Mid August already.

---

Saturday 12th August 2017

Enjoyed our extra 30mins lie in so up and at them with the dogs this morning and off down the hill following the road towards the Malpas Hotel. It is of course all uphill on the way home, but we can say it is keeping us fit for sure. So thank you Kilroy and your mate Buddy. Home and a quick sweep and hoover around before relaxing on the patio with more cups of tea. Sarah then popped Kilroy down to the vets for his first set of annual injections - all the usual stuff that is done in the UK but much cheaper out here. He will return in a couple of weeks for the booster and that should be him until next summer. After returning with the dog, John then headed into town to the library to change a few books and also do a few chores whilst Sarah tackled the ironing whilst listening to the Archers omnibus. Library done, it was back home via shop aptly called Technostop to look at a live tv streaming box - they had one set up in store and a very helpful guy gave a demo. Looked good with access to all UK tv, hundreds of other channels, films galore plus Sky, BT sports and lots more. Of course it all depends on a good internet connection, which in the main we do have and when we dont its not the end of the world. All for a one off single payment........so decided to get one. Think we have sufficient technology to never be bored! Rest of the day was spent setting the new box up and just chilling.

John was on standby late afternoon as an electrician was due on site to replace a lighting cable up at the pool - there were a set of 3 lights not working. Electrician turned up and after a look at the work, promptly declared he needed to return to do the job - new cabling required and will take time to get everything sorted - you have to be careful where water and electrics are concerned. Of course as its Saturday its football and the weekend can be ruined by The Posh not turning up for there game today. John decided that as we were very busy last Saturday moving back into our place after the mini refurb and the planned watching of the game live didn't happen, today he would attempt to get a 1 day game pass for £5 and see if he could catch today's fixture, all using the newly purchased magic box. Well the box works, plug in and play. Managed to buy a matchday pass after a lot of wrestling with technology using every device known to man - seems like there are some minor teething issues with this new software. So it was the Posh live away at Brizzle Rovers and after fighting technology the day got better with a 4 - 1 win whoop whoop. Sarah walked Kilroy whilst John was in the football zone and then once home prepared the salad for tonight's supper. Footie over BBQ stand set up and lit, music on and cold beer to hand, this is what Saturdays are for. Lovely BBQ of pork, sheftalia, chicken plus a couple of dips, tashi sauce, bread and salad. After the meal it was a quick stroll with the dog and then indoors with aircon on for a bit of tv and lemon drizzle cake with a turkish coffee before bedtime.

Sunday 13th August 2017

Dog walking was followed by more tea and plan the day. It appears that the weather is heating up again next week so maybe we were a bit premature with our extra 30min lie in, might have to resort back to the 5:30am alarm. Sarah off to church, John some admin and then a quiet rest of the day interrupted by a film, tv and reading. Lunch was salad, clearing up what was left from last nights BBQ. Sarah was busy finishing off the ironing with some easy watchable tv on in the background. Supper was prepared, roast chicken, cauliflower cheese and roasties! At around 6pm we decided to put up our living room clock, a key holder and one picture - the rest are still being thought about. Then it was outside to sort out the clothes line and then into the under balcony storage area and a couple of shelves were recycled and put up. Very very muggy and Johns t shirt by the end of it all was just a soggy mess, not pleasant at all. Sarah walked Kilroy whilst John tried to cool down with a cold shower, well not really cold just sort of lukewarm. All this work to move stuff around after our refurb/paint job has taken its toll on John, with an aching back and somehow a badly bruised elbow.....no idea how. Anyway ibuprofen and some deep heat has been applied. Sarah suggested gin and tonic for sundowners all enjoyed sat on the garden patio for a change. They will also ease the aches and pains! Definitely a lot more humid, so we turned on our outside fan to get the air circulating - even on the lowest setting it resembles a helicopter throwing all the air about. At around 8:30pm we moved to the balcony to enjoy supper and excellent it was as well. Had some nice tunes on in the background courtesy of R2, mostly from the 60s. Did a bit of musical chairs and we moved back to the patio to enjoy pudding, panacotta and fresh peaches before it was time for bed.

