Wednesday, November 18/2015

Set alarms on both mobile phones and both ipads - and they all deliver. They're set for 4:15 AM, and we can all too easily imagine sleeping through in the pitch dark not much more than four hours after going to bed. All packed last night, though, so only dressing and brushing teeth. We pass deliverymen unloading crates of vegetables in front of a restaurant in an otherwise pretty deserted Queensway. The tube station opens just after we arrive and we're on the first District train to Edgware Road. Almost empty at this hour of the morning and no one obstructing our way at St Pancras either. So we're actually slightly early for the 5:52 to Gatwick. No queue at all at the Monarch desk, which has just opened. So lots of sitting around time before our 10:10 flight. Man sitting next leaves his Daily Mail behind. Crap paper, but he's kindly refrained from doing the puzzles.

Flight is good. Not a comfortable seat design and pitch means little leg room, but the plane holds 220 and is less than half full, so its pretty painless; in spite of our not having paid to pick our own seats we each have a row of three to ourselves. And the plane is an astonishing 40 minutes early. Almost the last through immigration, as usual. Down in part to Cypriots queuing at the "all passports" desks instead of the EU, EEC, and CH. Tempted to make loud announcement to the effect that they are, unnecessarily, in line with asylum seekers and North Koreans (and us). 

Bill and Jane meet us. Hugs and home to the Sunflower for more hugs. And, surprise - we'd been told the fourth floor would be under renovation but are handed the key to 403, our old home. Frenzied renovations finishing for reception area and restaurant (reopening tomorrow). We're on hold. Unpack the basics. Then Jane and Bill pick us up for dinner at a taverna recommended to them. Interesting decor. Photos of Larnaca from the 50's and an antique phonograph. Also a bicycle no older than the one I rode as a kid - ok, it was once my mother's, genuine antique. The food is good - moussaka (me), chicken (Jane), rabbit (Bill and Joe) and the service friendly, but it's not Vlachos. Our gold standard.