Some members have commented that it must be wonderful to live in Cyprus. Several of our British friends envy us... one suggested we probably go to the beach every day, another asked us what on earth we do while we're here.

Finally the time has come to reveal all. So here it is, my 150th review which will finally answer all the questions about how I like to spend my days, and how I actually did spend one of them. Lady of leisure? Computer addict? Harrassed housewife? Idle procrastinator? You decide...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6.00 - 8.00am ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan:
I like time to myself, and I love the early mornings. So each day I intend to wake up naturally around six o'clock and spend an hour or so in prayer, reading and meditating on the Bible. I'll sip my coffee with the windows open, listening to the gentle sound of the birds, and maybe stroking one of the cats who's decided to join me. Around seven o'clock I get dressed in some old clothes, do about 45 minutes of weeding in our (huge) garden, before it gets too hot, then do a quick clean of the bathroom fitments and take a shower.

• What happened:
After being woken a couple of times in the night by mosquitoes buzzing around my ear, I didn't wake properly until about 7.15. One of the cats was demanding attention, so I blearily got out of bed and went to make a cup of coffee, feeding the cat while waiting for the kettle. It's an old-fashioned metal kettle that boils on the gas hob, so it's not particularly quick. It's quite possible to buy electric kettles here now (although it was a lot more difficult when we moved here back in 1997) but gas is so much cheaper, and I have enough appliances cluttering up the kitchen worktops already.

I went through to the study, opened the shutters, and drank my coffee. Couldn't hear any birds because the guy next-door was working on his van. Every so often he started it up, and exhaust fumes came into the room. I did read some of the Bible for a few minutes, but still felt rather tired. One of the cats came into the room but sat on the windowsill rather than on me.

I wandered through to the kitchen again, because unfortunately I forgot to wash the dishes after our meal last night. Even worse, we had roast lamb and my husband cooked, so just about every surface of the kitchen was covered in something that needed cleaning, or tidying, or both. I spotted some ants crawling around the sink. Uh-oh. At least there don't seem to be any cockroaches about. In previous years we'd find one in either the kitchen or the bathroom at least two or three times per week during the summer, until we had the brilliant idea of leaving kitchen and bathroom lights on overnight. Since then we've had very few - about one a week at most.

It took about half an hour to get all the washing up done, and the work-surfaces cleaned, and also the cupboard fronts where things seemed to have spilled...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8.00 - 10.00am ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan:
This is when I like to eat breakfast, sort and put some laundry in the machine, sweep the patio, water some plants, then around nine o'clock take coffee to R (husband) and orange juice to D (17-year-old son) who get up by around ten o'clock. I then switch on my computer when all jobs are done and have a quick read of email. Meanwhile T (15) gets up around eight o'clock, takes his shower, has his breakfast, then does his guitar practice before getting started on his home education coursework.

• What happened:
I ate a few apricots and drank a glass of soya milk. Cleaned the bathroom sketchily and took my shower as I hadn't done that earlier. Went to see if the boys had dirty laundry on their floors, and discovered T still half asleep in bed. He said he woke up at 7.30 feeling as if a migraine was starting, so decided to go back to sleep. Fair enough. Gathered up the laundry and put on a 30 degree wash, since the load included one or two new shirts and a pair of shorts that said they had to be washed at cool temperatures. I probably won't remember in future but might as well get it right the first time.

I squeezed a couple of oranges and took juice to both D and R. We can buy pure UHT juice in packets here, but it costs the equivalent of about 90p per litre, whereas fresh oranges can be bought at 40p per kilogram, and a kilogram of oranges makes well over a litre of juice. Fresh juice is obviously healthier too. I don't drink it myself as orange juice tends to give me headaches. Took R some coffee as well, and decided to mop the kitchen floor as it was looking distinctly grubby. Used Flash 'Ocean Fresh'... but that will be the subject of a completely different review some day. Perhaps.

Then I went out to empty yesterday's potato peelings, last night's leftover veg and this morning's orange peels on the compost heap. I looked at the patio, which was covered in general fluff from trees and also some of the end of our mulberries which blow down overnight. We use barely a fraction of them, there are so many, but they drop over the patio through almost all of May and June. If they don't get swept up, we tend to step on them, and then tread them into the house. I did seriously consider sweeping, but it was getting rather warm already. Then I heard the phone ringing. It was a friend of a friend, who said he was in the neighbourhood and wanted to return our CD-duplicator which our mutual friend had borrowed, so could he come over? Sure, I told him ... so I told R he had better get dressed. D, who is feeding a friend's dogs while they're away, also got dressed.