Monday 14th August 2017

Alarm set for 5:30am as it's going to be a hot one today and by just after 6am we were off for our morning exercise with the dogs. Not sure what had happened in the night but the dogs were a bit boisterous this morning, in fact all the dogs in the neighbourhood seemed to have it about them with lots more "chatter" going on as we strolled by. Maybe it was the weather or maybe some doggy gossip we don't know about. Fortunately by about the halfway stage the hounds had calmed down apart from endless sniffing! Home and more tea, Sarah sorting out todays washing pile whilst John gathered together some tools to put up one more picture. Slowly deciding where they should go but maybe this time we will adopt the "less is more" philosophy and not have so many pictures on display. A day with nothing planned apart from Sarah doing a quick hoover and mop thro of our place. A quick check on the money exchange shop rate and today its £ = 4.60TL with no commission charges. What you see is what you get, so our advice is change your money here. Late brunch of bacon and egg sandwich whilst watching a film and the rest of the afternoon went on much the same - not more food just some tv and reading. We did have a mini goat invasion, they have managed to find just a small gap at the end of the fencing and jump down about 3mtrs onto the communal gardens and start to tuck in on some of the plants. Managed to chase them off but as they cannot jump up the 3mtrs the only way out is to jump off the wall in the communal garden and down into the washing line, electric and water tank area at the end of our row. There they remain corralled in as the fence and closed gate prevents them going further. So it's a run round, open the gate and let them run off - maybe we should consider some goat rustling and pop one in the freezer?

Early evening and John walked Kilroy around the village whilst Sarah had a chillax listening to the Archers omnibus edition. Home and Kilroy adopted his position on the balcony, John grabbed a towel and headed for an evening dip in the pool to cool down. Back home and showered we had a message from Gary - poolside meet for sundowner under the excuse to check the pool lights were working. I could have told Gary that I had already checked earlier and that they were not but hey we are not ones to turn down a quick sundowner. After an hours chit chat it was home for supper, tonight it was smoked haddock, mashed potatoes, peas and tomato followed by panacotta with stewed plums, bloomin lovely. By 10pm Kilroy had been for his stroll round the block and time for all to assume the bed time mode.

Tuesday 15th August 2017

Early start for a pleasant walk with the dogs, not to hot at all which was really nice. Home for tea, followed by breakfast of granola, yoghurt plus fresh grapes and peaches. Today we were off for a drive east side, no idea where we may end up so threw in the beach gear and off we went. Around Esentepe we turned off the main road and picked up the old coast single track coast road between Girne heading to Tatlisu, Boyukkonuck and the Karpas. Great drive with no traffic. Eventually we ended up at Yudi beach, a place we had visited last year so decided to pull in and have some beach time......even better it was our own private beach! A great few hours reading, strolling along the beach, swimming and in Sarah's case a bit of light snoozing. Picnic lunch and a cold drink. By around 3:00pm we decided to make a slow drive home, so packed up our traps and loaded the jeep. This beach had some showers so managed to get rid of all the sand and salt plus the showers were cold - yippee. Dried off and away we went initially along the new main road but quickly we turned off and drove along some dirt tracks before picking up the old coast road most of the way back home. Plenty of nice little coves and beaches and of course virtually no cars. Bit pot holey but nothing the jeep couldn't handle. Stopped at old ruined churches, large old carob stores right on the beach where boats used to call in to pick up and also spotted lots of old ruined buildings from years gone by. Took almost 2hrs to wind our way back to civilisation but we were in no rush. Quick stop at Supreme supermarket for essential supplies - milk, bread, biscuits and ice cream and home to be greeted by a sleepy Kilroy. Refreshing cups of tea sat on the balcony before John prepared supper which tonight is chicken passanda curry - we are going to cheat a bit and pop to Happy Valley for a sundowner and ask Riaz for takeaway poppadoms, sag aloo, samosas and tarka dahl. Sarah went off with Kilroy for his evening stroll and on her return he was treated to a wash and brush up which he does love. Off down to Happy Valley for a very pleasant hour with a beer and chat to Riaz before heading home with our goodies. Lovely supper and with enough left over for the freezer. Quick walk around the block with hound and then we all settled down for the night. Great day!

