We're loving it!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and the weather did not disrupt your plans too much. We have been having a good time and still enjoying life in Cyprus. A couple of little examples of what it is like here :

one day out shopping it decided to throw it down. Not being equipped with brollies or waterproofs, we were in danger of getting a good drenching, when a lovely lady (complete stranger), stopped her car and gave us a lift right up to our door step.

another time, in similar circumstances, ie loads of rain, Alison's bus driver took her off his route, all the way to the petrol station where she was being picked up. The lady at the petrol station sat her down and provided a nice cup of coffee whilst she waited.

So, there are some fab people around.



Here are two of them! This is Garry and Santa in the toy shop that Garry works in. He wouldn't let him sit on his knee so he had to sit next to Garry. We both worked very hard on the run up to Christmas in the new shopping mall and it was good fun.

Christmas Day was a welcome day off. We had the Full Monty on Christmas morning, including champagne, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and presents. Garry's mum will see Garry is wearing her present and smoking Alison's.

We spent Christmas Day with Angelos (centre) and his family, who had invited us to Nicosia with them. We had the most marvellous Christmas dinner and they sent us home with the hugest doggy bag ever.

Here is Angelos sat on his mummy's knee, like a good little boy!

This was Boxing Day at the sailing club. Everyone contributed to the food and gave a present for a raffle. The sun was shining, it was nice and warm (although not warm enough for us to take a dip) and a lovely day out.

Sunset on Boxing Day at the Sailing Club. We spent New year's Eve in a local bar and bumped into some friends and had a good night. We cooked our own Christmas Dinner on New Year's Day (another day off!!) with port and stilton and fell asleep in front of the telly in true Christmas day style.

Anybody ever seen one of these before - white peacock. We were out cycling for the day when we came across this.

Another day out - Alison making the jump?

We have used the mountain bikes as much as possible and they have been tested on some very difficult terrain. Great fun - makes you smile! Thanks Liz and Kate for sending the bikes.

Another day out cycling and we found some guys playing with their new toy. It is a home made radio controlled truck and could climb the most amazing boulders.

We had a day out up on Troodos Mountain. Chris and Tony may remember the tennis courts at the visitor centre. Well this snowman is on the tennis court.

As you can see, it was a lovely blue sky with plenty of snow. It was even quite warm. It was a bit weird seeing snow where temperatures average in their 30s.

We even managed to do some cycling in the snow up Troodos. regular readers of the blog may remember the phrase "we got it all wrong". Well, we did this day with the cycling, as we cycled downhill on the tarmac and uphill off road. Still, it was lovely to be up in the mountains, with the snow, the blue sky and the push bikes.

From having no transport at all, we now have 4 bicycles (we sold one), one motorbike, one scooter and we need a pink carnation to go with our latest vehicle. Can you guess what it is? A big thank you to Angelos and Maria for providing us with this much needed transport. We promise to look after it!!

Things have moved on bit with work and Alison is now a lady of leisure, or "resting" if she were an actress, anyway she is on the dole.

We are currently thinking about our future and starting our own business along with some other options. Any suggestions are very welcome.

Bye for now

Garry and Alison