Here I am in sunny warm Cyprus! I had intended this to be a blog intensive trip, full of photos of the fun stuff Chris and I were doing this time since he promised that we wouldn't do chores or see lots of relatives. Well, he partially kept his promise in that I spent almost the first full week in bed (starting on Christmas Day) with a nasty, knock down cold courtesy of Chris. According to his family, the cause of my cold was the change in weather in Cyprus, as it had just turned "cold" (14 C/ 60 F) when we got there. I pointed out that it was actually warmer than in England, which then changed the story to, "the drastic change in temperatures is what caused my illness." I pointed out that Chris had the same bad cold a week before, but that didn't seem to make any difference, and people mused that traveling such a long distance in an airplane the day before probably also contributed to the cold. So either it was the fact that it was cold in Cyprus, or much warmer than the UK, or traveling great distances, but not living with a sneezey coughing Chris that caused my illness. Only by wrapping up warm and sweating it out could I recover, oh, or I could take antibiotics. Sigh. I think it was more tiring trying to explain basic biology principles than actually being sick. I'm still stuffy and coughing, and seem to have pulled a small muscle in my chest with all the hacking, but I'm trying to cram in a few fun things now that I am vertical before we fly out tomorrow!
Before I got too ill, we were able to visit our friends Stavros and Margarita who have two little boys. I love to make things for them, last year I did the sock monkeys and this year it was a dragon and a lamb. For some reason Andreas was afraid of the lamb at first, but he took to it eventually with his usual good humour. Somehow he seems to have skipped the terrible twos. Here is his baby brother with the dragon I made him, lots of good sticky out parts for him to put in his mouth, which is exactly what I intended, along with some safety eyes that he can really get his teeth into.
Christmas day was a very quiet affair, as only myself, Chris, his mother and aunt and uncle were home (and I was in bed the whole day), but being Greek Orthodox Christmas isn't really celebrated, it's New Years (at midnight) that St. Basil comes and delivers gifts to children. Chris's cousin and her boyfriend were here for New Years, and somehow we got into a discussion about traditional clothes. Chris's aunt happened to have an old dance costume of one of her girls, which I immediatly put on and paraded about hte house in. It's very comfortable I have to say, on a par with what I wore when I worked in Colonial Williamsburg.
New Years day we had the traditional lunch at his Aunt's house. His sister's family was two ill to drive the 1.5 hours to come see us, so it was just the 7 of us.
L to R is Chris, his mother Nikki, Aunt Anna, Uncle Stephanos, Cousin Valando and her boyfriend Dolis. I've been able to make good use of my Greek lessons this trip, though the fast paced, slang Cypriot dialect still gets the best of me most times. Fortunately I've been able to use the time I wasn't comatose to finish up a sweater order that I got before I left.
Yesterday we drove to the Capitol to see Chris's sister and her family. His mother spent the whole day before cooking and buying food because she seems to think that the largest and capitol city in the island is a desert, devoid of food and, apparently, quality eggs. It was a bit of a bust though as Odie is deep in his terrible twos stage, every item in the house is his, and you can't touch it or you get a whack with a plastic wrench. When given a book as a gift from his great Aunt, he proceeded to tear the whole thing apart while his father watched and sighed "Oh dear, tsk tsk." Hmmm, someone really needed a nap, or perhaps everyone. Not really endearing him to me yet, but I remember my brother was a little brat as a kid, so I'm hoping in 10-15 years he'll be fine.......
Today is our last full day, and it's sunny and warm. I'm finishing up a job application (it's a never ending process in these austere times) and Chris is doing his annual servicing of his cousin's computer. Afterwards we'll take a stroll on the new path by the sea and pick up a few groceries that we can't find in the UK. Tomorrow it's back home to England, and snug in my own bed again! I hope that Patrick has fufilled his promise to repaint the kitchen, we'll see....
Hope all my dear readers had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I think I've slept enough this week to last me through the rest of my contract at the Museum, and feel refreshed and ready to tackle the new years resolutions I've made.
Cheers.
You are rocking that outfit!! :)
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