Moving into our rental house in Cyprus

Today we moved into the house we're going to rent. We very much appreciated having a furnished flat to stay in for our first couple of weeks, but it was quite cramped for four of us. The new house seems huge, as the ceilings are four metres high (yes, that's 13 feet!) and everywhere is painted off-white. We're borrowing some furniture from the store of furniture owned by Richard's work; if we decide to keep some of it, we'll buy it from them.

There's a large thrift shop which seems well-equipped with furniture at good prices; people come and go quite often here. So we'll have to visit there frequently and see what's available. Anyway, we have beds, chairs and so on; also a washing-machine, cooker and fridge (very important). 

About 15 colleagues helped with the moving, and it wasn't as if we had all that much to move. So it didn't take long. Afterwards we had a barbecue in our back garden, which is huge and overgrown. There's a patio - which was covered in dust and leaves, but somebody kindly swept it, and it made a good place for eating.

At the far end of the garden is a five-storey block of flats. I hadn't really noticed them before, but as we started eating, someone appeared on one of the balconies and stared at us. Then she went in, and five minutes later more people started apperaing on other balconies. Before long we had about 20 people looking down. It felt rather intrusive, but perhaps they were interested as the house has been empty for six months or more. And of course they might be wondering if 20 people are moving in...