Friday 21 April 2017

On the fourth day ...

This nasty little bug I picked up four days ago is showing no sign of going away, and Ann reported yesterday that she was sickening as well. So we now have two sick bays in the house and the cats think we have all gone mad. A maddening cough, runny nose and extreme lethargy is a combination I would not wish on anybody and we can only hope that it clears up soon. It was this time last year that we were both diagnosed with bronchitis and I spent a night in Polis Hospital, where the treatment was excellent.

Long gone are the nights when we switched on some heating in the late afternoon as the temperature dropped. Now if we only felt well enough to sit out in the sunshine ... life would be a lot better. Our friend Savvas dropped in this afternoon and started to paint the metal structure of the carport, which seemed sensible. But it will be good to have some shade for the car again. Even in April it can take your breath away if you jump into a vehicle that has been sitting in the sun.

Ann woke me up the other morning with the predictable news that there is going to be a General Election in the UK. Well that's just fine and dandy but leaves me in a predicament. Both the Tories (for whom I have always voted) and Labour (a party I could not consider voting for) have come out in favour of leaving the EU, which leaves the Lib Dems, and I could never trust a word they said. They would be likely to climb into bed with any party who offered them a sniff of power. And so, much as I want to see the UK remain in the EU, I have got nobody to vote for and I suspect that many other expats will find themselves in a similar situation.

So, apart from a bout of ill health, and with the most important decision the British government have had to make in my lifetime leaving me effectively disenfranchised, life is good. Trump hasn't started a nuclear war (yet) and for that we should all be grateful. But I cannot remember when such an unstable character was in such a powerful position. What a world we live in ...

Monday 3 April 2017

Another dry month ...

Following the success of November 2016, when we had a month's abstinence from alcohol, we have decided to follow that up with a dry April. It is nigh on impossible to not have a couple of cold beers, or glasses of wine, when the hot weather arrives and so this is the ideal time. And the feeling of self-righteousness is a very secondary part of this scheme.

We were sitting at Saddles this morning and having coffee, when it was apparent that the whole world was waking up, sprucing itself and generally making ready for the next six months. And so, after supermarket shopping, we often call in for a drink as a form of reward for doing something neither of us really enjoy. Did we pull the car over? Absolutely not ... our determination did not waver and we headed for home. As a reward I went to put the chlorine tablets in the pump house and skinned my head on the door frame. There are times when being good is not enough.

War with Spain ... what bright spark in the Tory party came up with that idea. I used to think Michael Howard was an astute politician but after his comments yesterday I think he ought to be sectioned. Did nobody think to remind him that there are hundreds of thousands of Britons living in Spain? Between him, the three musketeers (who don't seem able to muster a brain cell between them) and the wannabe dictator - St Theresa - I am ashamed to be British at the moment. As a lifelong Conservative voter, who never missed an election from 1970 until we moved to Cyprus in 2012, I could not ever vote for them again. And I couldn't vote for the Labour Party (alongside millions of others) and the Libdems ... not a chance in hell.

The good news is that it can't really get any worse and that, I pray, tsome politician with a brain starts to pull strings behind the scenes. Otherwise, as Corporal Fraser said, "We all doomed."