Wednesday 16th August 2017

Completely lazy day planned for today apart from the usual mornings exercise with the dogs. Back by 7:15am, bit of on line admin, light breakfast and then it was all out relaxing. Book to hand, tv remotes at the ready and cushions arranged just in case those eyelids needed closing. ? By midday we had all; Kilroy included, entered the "snooze" zone so we decided to retire to the bedroom, aircon on and get some serious shut eye. Kilroy meanwhile took up his usual position downstairs under the fan. By around 3:30pm we were surfacing feeling much refreshed and time for cups of tea on the front balcony, then the usual late afternoon 30min walk.

As it's midweek we did have the quiz to attend and do need to start hitting a top spot - we are usually pretty close in 2nd or 3rd place but cannot take the pole position. Mind you winning the quiz only gets a free drink, winning the raffle and getting the question right does usually mean a pot of around 200TL if it has rolled over a couple of weeks or the stand up bingo also can bring in about 150TL. Anyway forget the quiz - we were average, however more success with the raffle which we won, but could not answer the question! Mind you it was only worth 30TL so not that big a loss. But success in the stand up bingo, Sarah was a winner albeit shared with another lady but a win is a win with a nice 77TL claimed - so looks like we will treat ourselves to a meal out tomorrow night. Back home and it was chilli for supper, pre prepared a week or so ago so just needed heating up and we were done, very nice it was to. Sarah wandered Kilroy round the block and by 10pm our day was done. All this loafing around tired us all out so it was off for an early night.

Thursday 17th August 2017

Usual routine this morning. Then followed an hour with a cup of tea, cornflakes and fresh fruit whilst sat listening to nothing, all was still around the site. John is returning to the UK this weekend for a week to look after his Dad whilst other family members have a holiday so it was onto the airline website to wrestle with online check in. After much "faffing" around eventually job was done, ticket printed and copy retained on phone.....just in case! What to do today we thought. After yesterday's laziness we decided to be a bit more active so we changed into our swimming gear and by 9:30am had strolled the short distance to the pool, found our spot and continued our book reading. Lunchtime came around so we headed home for a chicken sandwich, put a film on and settled down for a couple of hours.....film done it was snooze time again.

Late afternoon and time for a cuppa sat on the balcony, whilst watching the goats stroll up the road as the head home to the goat farm. Kilroy was on goat watch and a couple of barks made sure that they never ventured towards the communal garden areas. His work done he settled down for yet another snooze. Around 6pm John took Kilroy for his evening wander around the village whilst Sarah gave some thought to tonight's supper - by that it meant she had the decision where to go for our evening meal using last nights bingo winnings. Decision made we showered and changed and headed down to Catalkoy village. First stop was quick sundowner in the SeAngle bar in the village centre. We have been in a few times, mainly to see local artists/groups perform and as it had been awhile decided on another visit. After the sun had set we then strolled the 20mtrs to the village centre this time to try out the taverna next to Mustafa at the barbershop. Cheap and cheerful, with a mainly cypriot menu which was fine with us. We just had a meze to share which was just what we needed, cost 50TL. Back home to open the door but no Kilroy greeting us, very ominous ?. Went indoors to find that the flyscreen knocked down, patio door shutters open and as we looked outside there was Kilroy asleep in the garden! So what had happened? We first thought have we been burgled but no of course not our neighbours were home next door, with doors open so they would have seen anyone. After a bit of head scratching it seems like we never closed the patio door shutters properly. Looks like Kilroy peered thro the shutters and could see some felines outside and of course wanted to join them - and he did! Pushed flyscreen out of its runners and then onto the shutters and freedom. Lesson learnt for us so after his bedtime walk we double checked the shutters, locked them top and bottom plus closed the louvres on the lower part of the shutters so he cannot see what is walking by outside. At least we know he cannot get out the garden! Excitement over we all retired to bed after another lovely day.

