Green Monday

Today was Καθαρά Δευτέρα, otherwise known as Green Monday, occurs at the beginning of the 7th week before Orthodox Easter Sunday. Green Monday, or Clean Monday refers to a time of leaving behind sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods. Today tradition kicks in and while we attended the usual family lunch up at aunties house in a village near the mountains, outside of Nicosia, there was no meat in sight. I have named this day "No Meat Monday". Lunch was a wonderful collection of salads, vegetables, breads, homemade dips and olives. In between eating and playing with the beautiful dogs, we headed to the dam near aunties house to see the evidence of the recent torrential rains Cyprus has been experiencing. 

The dam, which is usually empty or in good cases the bottom is barely visible, was today, full to the brim and the waterfall was even active; the first time I have ever seen it like this (we come up here often) making the scenery even more stunning. 

lately..

...we have been very boring. Our London trip cleared us out of all energy reserves and our pennies and since we have been back on our side of Europe, normal life has returned.

Millie was immensely happy to have us back. Although she enjoyed her holiday, the intense welcome of jumping, barking and face licking was evidence that distance makes the heart grow fonder. Normal working life has resumed and the days are flying by at the speed of light. Before we know it, it will be summer again.

In the first two months of the year I have experience freezing temperatures, torrential rain, snow and now it seems spring in Cyprus has arrive with endless days of blue sky and sunshine. It was positively hot yesterday at 18 degrees. HA. Hot at 18 degrees. Lets wait for august and then decide if its hot or not.

Harrys world domination plan continues and 1312 shop is continuing to be a success; with new ideas, looking for new suppliers and products to introduce, he is a busy business man that extends past the usual 9-5 routine.

In other news, we are moving. Well not immediately, but the wheels are being set in motion. With such a huge apartment for just the 3 of us, of which we only use about half of the space, we decided in an effort to save we should relocate and downsize. So today we are on home hunting mission no.2. Since I dont drive, we are looking in an area closer to both our offices, but still close to the city centre and to all things we would need like a magazine store and a bakery for midnight cake time!

catch up

Once again it's been a bit too quiet for my liking when it comes to the blog, but unfortunately interesting activities are few and far between. What with the shop opening, christmas, January blues and our long awaited London trip, money to do fun things has been put into other opportunities (such as our shopping budget for London).

As you will all know (because we saw all your pretty faces) we have just returned from England. While it was a close call with my prayers being answered in the form of snow on Saturday night, unfortunately it just meant sitting on our snowy, icy plane for 3 hours at Heathrow, waiting to be de-iced.

That was a bad end to a pretty amazing week. I think this trip was particularly hard; a week is long enough to get back into the swing of London and seeing familiar faces and just as your getting used to the tube, remembered how to top up your oyster card and remembered how much you miss all things English, it's time to leave again.

My week was planned with precision, to opitmise every second and squeeze as many people in as possible, as well as the inevitable shopping trips and food stops. Roast dinner, chinese, full english breakfast and tea and cake were all consumed and H&M was well and truly ransacked. But sssh. We wont tell Harry how much I really spent in there.

And we saw snow. I had been saying for weeks, pre trip, that I thought it would snow on the Saturday night and I couldnt of been more right. 6pm on Saturday, the snow started to fall. Teeny Tiny flakes at first and then suddenly London was a winter wonderland. I love the snow when it first falls; everything looks so pretty tucked under a thick layer of white, even the most mundane things like cars. But I have forgotten how cold it gets in England for it to snow - I couldnt feel my fingers all week.

We are now back in sunny Cyprus with Millie - who was so excited to see us when we picked her up from her doggy vacation. She has put on weight since we left (which we briefly thought was the first signs of pregnancy - but luckily we were wrong - puppies would not be good) and is very happy to be back at home with all her creature comforts. The toys we bought in England were a success and have already been devoured.

So we are back into the routine of Cyprus; sleep, work, walk, cook, clean, shower, sleep. And before I knew it, it was Saturday. Tonight we are going out with my friends from work and boyfriends/fiances etc for Aphro's birthday (note to self don't mention the age.....otherwise she will probably kick me, especially after several days this week at work spent winding her up).

I didnt take as many photographs in England as I'd of liked, but to be honest my hands were too cold to remove from my coat pockets. Heres our trip in pictures.