Despite having an early night, neither of us slept well.........Maice because she had an upset stomach and me because of my itchy legs! We decided we needed to take two ‘berrocca’ this morning a) to keep us awake and b) for energy, so fingers crossed they work. In one of our regroups yesterday evening we decided today we’d split into three camps.....Camp 1) Pearl, Irene, Mark and Grant were driving up to Polis and Latchi on the north coast, Pearl having hired a car for three days, Camp 2) Ali, Dianne and Sandra were taking the bus to Paphos and going ’on an adventure’ and Camp 3) me and Maice decided we were going to have a lazy, chilled morning, drink frappe and laze around the pool. We all sprang into action and went our separate ways with the intention of regrouping at 2pm at villa Atalanta for an afternoon bar-b-cue.
Maice and I headed off to Chic-Choi’s (Choi’s, Chocs) for our frappe which didn’t disappoint because a) it was open and b) it was a lovely Frappe. After our frappe we had a look in some of the shops that had been closed yesterday......you’ll be pleased to know we bought nothing, zilch, de-nada, τιποτα oh, except for two similar shaped potatoes which we purchased for our entertainment later! Back at the villa we lounged around and then started to prep for the afternoon. Wanting to leave a lasting impression on Grant and Irene who were leaving at 5pm that afternoon we set about trussing up the potatoes and fixing the tissue boxes.
We all regrouped a little later than planned at villa Atalanta where Mark was slaving over a very hot bar-b-cue surrounded by five of the local kitties. There’d be no chance of any scraps when Mark was around which is lucky as these weren’t your normal Greek skinny cats, these were well fed, big fat cats.
The first game, before we sat down to eat was the dice game aka the presents game. We thought we’d introduce this to the group as it’s good fun even though there’s always lots of cheating going on and every one had been told before they came to Cyprus that each of them had to spend £3 each and buy three, or more presents for that price, and wrap them up! Pearl had informed the Scottish contingent that is was ‘pass the parcel’ which it isn’t! Well, suffice to say everyone cheated and everyone but Ali ended up with pressies, some more than others, but, that’s the way the cookie crumbles, yes, that’s the nature of the game!
Master of the bar-b-cue Mark excelled himself serving up some lovely meat and veggie kebabs plus fish baked in parcels, accompanied with lots of salad and pita bread. We sat under the gazebo, the sun was shining, it was warm....ah, it was all so lovely. After we’d eaten, it was time for the potato and orange game. Two teams of four were selected; the pink team, headed up by Mark and the green team, headed up by Grant. One person from each team had to stand at the four corners of the pool, the oranges placed in front of Grant and Mark, and the trussed up potato was then fastened around their waist. The object of the game was to push the orange along the poolside to the next person in the relay by swinging the potato between their legs and propelling the orange forwards. As you can imagine there was complete chaos what with Grants potato making a bid for freedom, and lots of cheating abounded which was picked up later by VAR.... feet were seen pushing the oranges forward and Dianne was holding onto her strings to make it easier to manoeuvre but eventually there was a winning team, although it was neck and neck and Team Mark, the Pink Team won. Congratulations to one and all!
Staying in the same team the next game was the ping-pong balls and the tissue box. This entailed tying the box to ones rear end and jumping up and down with an aim to propel all the balls out of the box. I have to say I’ve never seen so much wriggling and jiggling going on between nine people before, body parts were having a wail of a time being flung here there and everywhere and even though it was really hard work it was great fun and great for burning off the calories. Again it was neck and neck between the two teams but Grants team, the Green Team, or should I say the Dream Team won that one.
Exhausted, we fell into our seats and before we knew it the taxi had arrived to take Grant and Irene to the airport. We did wonder if it was actually going to turn up due to the fact that it wasn’t a real taxi, just some random guy Grant had met down at the Renegade pub where they’d struck a deal and he’d offered to drive him and Irene to the airport for €5! Now considering it’s costing everyone else €35 that was a very good deal. We wondered if it was to do with a) him wearing a kilt b) that Scotland won or c) he was just a nice friendly guy! We waved them off goodbye, sat down under the gazebo where we noticed Grants mobile phone and glasses sat on the table. Honestly what’s he like! We called Irene who said they were on their way back, having realised a few streets away that he was missing something!! We waved them off again hoping not to see them again, if you get my meaning!
We stayed for a little while longer before heading back to our villa. We were all having a night in, and an early night. We had things to do, places to go the following day, remaining in our three camps, minus Irene and Grant of course. Pearl, Dianne and Sandra went out for a night-cap whilst Maice and I prepared ourselves for our early morning start, Maice deciding to give her feet a foot spa and Mark enjoying some quality ‘me time’ with his feet up, enjoying a beer.
And that’s the end of another great day, lots of fun and laughter, good food, good company and sadly nine became seven. We’re all off on our respective adventures tomorrow morning, what stories will we have to impart, we have no idea but I’m sure there’ll be a few tales to tell........!
Καλή νύχτα.....
SPAMMAD xxxxxxx
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