The weather has been so nice these past few days that we have stayed around the resort and enjoyed the pool and the gardens. The sun has been out and the temperatures have been in the high 20s, hitting 28C at times. They’ve started to heat the pool now as it’s getting “cold”. We’ve definitely perked the tans up again and Bob’s nose is even a bit red where he forgot to cream his face yesterday.

There are set to be a couple of showery days now – today and tomorrow – followed by more sun, but with temperatures starting to tail off to the 24C level. We have some days out planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the better weather, and Bob is playing golf on one of those days. The Disney golf course totally surrounds this resort and we often see golfers going past. It’s a 27 hole course and they ring the changes for 9 hole and 18 hole rounds to mix and match and rest some of the greens, I suppose. It’s always much quieter on a weekday. Sunday seems to be the busiest.

This morning was rainy – we thought it might last all day but the sun came out at about 2pm and it is a strong blue sky again now as I look out. We decided to walk all around the resort and see some of the areas we have never been into on previous visits. It’s very much bigger than it actually looks, if all you see are the villas around the pool and reception buildings, which is where we tend to stay and spend time. Some of the outlying parts are very lovely, with several lakes, an outdoor gym, petanque square, basketball, various children’s playgrounds. The villas are arranged in seperate “areas” like a village within a village, each with a central feature like a lake, and gardens. There are bbqs around all the lakes and the lakes themselves are home to swans, Canada geese and ducks. We’ve made mental notes of areas we would quite like to stay in on a future visit, if our favoured “corner” is unavailable as it was this time.

As I’ve said before, we really do like this resort and we’re lucky we can stay here with our swap points/weeks. Most of the villas are 2 bed, although there are some 3 bed ones and some 1 bed studios. We have always had the standard 2 bed. Although the outside designs are all charmingly different, the insides are the same. Downstairs, a hallway leading to a kitchen and utility room, a downstairs bathroom, a large lounge diner giving way to a garden patio. Upstairs 2 double bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms. It feels very spacious. The kitchen has everything you could want: full oven, hob, microwave, dishwasher, fridge freezer, Nespresso machine etcetc and the utility room has a washing machine and seperate tumble drier which is most useful as it means you can have a clothes wash and don’t need to bring so much. They have full a/c and heating as required. There is a restaurant on site but it is only open for takeaway meals at the moment and the little incidental eateries are all shut. The supermarket is open this time which is handy although it is expensive, there are some outdoor activity classes but the little cinema and children’s room is closed and the huge indoor pool and jacuzzis and the gym are all closed. It’s strange to say we have spent 7 weeks here over the past 13 months and we’ve never really experienced the resort fully functional!!!! Perhaps, next time!

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Today I booked our Day 2 test for when we return. Booked it with testing4all.org and it was £48 each. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to do this if rumours are true and that re-entry testing will be abolished for the double vaccinated from sometime in October. Fingers crossed that’s true. We will also have to get an actual “re-entry” test here in France but that can be antigen, unlike the Day 2, and only costs 29 euro.

I also see we over 50s are all due a booster this autumn. We’re being given them with flu jabs, in some sort of age order…. Bob and I already have a flu jab booked with Boots next week so I guess we’ll just go along for our covid booster when called. I will probably have to wait till early December as I am in the UK so little after 1st October. Bob will be called before me, so he might manage to get his in October before he comes to Cyprus. It will be good to get a booster shot before any 2022 adventures!!