Welcome Rio Franco!

Its been a lovely day here in Peyia. Just after lunch today, Jaimi,the gorgeous hairdresser whose salon in Peyia, gave birth to her third child, Rio Franco. Weighing in at 3kilos, Rio joins Drew, 4 years and Natalia, 9 years old and completes the Tsaltas family – for now!

With the time at 8.45pm, I suspect the Cypriot traditional welcome for new babies in the family, is still well underway. Every family member, from aunts to uncles, cousins to close friends of cousins, will gather in the hospital ward to welcome Rio and eat the welcome cake which Michael, Rios proud daddy, will have to provide. Its a lovely tradition – except for the poor mum who must be tired enough without having to entertain a huge crowd!

The grapevine in the Coral Bay area is very healthy so I suspect people knew of Rios birth almost as they were cleaning him up! Everyone knows everyone – and all look out for each other.

Going for fuel this afternoon, Nicolas (grandfather ) was telling me that Savvas, one of his grandsons, had just become father to baby Savvas who is great grandson number 16 for Nicolas! He was, quite rightly, totally thrilled!

Today would have been my Nannas 91st birthday too. Remembering her with great love and respect, I’ve allowed myself only a moment to be sad: she would have dearly loved this village and the cypriot way – and I would have loved to share it with her. My sisters and I know that we carry her memory in our hearts wherever we are.

Tony and I have finished the day enjoying fish and chips at Banana Bay, Coral Bay, watching the sunset over the sea. We’re off for an early night now: Jake will wake up every 4 hours through the night so we’re taking it in turn to get up and keep him company for a while before settling him back to sleep for a further couple of hours. In fact, our night is probably not too dissimilar to the one Jaimi will have with Rio, give or take around 40 kilos to carry around!

Till tomorrow…….