Enjoyed sitting out around the pool last night and we woke this morning at about 6am to the sound of the birds and the sun edging around the curtains. I peeped out and there was our gorgeous view over the ravine and the mountains to the east of us, so green at the moment after the winter rains.

We had breakfast about 8 and were just finished when Ozzie and his lovely wife (Gunray Car Rental) turned up with our hire car. We have been using their cars for about 15 years and they are lovely people who never let us or our customers down. We had a catch up, got the paperwork done and they shot off.

We then set to work! See…. this is the thing about owning a house. It doesn’t matter where you own it, there are always jobs….. Wilma and John our local property managers do a great job throughout the year but there are always things for us to do, particularly after the winter. It is often very windy and wet here in January and February and this year was no exception, bringing desert sand onto the terraces which we have to jetwash. One good thing is the plants have loved this wet winter, growing a lot and now enjoying the sun.

Habibi, our friendly gardener, came up at 1130 and we caught up with him, and then he hacked back our trumpet creeper which comes up the front of the house and along the dining terrace. It had sprouted massively and he had a good go at that. We had a walk around the garden and looked at the plants. It was all looking fine.

After that…. a spot of lunch…… and then down to the supermarket to stock up for the next week or so. We have quite a few supermarkets within 5 to 15 minutes drive. Our first port of call is generally Dema which is along the lines of LIDL I suppose. Good prices and range of goods. We got a load of stuff including a litre of gin and it came to about £75.

Came back and spent the afternoon around the pool which was bliss. It’s so quiet up here and we just lazed in the sun, and in the pool. The water is really pleasant now. I would guess it’s about 26-27C so cool enough to refresh but not enough to cause a flinch. We got the floats out and pumped them up. Read books until about 5.

Well…. that signalled the sun was over the yardarm so we had a g&t with some lemon from our tree. There are still some lemons on it… some a bit over ripe but still delicious, maybe more orangey than lemon…. I cooked half a chicken in a spicy coating for dinner. Did it in the Ninja along with baked Cyprus potatoes (the best!!!) and some garlic mushrooms. We ate on the dining terrace, it was a lovely golden light.

Tonight we watched tv using our special system. We can watch all the UK stations live with about a 2 second lag but no spinning. It’s fantastic. We also get box sets, Sky, Sky Sports, 1000s of movies. Very good system.

Tomorrow we have a few more jobs to do and then in the evening we are eating out up in the village with friends. Come back and find out how it went….