Wednesday, March 25/2009

Concession tickets to Alan Bennet's Enjoy - revival from 1980. It has some excellent moments - the very funny worrying about whether the husband is actually dead as they begin to lay him out as there appears to be "evidence both ways" - and some interesting questions re authenticity, but overall it's not nearly as good as the more recent plays. Encouraging, I suppose, to think someone writes better in his 60's and 70's than in his 40's.

Tuesday, March 24/2009

Repeat of Thursday night's fire alarm - this time at 8 a.m. and fewer tenants on show. The others at work or just too cynically blase to show? No fire.

We've been here a week but the time always goes so fast in London - there's so much to see and do. We stop and arrange with Marty for an extra 3 days from when we get bac from Dublin.

In the afternoon J goes to see Jersey Boys while I head out to West Harrow to see Jean and help play with her new computer. Computer's fun but so is the tea and chat. J says Jersey Boys great - Frankie Valli bio and songs - and a full theatre of grey heads!

Monday, March 23/2009

Down to the Barbican and a couple of hours with the library internet but no great joy looking for the missing 3 dahys. Back to Camden Town and a minimal shop. There's an eel and pie shop we want to check out but it starts to rain a little so we decide to look another day.

Shrimp and salmon chowder for supper.

Sunday, March 22/2009

Mass at Westminster Cathedral with the usual beautiful boys choir. Still sunny though not quit so warm - but the tiny park by Victoria Station has young people sleeping on the grass near the student travel agency. Sunday lunch and a happy read of fat Sunday papers.

Saturday, March 21/2009

Is this the first day of spring? Certainly feels like it. We check out the plays at the National Theatre, then off by train to Thames Ditton. Jenny and her other are there and Doug comes back for lunch. Then Emma joins us with baby Jasmine, born in January. She's bright eyed and absolutely lovely. After lunch a walk in the area minus Doug who has gone back to renovations. Gloriously full camellias, violets, cherry blossoms, and magnolias. It's a beautiful town and day. Jasmine sleeps in her pram.

Use their computer to book 3 days in Dublin - a maddening procedure but done now.

We take the train back to Waterloo, but get halfway there (New Malden) before J says that's as far as he goes without a loo. New Malden has a toilet opening onto the platform - or rather not opening as it's locked in the evening. J disappears down the path and I make no inquiries. Ten minutes later another train to Waterloo.

Friday, March 20/2009

Another stunningly beautiful day. It's been warm and sunny all week - shirtsleeves and daffodils, magnoilias, cherry blossoms everywhere. We walk from Trafalgar Square down the Mall along the park and work our way over to the Thomas Cook near Green Park where we look into possible spots for our 6 day gap. Nothing really clicks though.

Thursday, March 19/2009

Jean's in the afternoon. Lots of talk time and we get to see the new laptop. Beautiful wide screen but a bit intimidating in its complexity. Lovely meal with curry and the beautiful smoky aubergine as well as apple crumble with custard. Thoroughly spoiled we are.

A paralyzingly loud fire alarm sounds in the night for about 20 minutes. No signs of smoke or fire but we do meet a couple of the neighbours - are the rest justwaiting it out? A young man in red sweat pants explains the problem. He has some kind of position (for reduced rent?) with the Welby and could call the fire department but they charge management 7000 pounds if there's no fire and "Ii'd have to find somewhere else to live."

Wednesday, March 18/2009

Stock up day - Sainsbury's as well as the 99p store and Inverness St. market so we've got the basics. Coronation Street in the evening - with characters and plotlines we can't place after 3 months.

March 17/2009

Most packing done yesterday, but still enough for busy morning. Maggi picks us up at noon (boxes and microwave left in room for storage). Lovely sunny lunch on M&M's balcony and last view of the Med, but hopes for all of us next year in cyprus.

Happily there are British newspapers for the plane so we get to sate ourselves with news and crosswords. Very nice lamb stew and creme caramel as well - and we're early in at Heathrow. Tube t Swiss Cottage and J collects the key to number 20 Belsize Park from its spot taped to the oor of the Welby. He's some time about it as it's taped so well that better fingernails are required. The flat is OK - pretty basic but clean and a good location.

Monday, March 16/2009

Appointment to get teeth cleaned, which J fortunately remembers because I wouldn't have. A woman in the wainting room makes two calls on her mobile, one in English and one in Greek. In the Greek conversation she sighs "Kyrie eleison" (lord have mercy) which soulds like a religious chant imported from the Mass rather than a casual interjection as it would in English. Like the Alpha and Omega sporting goods store, which always seems so apocalyptic, and not at all like a regular A to Z.

Sunday, March 15/2009

Say goodbye to Fr. Wilhelm. Huge brunch at home as we look to emptying the fridge. Warm enough, but very windy. Lovely film - Touch of Spice? - on Dubai tv about a Greek family deported from Istanbul to Greece in the 60's.

Saturday, March 14/2009

Find a sunny table at market for our coffee. Two women at the next table ask for Nescafe. Really? asks the proprietor, whose Cypriot coffee is excellent, but he brings it and I shrub my shoulders in agreement with him as he passes.

