A dull day news wise, but the sun was out!

I'm afraid this will be one our least memorable of posts, but without fabricating some amazing adventure it's all we have!

Helen got up for an hour's exercise in fresh morning air - the skies were completely clear though, so the prospect of a hot day was evident.

I failed to drag myself out of bed to do anything energetic, but instead of rolling over and going back to sleep I opted to read for an hour - a rare luxury at the moment, and I've just started a new book by the name of 'The Cretan Runner' (thanks Jill and Mike), a WW2 account, one of my 'go to' topics.

By the time Helen came in I was already having breakfast, after which I headed to the apartment for a day of little finishing jobs, while yet again poor Helen was in the office battling with pages and pages of average English.

There were no big advancements in the apartment (that will come when the kitchen starts going in, hopefully on Thursday), but I managed to busy myself all day with little jobs that hadn't even made it onto my to-do list: fitting the access panel into the ceiling, putting up curtain rails and curtains, varnishing the outside of the window frame ready for the fly screen to be fitted, putting up the last of the book shelves, putting up coat hooks... and so the list goes on - little jobs that needed doing, and while nothing of real consequence or interest, these little jobs start to make the place feel much more homely and very nearly ready now! The photos won't raise your blood pressure, but here goes:

Shelves up, TV in place.

Coat hooks hung!

I also planted the star jasmine at the bottom of the steps, with grand plans (hopes) of encouraging it to trail along the wall.

Before we knew it, 5pm had rolled around and we still hadn't been to Mercatone for our rimborso (refund). So we downed tools/editing pens at 5.30pm and headed straight there. We explained to a different lady on the information desk that I had spoken to a man from the store yesterday, who said they couldn't deliver, so we needed to come to the store to get our refund (or words to that effect). I really was outside of my comfort zone with that little lot, but she understood and disappeared to speak to someone, then returned then went off to get paper for the printer, then returned, we signed something, and then she gave us a piece of paper which Helen thinks is a voucher to be used in the store. I'll take her word on that, as she is much better than me at listening and understanding, I assumed it was something we gave to the cashier on the way out to get our cash. 

Anyway, after picking up a couple of small items in the market, we left, a bit annoyed that we had been given a voucher and not a refund, but we're fairly sure that we'll need to spend at least that much at the store before the next couple of weeks are out anyway, so we can go along with a comprehensive list and fill the car to dress the apartment.

After a quick stop at Brico to look for fly screen material (no joy), we headed home for an hour on the patio while the cats messed around outside in between asking for dinner. The evening sunshine was lovely and it was still warm after the sun had disappeared behind the hill opposite - today's was the best day's weather we've had for a couple of weeks I think - looking forward to a bit more of that! It'd be great to have some for Jeff's brief visit too, not to mention for when Mum, Kerys and Ben arrive on Monday and when our guests arrive next weekend!

Right, it's already 8.45pm and we're only just starting on preparing dinner so I'd better crack on. If all goes according to plan, tomorrow we should be able to bring you news and pictures of our new car - keep everything crossed!!

Olives are coming along...