Yesterday morning we were just relaxing after breakfast, before the arrival of our 4 friends from the US on their first visit to the villa, when I heard a car pull into our upper drive. I went out to see who it was and found 2 Turkish men had parked their pickup there while they seemed to be on the plot of land above our house. I shouted up to them and they answered they were just coming back and would be returning in 30 minutes with a top loader bulldozer to “clear the plot line”. I had no idea what this meant and they couldn’t explain although they clearly understood when I pointed out the “No Trespassers – Private land” sign in Turkish at the end of our drive!!! My heart sank at the prospect of our visitors arriving to a cloud of dust descending and noise……
30 minutes later they returned with the monstrous machine and set about clearing a track just above our boundary. We stood guard over our fence, water main and trees. I have to say, the guy knew how to drive the thing, he was as neat and forensic as can be. Having made this track along our boundary he drove off and we are still no clearer as to the purpose…. but at least all was peace and quiet when our friends arrived from Larnaca at about 230.
We got them settled in with cold drinks and then we all decamped to the pool for the afternoon which was very convivial and nice. They’d had a hot journey day from Santorini so they were very glad to relax.
Bob cooked a bbq last night and we ate on the terrace, then had brandies out there and I think all slept like babies.
This morning we were up earlyish to await the arrival of a hire car for them from our friends at Gunray. Once that was settled and after breakfast, Fran, Janet, Bob and I drove down the hill to the money exchange and the cash machine and then we did a big supermarket shop at Starlings.
Came back and had a Cyprus special lunch on the terrace and another afternoon spent in the pool. It’s still hot enough that it’s all you want to do really.
Tonight we went to Tervetuloa, our local go-to for dinner. It really is superb value to sit in their lovely garden, lit by gourd lanterns amazingly decorated by the owner,Afet, and eat the fab dinner. We started with 13 plates of cold starters: carrot salad, beetroot, hummus, tahini, tzakiki, green salad, butter beans in olive oil and herbs, aubergine salad, bulgar wheat salad, breads, etc, then 3 hot meze – meatballs, fried haloumi, chiicken livers in wine and onion… then a main course of choice – I had grilled lamb chops – 3 – nice meaty ones, others had mixed grill, chicken breast stuffed with cheese, moussaka all served with chips and salad, then a dessert plate and finally coffees and generous brandies. They all came to about £12 each then drinks on top which were extremely reasonable. Really Tervetuloa remains a fabulous local standby for us in beautiful surroundings that have only vastly improved in 20 years.
Bob, our visiting friend, drove one car to and from the restaurant tonight and manage amazingly to navigate 1. driving on the left 2. navigating roundabouts 3. driving with Cypriots etc. we all made it back alive 🙂