Pissouri, Cyprus - "Shelter in Place"

First, an update on the home or not roller coaster - NOT. My poor travel agent, and they, travel agents, are the unsung heroes in all of this. They have had to change bookings, sit on hold for ever, look at obscure ways to get people home and deal with scared and panicky people. Mine has been awesome! Anyway at the end of yesterday she thought she could get me home via Zurich and then Heathrow. Hotel stays in one or both. But by the time I went to bed she had not yet been able to get a quote on that itinerary. I had a fitful nights sleep and every time I woke I was flipping and flopping as to whether to try this convoluted route or just stay here. At about 4am I made the decision (probably not the best time to be making a decision, but it allowed me to go to sleep). I was still sitting with that decision when I woke (6am!!!). I will stay here. Here's my reasoning:
Here I am relatively safe - small village with grocery store, pharmacy, medical centre, bank and a social network with, as far as I know, no identified coronavirus infections yet.
If I leave I have to go through high risk areas  4 airports and 4 cities (2 hotels) and 3 planes.
I run the risk of getting stuck in Zurich or London which would be expensive and lonely and lousy climate.
When I weighed it out the inconvenience (I would rather be home) of staying was outweighed by the risks associated with leaving.
I am going to stay until the return looks less risky.

I didn't like this decision. I have been a bit weepy today. But ultimately I think it is the best decision for me. In the next few days I will make a list (always helps) of everything I have to organize because of this decision (cottage, car, taxes, health insurance etc etc etc...) I have had so many email from friends and family reaching out and offering support and help, I feel able to manage this.

So this morning was spent on some pretty major gardening. Always relaxes me:

Cameron who lives next door had returned to the UK and got stuck there. Nikki (who owns next door) and John and Anne arrived today to prune (read decimate) the Loquat tree that was "out of control".

It took 4 of us 2 hours. 2 pruning the tree and 2 cutting up the pieces and putting them in garbage bags. The bush in the foreground is Rosemary and needed a major prune too. Nikki and John's station wagon was full of bags to be dropped at the "tip" and there were more that wouldn't fit in. I got some advice about working on the rest of the garden - what were weeds, what needed pruning, where the weedkiller was.

Yesterday one of the common areas of the Sunrise development was also cleaned up; weeds pulled and shrubs trimmed.

This was my painting challenge for the afternoon.

I had planned to go to Paps for some groceries today but ended up staying home to await a call from Chris to test her Trivia Game system for tonight's game. Cyprus has increased its lock down restrictions. Beaches and parks are closed, everyone should stay home but if they leave (for specified reasons) they have to stay in the area of their residence (I take that to mean Pissouri village), you can be stopped and have to have identification and show where you live, if you are out of your area (with no valid reason) you can be fined 150 Euro on the spot. There is a phone number that you have to text if you are going shopping, exercising, leaving home for even valid reasons.

Testing Christines Trivia system took my phone (using WhatsApp) to communicate with her while setting it up, my laptop with Zoom to see and hear her, live chat and see the questions and my tablet with Google Docs downloaded to fill in the answers.

Last week she used Hangouts but it only allowed 10 people to play and she had to have extras play on Skype. More people want to play tonight and the system that Chris has worked out seems to be working fine.