The weather continues to be sunbathing hot here. I am in the pool every day still and today we were at Escape Beach all day. It was absolutely lovely. The sea is still pretty warm. Warmer than the pool as usual. We had a really good day. Autumn is just gorgeous out here. One of my favourite times to visit in many ways. The garden is also looking spectacular, so full of colour.

I had my usual mixed omelette for lunch. It’s so good and just enormous.

We had a funny thing happen. Got talking to a man in the water, mainly about travel and about Cyprus – they come quite a lot but also travel a lot of other places. It was just a random chat. He suddenly piped up and said “and we spend time every winter in India”. “wow, so do we”, we said, “where do you go?”. Well, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d said Goa, but I was dumbfounded when he said “Patnem”!!!!!! He was taken aback too when we said “so do we”!!! Turns out he and his wife stay at the Tubki…. they will be there at the end of January so we will keep an eye out for each other. What a small world!!!!

Bob has finished building his shelving unit and it is a mighty, sturdy thing. He’s also nearly finished having a massive clearout of the store room. It still had a load of things we inherited with the house as well as other items we’ve added over the last 20 years!!! Some useful, some not….. Anyway, quite a bit went to the road and that’s nearly all gone except for some tiles (not the new ones). And there is a big mound of genuine rubbish that we have to dispose of. Not as easy as yo might imagine out here. No Council sites and obviously you can’t dump it. The bin men won’t take it. You have to find the large council bins and put it in there.

Last night to celebrate the end of his labours, we went out to dinner to a restaurant of his choice, The China House, in Karaoglanoglu. As you might imagine, it’s a Chinese restaurant, or more accurately an Asian restaurant as they also have a large sushi and sashimi menu. We’d never been before but were recommended by Chris. It was a very ritzy place – very smart. Lovely decorations. Excellent service too, more refined than many. Not a Chinese person in sight of course. We shared a plate of lovely tempura prawns to start, and then Bob had sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, and I had salt and pepper calamari. All very nice. Big portions. We were both stuffed by the end. It wasn’t cheap but it was good value.

Tonight, back to the bbq lamb chops with some bulgur wheat pilaf.