I opened the front door to let in some fresh air and realised I hadn't watered some plants on the porch for two or three days. So I used both the hose and the watering can as necessary, before the sun got on them. I looked at the ever-growing weeds and wondered why they thrive without any hint of water, while plants I want to encourage die if I don't water them for three days.

The mutual friend arrived with two of his friends in tow. We invited them in for a few minutes. R offered them home-made lemonade, and we all sat and chatted for about an hour. T got up. D went to feed the friends' dogs (ten minutes' walk away) and was back before the visitors had left. O felt very pleased that I'd cleaned the kitchen, since before they left they went out to see the garden, which meant going past the kitchen. Just wished I had also swept the patio.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 10.00 - 1.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan:
The boys and I settle down to their home education coursework around ten o'clock (though T often starts earlier), with some discussion about anything that comes up. I help with things I understand, and mark anything that needs it. If necessary I hang out laundry while they're taking a break. We usually finish around 12.30 then I might read to them for a bit.

• What happened:
It was about 10.30 by the time our visitors left. T (who was feeling much better) said he needed to do his guitar practice. D said he wanted to look for squared paper so he could work on some celtic artwork designs he was thinking about. I realised we had almost run out of lemonade, so had to make some more before lunchtime as R refuses to drink plain water. We can buy lemon squash here (and do so when it gets really hot, when lemons go out of season) but home-made tastes so much better, and, like fresh orange juice, is considerably cheaper. I suppose it's also healthier despite having a kilogram of sugar in three litres of concentrate.

I felt a bit peckish while making the lemonade, so decided to eat a yogurt (home-made). I realised there were only two left, so it was time to make some more. I have a very easy yogurt recipe, using evaporated milk in an electric yogurt-maker, so I put that on while the lemon zest was simmering in water. T finished guitar practice, then decided he wasn't going to do any coursework today - they're winding down for the summer anyway - and went to spend some time playing his keyboard. I looked in D's room to see if he had found his squared paper; I found that he had got distracted by a National Geographic magazine, which he was reading. I spotted about six glasses on various shelves in his room and retrieved them.

By this time there were more dirty dishes (from breakfast), jugs (from yogurt and lemonade making) and glasses, so I did some more washing up in the hope of fooling the ants.

I realised the washing machine had finished, so I hung it all outside. Hardly anybody has tumble driers around here (and even if they do, they don't use them in the summer). I had to turn all the dark-coloured things inside out, of course, to stop them fading in the sun.

By noon I was feeling pretty tired and rather warm (it was about 28C in the house by then, about 30C outside in the shade and several degrees hotter in the sun) so I sat down for a few minutes to check email. There was nothing at my private email address other than a spam message. However there were 126 at my other address where I have all my yahoogroups lists, and my Ciao alerts. Decided to write up today (so far) in this review while skimming some of the email and checking a few Ciao reviews ... next thing I knew it was one o'clock and my AVG virus-scanner had leapt into action alerting me that it was lunchtime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.00 - 2.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan
The four of us have a relaxed family sandwich-lunch, and a general chat over coffee

• What happened:
I asked T to phone R at the office, and D to set the table for lunch, while I popped round the corner to buy some fresh bread at our local bakery. T tried about three times but the line was busy and R wasn't answering his mobile, so in the end we got started around 1.20. Just as well, because R wasn't home till about 1.45 after having had a very long phone call to a colleague in the UK. There was coffee in the machine from yesterday, and R likes reheated filter coffee better than instant, so I heated that in the microwave for him, and D made frappés for himself and me (a Greek/Cypriot version of iced coffee, very yummy)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 2.00 - 4.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan
I like to wash up the lunch dishes, sweep the floor, bring in laundry if it's dry and maybe hang out another load. We keep a monthly menu of evening meals, so I check whether anything needs defrosting, and then either do a bit more gardening, or read. The boys have various activities some afternoons, although they too are winding down for the summer. Today T had a guitar lesson.

• What happened:
R wanted to talk about his phone call and various changes he needed to make to a document he was working on, so while he drank his coffee, we talked. T's teacher arrived about 2.15 for his lesson. Around 2.30 R went back to work; I thought I'd sit down for five minutes to check my email and Ciao account. Then I did some writing in between reading reviews and replying to mail ... next thing I knew it was five o'clock. Ahem.

