lucy and Leon shared a portion of apple crumble….. Bob had a coffee. The sun set behind the mountain as we sat there and the temperature cooled to maybe 26C. A lovely, lovely last evening. We are so lucky to live here in this little paradise.

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. Or at least we think so…. the saga with Turkish Airlines continued through dinner and afterwards.

We came back to the house at about 930 and jumped straight into the pool. It felt like a bath. Lovely stars tonight and Venus bright on the low sky. Had an amazing wallow. Have I mentioned how strong the scent of our jasmine is now? There is a notorious one out here called Pakistani Nights which is so strong to be rather nauseating. Ours is not that but its just gorgeously scented….. I love jasmine. Just down the road from our lovely guesthouse in Patnem, there is a little cow farm. You might think it would stink, and it probably would except right at the gateway is a massive jasmine bush that just scents the night…..

And then to the match. I have no idea how this will turn out…… My fingers and toes crossed for England. It would mean a lot to the country and national spirit if they won. But even if not….. it was a showcase for the country except for the total morons who yet again booed the Italian National Anthem. A total embarrassment.