Pissouri, Cyprus - finally it's dry, in more ways than one.

After the taps in the kitchen slowed to a trickle on Wednesday night I just went to bed, leaving it to George's "fix it fairies" to sort it out by the morning. But in the morning it was the same. In a conversation with Mick, via WhatsApp I learned that all of Pissouri was without water. The reservoir at the top of the village was empty. Not to worry, he said, there is a tank on the roof, not pressurized (therefor the trickle) but it should last for about a week of "normal use". No heater though.

Before I had realized the full extent of the situation I had put on a wash. Run out of socks mostly. Only 20% chance of rain, so of course, it rained. I am beginning to learn about winter weather forecasting in Cyprus. 50% chance means for sure its going to rain, 20% means it probably will rain and 0%, still quite likely.

While I was waiting for the washing machine to finish I had breakfast in the sun, on the balcony. There is a flock of pigeons and another of crows that do airial "fly bys" in the morning, swooping and chattering before landing in the trees below. This is a pair of Eurasian Magpies.

I had asked Loucas to drive me to Papantonious as I needed to exchange the gas cylinder for the fireplace and he came to pick me up at 2:15. Mick and Anne have a little 2 wheeled trolley to move it on. Loucas left me there and I was to call him when I needed picking up.

While struggling to read the Greek labels on the milk another customer, English, explained that the "half fat" milk had yellow tops. Of course our bags of milk at home are colour coded, makes sense that there would be a similar system.

I also got a Cypriot SIM card for my old phone. When Primus sent me a new phone I asked for the code to unlock my old one and the young man who had taken the gas cylinder from me helped me set it up. I also bought E10 worth of minutes.

It was good timing on this chore as when I went to call Loucas my Canadian phone didn't work. Kept giving me the message "Not Registered on this Network". ?????? It worked a week prior, what happened. Oh well, I used the Cypriot one.
The rain started while I was in the supermarket and there were lots of comments as I stood by the door waiting to be picked up: "This rain is wet, we only get dry rain at home", "Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink", "Don't believe the brochures" to which I said "Excuse me?" and she replied "All those pictures of sunny Cyprus". Everyone seems to be quite cheerful about the whole thing and most people, including me, were buying plastic jugs and bottles of water.

Today, still just the trickle. I am being very careful; 2 kettles of water a day (one for coffee in the morning and one to wash the dishes in the evening), a sponge bath, only flush when its "necessary". I decided that I needed to get a Facebook account as that is how news seems to be disseminated here (Mick had sent me a screenshot of the announcement yesterday). Because George had an account linked to our email I couldn't attach another account to it so would have to use a phone number. I went up to the Internet cafe (the Hub of the village) and talked to Jan who told me how to get my phone working and walked me through setting up a Facebook Account. From there I walked up the hill to explore that part of the village.
A brief stop in at the Charity Shop netted me some more information; the lack of water happened last spring too but then it was a flood at the pumping station and that was supposed to be rectified, the town had asked for a number of water tankers to refill the reservoir but so far only one tanker had come, it wasn't just Pissouri that was without water but quite a few villages had been effected. Now I know there are 2 places to go for the scoop - the Internet Cafe and the Charity Shop.

Looking down towards the square. The really old buildings are built of stone like the one on the right.

Cat guarding the church

and in the courtyard another one. A couple of dishes on the ground so it looks like someone feeds them here.

I heard the bells ringing last Sunday, The sound carries across the valley and in the village bounces of the cement buildings.

This young cat really wanted to be petted an had an extremely loud purr when I did.

I thought he or she was just curious about the camera but no, he or she was trying to climb up onto my shoulder.

When I met Nikki, the lady who owns the house next door, yesterday, one of the things we talked about was the feral cat population in the village. She said that 10 years ago the village was over run with cats but an effort has been put into catching and neutering them. This little one has been neutered, the vet notches the ear when it is done so they don't try to catch it again.

Looking down the hill I had just come up from the old part of the village. There was more "up" to go.

Looking down

Up near the top, a high end looking restaurant. A Maserati parked outside.

Up on the next hill. I wonder if that is the infamous reservoir.

A surprising number of developments on top of the hill and down the side towards the sea. Each one has roads that wind back and forth and then dead end. None are joined to each other as if there is no overall plan for the village.

The pool in the centre is the one for the development I am staying in and the house is one row downhill from the pool. I think you can just see the roof, on the right. The old village is out of the left hand side of this photo and up hill.

Many of the houses have water tanks on the roof and solar to heat the water. Annie's House also has a Boost heater for when it hasn't been sunny enough (like lately)

It was beautiful and sunny today, all day. Temperature of around 15 degrees. I walked in a long sleeved shirt and a vest but sometimes (when walking up hill) unzipped.
Back at home I got my Canadian phone working and set up a Facebook Account. Got accepted onto the I Love Pissouri page and the I Love Pissouri But page but didn't learn anything new about the water issue.

Clear enough to see the full moon tonight and its supposed to be nice again tomorrow.