Monday 17th October

Surfer at Kite Beach

Unusual to write 'as it happened' as my writing each morning is about yesterday.  Excitement in the night with huge flashes of lightening and greta claps of thunder.  Just like we used to in Dubai we got up at 2.00 a.m. to watch the rain!  It was bucketing down and the road was quickly flooded.  The storm lasted for about 30 minutes but the early morning warmth is starting to dry everything pretty quickly which is just as well as the patio furniture cushions are pretty wet. One must have taken all of the water that washed from the balcony and has acted like a great big sponge and was full!

Monday is bowls morning so off we went at 1000 to play. Quite a few members were presented and enough for all of the six rinks / lanes to be in use. One win and a defeat for me and the same for Lillian. I really must concentrate more on the second game as i seem to play well in the first and poorly in the second. However in the second game I played as the Skip. Positions. teams and the order you bowl are decided by everyone drawing a key fob from what must have been an old coin bag. I don't like being the Skip as everyone down the other end are wanting you to bowl the saving or winning bowl and I can't take the pressure, often hitting the wooden block where you try to bowl narrow or off the side when I try to bowl a curler into the pack. The bowls we have do not seem to turn in very much although a couple of the lanes are not perfectly true. Lillian bought another two bowls from a lady who was selling her husbands as he has had a stroke. They came in a nice 'bowls bag' for 50 euro. They are size 1 compared with the size 3 that I bought which are slightly too large for Lillian's hands. She used them for the second game and was on the winning team so perhaps they will work well for her.

We enjoyed the morning and the members are nice people if not a little 'older' than us. Many have been in Cyprus for 5 plus years and therefore that makes most in the late 60's or more. We will certainly continue to go and with time will get better. There is a match today (18th) at Momosa which is about 45 minute drive from Larnaca which all seemed excited about and 18 are playing. We were asked but declined as we did not feel we should take an established members place so early in our tenure.

Late afternoon as the wind was blowing we went to the beach by car to collect more white stones for placing in the garden under the ficus bushes that run along the wall to cover the bare soil, from which the dreaded creeping clover continues to sprout.  From there we went to what we call Kite Beach to watch the wind surfers and I could play with my new camera.  The surfers are really very talented and we enjoyed sitting watching for 30 minutes.  They ought to be a tourist attraction.  A couple are very skilled and one, who clearly was playing to my camera would continually come fast to the shore and then leap in the air as het turned.  The most difficult thing was to try and get pictures that showed the kite as well as the cords / ropes are quite long.  I took lots of pictures and a few I am pleased with in terms of quality.