I had a look at the forecast today and I really should have listened to it today! Wunderground, my preferred Weather forecasting site was predicting very light winds until around midday and then becoming 10 -12mph Westerly later in the afternoon.  The problem is, that this is often the forecast for later in the afternoon and I've lost count of the times I've been to the hill expecting to fly only to find it's blown out due to a strong sea breeze that has taken over.  Equally on desperate days when I haven't flown for weeks I'll pop down even if it's forecast to be Northerly and low and behold I've still flown! this is usually due to a strong sea breeze kicking in and taking over funny old thing so Curium has often proved to be a difficult site to predict.  The only person I know to have had any luck with that is a guy called Dave Neal.  He used to live about 3 minutes away from the hill by car and his house was atop the cliffs to the West of the site.  He'd step into his back yard, take a look at the tops of the trees and issue his forecast by text.  The lucky few who were privy to these texts were usually rewarded with a very nice flight thank you very much.  Since Dave left the island though we have had to rely on the met stations at Akrotiri or Paphos, neither of which really give an accurate reading for Curium.  I miss you Dave!  Come back soon.
Well anyway, Glenn had told me he would like to come today and so I popped via his house before setting off to the hill.  About 40 minutes into the drive down, it suddenly dawned on me that I had left my Saloman boots in the hallway at home and was still wearing my flip flops!  Well I had Glenn with me, I didn't want to depress him buy turning round and going back for them so I elected to stop at Orphanides in Limassol and have a look for a pair there to buy.  A cheap pair that would see me right in the brambles on top.  Well 20 minutes later, when I arrived, Glenn disappeared off to MacDonalds whilst I shopped.  In and out I thought, something cheap.  Well I had a look at the offerings upstairs and to be honest for the price of them I thought I may as well buy a decent pair, something that I'll wear all the time so I decided to pop into the shoe shop in the arcade only to drop on a pair of very nice echo shoes, well two pairs actually but I only bought the one as to take a mortgage out would have been ridiculous.  Now Cyprus is no longer renowned for it's cheap shopping but when the girl rang up the bill for the shoes, I could see why there were no prices on them! €179!!!!!  Now I've never paid more than about £80 for shoes and that was when my mum was buying.  I will normally only stretch to £40 and very occasionally £55 as with my Salomans.  So with my jaw dropping I said no thanks I'll just go without I was looking more like €79!  I have no idea what came over me next, as I heard the woman say OK I give you 5% off I then agreed and gave her my card! I think she must have hypnotised me or something.  But I have to say they are very nice Yak leather echo shoes that should last me for some time.
After that Glenn and I headed up the hill only to find Nil wind at the top and the distinct look of a Westerly flow someway out to sea.  But as this was glenn's first time on the hill for some time and with both of the Clubs coaches on the hill we urged Glenn to top to bottom and just get a feel for the sport again.  It was difficult to launch his Alpha 2 due to the lightness of the wind and also a couple of the carpets on top have vanished so it was a little snaggy too.  But Glenn managed two reasonable launches and two landings and managed to get a minor scare into the bargain too.  On his second attempt he basically ran half way down the slope with half of his wing under his arm and the other end flying above him!  As he disappeared over the lip of the hill, Tim and I were concerned but after a brief look over the edge we could see that he was  fine, it transpired he had a couple of minor scratches on his ankle due to the rocks and bushes.  Something everyone who has ever flow this hill has suffered at some point in their past!
So the day wasn't a complete loss but it was a lot of hard work for two top to bottoms.