Friday 18th August 2017

After a not very good nights sleep, the 5:30am alarm call came around all to quickly. Our sleep was hampered by the aircon refusing to operate properly and all it did was recirculate the already warm air. So a hot, uncomfortable night with only intermittent sleep. Despite our bleary eyed poking of the remote control buttons it refused to cooperate. Walk done and back home, John did a couple of quick jobs. One was to try and add some more fence wire onto the existing fencing to block the gap the goats had found enabling them to occasionally invade the communal gardens - we will see if it works. Next job was to train the bougainvillea a little more so as it begins to cover the pergola over the rear patio, if this works it will offer some shade as the sun rises. Last job was to sort out the aircon. Simple problem, the remote control needed reprogramming - whew as we thought it could be an expensive aircon replacement. All jobs done we voted it was right that we all headed back to bed to catch up on our missed sleep - Kilroy had no complaints! Ahhh luxury, a nice cool bedroom and three hours of snoozing and we all awoke much refreshed and more with it.

A light lunch was enjoyed with a bit of daytime tv, catching up on the news (not good) which makes us realise we are lucky to be here where things move along slowly each day without hopefully to much excitement, stress or worry. John decided to try and get ahead of the game and buy the matchday pass so he could watch the football live tomorrow. Surprise, surprise the technology worked first time. After a bit of tv, the afternoon entertainment was Kilroy. He was snoring away on the poang Ikea chairs, then sleepily rolled over upsetting the centre of balance and ended up on the floor with the chair on top of him. He scrambled out all bleary eyed and confused.....poor boy. This was the second time he had rolled over on a chair and flopped out, we wondered if it was because in a former life he had never had this luxury and had always slept on the floor or ground....so rolling over there was nowhere to fall? Whatever it was very funny. As usual we walked Kilroy before heading out for the Friday quiz night and having had such a reasonably priced meal last night decided to eat out again at the Club Trop. Not a bad effort at the quiz with just the three of us, done better than teams with eight in them. Managed a 3rd place finish. Supper was a whale, chips and peas for John and Kofte wrap, salad and chips for Sarah. Very filling. Back home by 9:15pm, fed Kilroy and whilst he was on his last stroll for the day John went poolside and met Gary to check lights as they seemed not to be working. Problem sorted....timer! Home, aircon on and bed time.

Saturday 19th August 2017

Dogs walked by 7:15am so it was the usual routine of cups of tea for an hour before shower, changed and a quick trip to Supreme supermarket for some essentials, papers and something for John to nibble on when on the flight tomorrow (Better than buying some overpriced, reheated stuff on the plane). Rest of the morning spent pottering around, John packing a few items and gathering paperwork etc together ready for the trip and Sarah busy making a pizza base for tonight's supper. An afternoon of chilling with some tv before 5pm came around and football time. Well it would have been but just at the vital moment of logging on to watch the game....internet failed. Arggggghhhhhhh. Not happy of Catalkoy. Call to the service provider and seems like server down, will be fixed in 15mins sir......are those Cyprus minutes or what? Well it wasn't bad as 18mins later service restored, match live feed on and settle down for the game. Football done, Posh win again, making the weekend all the sweeter. It was now time for hound exercising and as Gary had gone south side for the day we were in charge of feeding Buddy dog, so at around 7:15pm we took Kilroy with us for some training and socialising at Gary's gaff. By around 8pm dogs were suitably knackered so we headed back home for a clean up and a nice sundowner which tonight was a cold Strongbow dark fruit cider for John, whilst Sarah being thirsty just wanted lime and soda. Oven was warmed up and before long our homemade pizzas were ready. They were great, so much better than the frozen ones in the supermarket. We had received a message earlier about pick up time for John tomorrow morning at 4am so it was not going to be a late night for sure! Usual sprint around the block with Kilroy for his final walk of the day and it was time to set the alarm and settle down for the night.

---

Photos

IMG_1223
Yudi beach at Boyukkonuk

IMG_1227
Yudi beach

IMG_1228
Our own private beach for the day. Yudi beach at Boyukkonuk

IMG_1226
Office view today

IMG_1237
Old Carob store

IMG_1235
Heading along the coast on the old road from Girne

IMG_1236
Old road to Girne

IMG_1233
On the old road to Girne

IMG_1231
Seaside North Cyprus

IMG_1250
Daily goat amble as they head back to the farm

IMG_1251
Hard work being on goat watch.

IMG_0779
Kilroy in Buddy's garden!