Heard thunder in the distance and woke to find the sky very dark and a breeze starting to stir. Secured all the balcony furniture just in case... Jim is playing in a golf competition this morning, wonder if he'll get caught in the rain. It appears to be very dark over Güzelyürt where he plays. Meanwhile, back in Girne, the breeze has gone and the sun is shining.
Returned from the golf dry and ok, although we did get a little rain it was not enough even to wear waterproofs, what I did notice though was that all the Cypriot players were wearing trousers whilst the Europeans still wore shorts.
Later in the day I joined up with Mehmet Agassi and Kubilay Federer to play tennis, something I last played about 20 years ago and it showed as I was defeated, however as I was wearing all white they thought I was good at the game and as such both of them were at the other side of the net, made me run about a fair bit.
Diet regime week 1 now over and we've both lost 3 kilo's. Not 1 crisp, bottle of beer or slice of cake has passed our lips. Not until today that is. We celebrated by going for coffee and just couldn't resist a slice of cake from a coffee shop in Lefkosa!!
Whilst in Lefkosa, we called into Levent's office to speak with the lovely Sabiah then drove onto Ermatas to choose different tiles for the downstairs floors.
Back to Girnie and onto Colin and Linda's site in Lapta to see that all's ok. We've had lightning here for 2 days now, it's quite nice laying in bed with the curtains open, watching the sky and seeing the silhouetted clouds light up as the lightning strikes (at least every 5 seconds)
Early rise but a late start to today, no change in the weather. Thunder claps woke us at 4.30am must have been directly overhead and boy were they loud.
Went to price a DVD player, £107 and that was for one that doesn't even record. Will take a look down South later in the week. Drove over to see Mehmet at the Manolya, he's going to London tomorrow to take part in a Tourism exhibition. Flying the flag for North Cyprus he is. Heavy rain here and flash floods everywhere but still a warm 17c at the coolest part of the day. This spell is expected to last till the week-end, so you see, it's not all sunbathing and snorkelling. Due to a power cut it was off to bed for an hour, what a hard life this is!!
Felt a bit like the 'Good Life' in our kitchen this afternoon. I had a bash at making böreks (the cheese pastry dish) whilst Jim made a huge jug of fresh orange juice then proceeded to prepare fresh vegetables for a nice pot of soup. In between all this we had a couple of games of tavla and yes, I was thrashed by Jim. Oh, the böreks were just divine.
Awoke to a blue sky this morning and took a drive over to the South. Needed to buy ingredients for my Christmas cake plus a few other bits and bobs. Checked out the price of DVD's £59 Cyprus pounds which is about £72 GBP. No thanks.
Remember all those oranges that Jim squeezed yesterday? well such a strange thing has taken place. When eaten, they were found to be sweet and like oranges should be but when juiced I would swear it was grapefruit juice that I was drinking, strange but true.
Drove onto our site at karakum and noticed the roads were wet with lots of debris on them, I actually thought that a lorry had lost his load of muck and rubble. But when we got to the site what a surprise, we had an indoor pool, it had rained that hard. Quickly got a hold of Bourek our site manager and were told not to worry, everything will be ok. Being on site has disadvantages as well as advantages for sure. I remember the time I was having a fire place built and saw the builders at work, what an absolute mess but once finished, perfect.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, the balcony, which Jim had swept only this morning was flooded, Jim took off his shoes put on a rain coat and armed with a long handled squeegee that we bought only an hour earlier, paddled about and directed the water to the drains. He was up to his ankles in water. Whilst we were shopping down South we had missed all the rain.. By the way, it's 8.30pm and still lightning. Must be day 5 now. The skies sure know how to party over here.
We have been asked to record the temperature and give a brief weather description on our site, so, just for you Linda....Today was thundery, very wet but still 23°C
A thundery start to the day with 1 heavy shower, temperature 26ºC. We put on our rain coats and took a walk around the town and harbour. Met up with Christine and John at the Pegasos for a spot of lunch.
Bought tickets for a Blues night to be held at the Jasmine Court on Sunday night. Enquired about the price of drinks, i.e. beer and was told this was free. I think she probably meant the 1st drink was free but will report back on Monday.