Still, it was far too hot to do any gardening during the daytime at present. The boys spent most of the afternoon doing music, some together and some separately. T plays the piano as well as guitar, D plays clarinet, recorders, electric guitar, drums and various percussion. Between them they spend quite a lot of time on music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4.00 - 6.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan
This is the time when I try to do any necessary meal preparations, bring in and fold any dry laundry, perhaps do a bit of housework or more gardening (in the winter, anyway), or relax with a book.

• What happened:
Well... I was still on the computer at five o'clock, then realised I hadn't even thought about our evening meal. Not that I'm doing anything very complicated at present; the kitchen's far too hot for oven-based dishes or long-cooking casseroles. I had planned a quick citrus chicken dish for today, served with rice; sweet-and-sour lentils with rice for D who's a vegetarian. The whole should take well under an hour, the only problem being that the chicken breasts were still in the freezer. So I got them out and bunged them in the microwave on de-frost for ten minutes.

I realised I hadn't washed the lunchtime dishes, nor had I strained and bottled the lemonade, and the yogurt-maker was still on despite the instructions saying that 6 hours was the maximum....

So I switched it off, and let the little yogurts cool down; I did look at one but it smelled fine, and was just a bit more set than usual. No problem. I dealt with the lemonade and drank a couple of glasses myself. Whew, it was distinctly hot in the kitchen.

I went to throw some bits on the compost heap and saw the laundry still on the line. Decided to leave it overnight. It doesn't rain here from about early May until at least mid-September.

At about 5.45 I was just measuring the rice to put it on to cook (brown rice, so it takes about 40 minutes) when D mentioned that he had been trying to ring his dog-owning friends who had expected to be home shortly after three o'clock. He said he had tried several times and had no answer. He was concerned about the dogs, so thought he might pop over and give them some food, and maybe take them for a walk anyway. They have the run of the kitchen and the patio at their house, and they're all quite small dogs - but they do love walks. Apparently it's a slow process as none of them want to go very far, and they tend to get their leads tangled up as they walk. D asked if we could eat around seven o'clock rather than six thirty so I said that was fine - it gave me a bit more time, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 6.00 - 8.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan:
I finish cooking, do vegetables, and we sit down to eat together around 6.30pm. Afterwards I do the washing-up, mop the kitchen floor if it needs it, empty the various bins, and - if the boys aren't going anywhere - we might play a game together, or I might read to them, or we might all do separate things (usually computer-based).

• What happened:
D went out to his friends' home, T was at the computer reading some out-of-print book he'd discovered online. I had a few minutes extra so I sat down to read for a bit, then got rather gripped by the book, so did my meal preparation in between chapters. It wasn't ready by seven o'clock but neither R nor D were back by then, so just as well.

They were both back by 7.15, which coincided with the meal being ready. Good timing for once. However it wasn't a particularly relaxing meal because D had to be out again by eight o'clock for the Municipal Band rehearsal (he plays clarinet in the band), and as he was feeling hot and sticky after his walk with the dogs (during which their owners returned - their flight had been late) he wanted a quick shower first. So as soon as he had eaten he rushed to the bathroom, and when he was ready R took him to Band in the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8.00 - 10.00pm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• The Plan:
If we're not doing something together, I write a bit of email, maybe read a bit on Ciao or do some writing, then switch off the computer by nine o'clock and read, to wind down, until I'm ready for bed.

• What happened:
I started reading on Ciao, and next thing I knew it was 9.30. I was getting horribly bitten by something - not mosquitoes, some other little flying insects. I switched on our mosquito repellant thing - something we plug in which is probably highly carcinogenic, but it doesn't smell and it seems to keep them from biting. However it obviously wasn't working on these nasty little things.

R had gone to see somebody while D was at Band, but they usually get home by about 9.15 or so... by 9.30 I was beginning to wonder where they had got to. Then T, who was 'chatting' online to some friends in between continuing to read the online book, said that R had sent him an instant message from his mobile phone to the boys' computer (Why couldn't he just have phoned, I wondered?!) saying that he had arrived at the Band room to collect D and they were still rehearsing. Well, they're going to a festival in the Czech Republic in a couple of weeks, so I suppose practices will get more intense from now until then.

I did switch off my computer at 9.30 and then remembered I hadn't washed up. I went through to the kitchen and discovered that ants were crawling over the lunch-time plates. Sigh. Also the window was still open. A nice cool breeze was coming into the room, which was good, but so were lots of little biting insects that were attracted by the light.

So I closed the window, did all the washing-up, then finished the book I was reading before finally getting to bed about 10.45.