Wall to wall carpeting??

Hi again. Well the men were as good as their word, and by9.00 this morning, they were laying a wall to wall 'carpet' of wet cement outside, (and right up to) our gate, so we were virtual prisoners for a while. To give them their due, as soon as they could, they did put down a few boards from our garage gate, up towards the village. So we still couldn't get down to the lower end of the village where the car is parked, but at least I could take my Christmas cards up to the post office as planned, and start them on their journey. I managed to have all the postal ones ready to go in one lot which is nice. I have made over 90 cards this year and most of those were for overseas, (I still have a dozen or so more to make to complete my set for local delivery), so the little girl in our post office looked a bit taken aback when I gave her this huge pile of envelopes in assorted colours, shapes and sizes! The total bill was €55, which sounds a lot, but considering there were a couple to America, a couple for Australia, and one for Cyprus, several containing letters and/or ATCs, and a few packages of more than one card, I didn't think it was too bad. I was expecting it to come to more. You can see why we don't send presents home; the postage would exceed the value of the gift, but I enjoy making the cards, and it is no good making them if you aren't prepared to send them, so hopefully I will be brightening up a few homes in the next week or so, and then it's all worth-while.

This morning dawned rather grey and cloudy, but I risked hanging out my washing. I had to double-peg everyhting because it was so windy, but I'm glad I did as it was dry in a couple of hours. The wind also blew the clouds away and by lunch time it was warm and sunny again, so here we are enjoying an after-dinner ice-cream out on the porch.

Tomorrow morning I have to go without breakfast and be at the doctor's for a blood test by 8.30. I had one last Friday and it showed that my blood sugar levels had risen considerably so I am now taking a tablet every day for diabetes. I have been on the diabetic register for some years now, but up until now I have managed without taking medication. I was disappointed with the result as we have a much better diet out here. The things I used to eat at home, that were bad for me, but I really enjoyed, such as chocolate and cream cakes, barely exist out here, and when you do see them they are exhorbitantly high-priced. On the other hand, the good foods such as fruit and vegetables are plentiful and comparitively cheap. But that obviously wasn't enough to control the diabetes. So tomorrow I have another test to see whether the tablets are helping. It was very strange here. At home they used to take two or three phials of blood, send them off to be tested, and a week later I would go to the doctor to discuss the results. So last week I rolled up my sleeve to be ready, but he just pricked a finger, sucked a drop up with a capilliary and read the result of the tester, said 'high' and pointed at the doctor's room next door! The village 'nurse' is a young man who doesn't speak English. Fortunately my doctor, who is Arabic, does!

Well I am off to my Spanish lesson now. They are still laying cement below our house, so I will have to walk up into the village, round the block, and back down, to get to the car, so I had better get going. I'll add some photos when I get back, before I post this on the web. Hasta luego!