We were up early again to drive John and Susan to the airport for 730am. What a nice time we’ve had with them. I took some pictures of the moon and Venus over the pool and the dawn coming up. Gorgeous morning. Also picked a lemon for John so that when they get home tonight they can have a g&t with a slice and think of our sunny garden…..

Once we waved goodbye, we drove into Nicosia to the central police station to get our visa sorted out. As property owners, we are entitled to a 90 day tourist visa on arrival, albeit given that we are not over the 90 day in 180 rolling day rule, which we were not. However, despite showing our title deed at the airport, the official would only give us 60 days which was short of what we needed for our return flight. We had several options of action, the simplest being to go to the Immigration Police HQ in Nicosia, show them the deed and ask for an extension to 90 days. We got there for opening at 9 and were first in the queue. A little bit confusing but absolutely no problem or issue in getting the extension added to our passports and the system and the guy there could shed no light on why we weren’t given it in the first place. He gave the ubiquitous shrug!

Still…. a good result and we drove away happy. First stop was Tim’s cafe in Catalkoy for a spot of breakfast. Bob had the full works. I had 2 of the Best Butcher sausages and 2 fried eggs. Very tasty.

Then, off to Pakdus bathroom shop in Catalkoy to order up the components of the new downstairs loo. We are completely renovating it in November and the larger items ie basin, loo, undersink cupboard, taps, mirror are being made by them and will be installed by them. Habibi’s friend who has done building work for us before will first tile the walls and floor and paint the ceiling, doorframe and door and he’s also going to renovate the walls and ceiling in the master bedroom too. First, though, we have to find and buy the tiles and also get moving on the new curtains, blind and bedhead for the master. The material will determine the paint colour.

We went to any number of tile shops and got a bit confused. We want ceramic tiles for both walls and floor that look like white and grey marble. No problem finding them but they were all really big – 60 x 30 – and we were concerned our downstairs loo is not so big and so they would take a lot of cutting. However, Habibi’s friend says this is the new standard and they don’t need a lot of grouting, they almost butt up together to look like marble walls and that he will cut them easily where necessary…… Gosh, hope he is right!!! It will look very lovely when done. Prices are extremely reasonable. “Don’t worry, madam!!!!! All will be well”!

Got home about 2pm utterly exhausted and lazed around for the rest of the afternoon. Will start the curtain hunt on Friday. We did have a look in Blackbird Designs this afternoon but they don’t really do curtains or blinds. Nice fabric though.

Tonight we ate in and caught up on Bake Off.