Friday, March 13/2009

Haircut before leaving, with only minimal trauma - shorter than I want, but a good cut. A solid hour's wait, but I've brought a novel. Minimalist conversation with the girl who washes hair, consisting mainly of each of us repeating what we have to say twice and hoping this will result in understanding - which it doesn't always.

Three a.m. drama. We wake to hear the fire alaarm ringing at length, and decide clothes are required lest the emergency be real. There are voices in the hallway and, when I open the door, a nasty smell of smoke. We join the small cluster of residents outside the door of the flat next door, clearly the source of the smoke. Only one other woman, but men have a clear advantage at impromptu middle of the night gatherings, being free to appear in sweat pants and not much else. The occupant of the flat is a giant mountain of a man, padding about unhappily in underpants, t-shirt and socks. He has something to be unhappy about, as he's clearly the author of the burning, whatever it is, and is being subjected to flat inspection by a man in black whom we take to be the night manager, as well as the singing Swede of lobby fame, recruited in this case for his linguistic skills. Though the man mountain doesn't seem chatty. Night manager and singing Swede emerge, apparently satisfied and commenting that it may have been cooking. Back in bed we reflect that it's no particular comfort to be given an explanation that cannot possibly be accurate. The nasty, acrid smell could have been cigarette and bedding but it was definitely not burned toast and bore no real resemblance to burnt food. But the rest of the night is peaceful.

Thursday, March 12/2009

This week's Cypriot Financial Mirror says that tourism is expected to drop 10 to 25% next year and predicts the lowering of hotel prices, involving some level of government subsidy. Somehow we doubt that winter long-stayers will be the primary beneficiaries.

Wednesday, March 11/2009

J for a haircut and I to the internet. We come home to a gleaming flat. The cleaning is usually good - sometimes embarrassingly so as when we find that the carefully seasoned frying pan has been scrubbed clean, leading to future hiding of same before cleaners arrive - but today the windows have been washed and the balcony mopped down as well.

I always wonder what the cleaners make of the shower arrangements. We have a small snhower cubicle with a cloth curtain on two sides. When we first came to the flat the curtain was an annoyance, as it tended to be sucked inward and cling to the body once the water was turned on, bringing to mind old convent accounts of nuns piously washing themselves beneath concealing shifts. Our solution has been to fill 3 large (1.5 litre) water bottles and use them to stake the cutain at appropriate spots so it's held in place. What must the cleaners think when they see 3 large bottles of water permanently placed between shower and toilet?

The Today on BBC radio features an interview with mp and political diarist Chris Mullin, who says that the political diarist should adhere to the four I's: make the diary immediate (no late remembering and reframing), intimate, indiscreet, and (in case of accidental loss) indecipherable. The last reminds me of the time I lost my journal. It was quite an unpleasant feeling knowing it was lying exposed somewhere, and this despite the fact that it's not nearly indiscreet enough (Mullin quotes Chips Cannon as saying "there's nothing more dull than a discreet diary: you might as well have a dull or discreet soul") and the knowledge that anyone at all could read it online anyway. I eventually found it in the Larnaca post office lying on a table, presumably unread.

Tuesday, March 10/2009

Sunny and windy - a perfect drying day as we get clothes ready to pack up.

We've invited M&M to dinner - last time this year. Maggi's hired car makes it possible but we do miss the old days when we were in the same building and could pop up or down easily. The Eleonora will be open again next year - is in fact almost ready now - but not at the good old price.

Monday, March 9/2009

A call this morning from Androula. We met her and her husband Andreas in Jordan two years ago and got on quite well. He used to be a headmaster and she a home economics consultant - both retired now and living in Nicosia. I'd texted just to see if thenumber I had was still good. They remember us well and wanted us to come for lunch or dinner. It's pretty late this year but next year we'll have to try.

Email from Liza, the Philippina nanny we met who was moving to Toronto. She says she's fine and the family she's living with are nice, so that's good news. It's half way round the world for her and probably the coldest climate she's known, but she's likely to be both paid and treated better in Canada than in Cyprus.

Sunday, March 8/2009

Really thick dust haze in the air which, ironically, has the effect of making the air warmer, though it's not exactly sunny. One spot on the island hits 25 today. Fr. Wilhelm has ashes available after Mass for those who were unable to come on Ash Wednesday - "some of you work for slave drivers," he shrugs, addressing the Philippino domestics. So we line up with those with worthier excuses.

Saturday, March 7/2009

Warm but overcast - more dust in the atmosphere? Coffee at the marketplace with M&M, and we buy six eggs but nothing else. Nothing more would fit in the little fridge. Feels like we have enough til we leave, though - probably too much of some things and not enough of others.



Film Sylvia on Dubai television - the life of Sylvia Plath. Interesting how someone with such psychological damage can leave the viewer so unmoved. Probably because of the self-centredness verging on narcissism, though that may be true of all mental disturbance. The Dubai chanel is pretty limited but it does provide two films a day, a reasonable proportion of which are watchable.

Friday, March 6/2009

Small group of boys (late teens? - a guess as I don't turn round to look) come in to the internet and crowd round one of the four computers, all of which are, miraculously, working. They're obviously looking for work in the hospitality trade, but they don't have a lot of patience; a ten minute search perhaps and they're ready to leave. I hear them daring each other on the way out. Yeah, do it - ask for condoms. It is a student facility, perhaps with many missions. Seems to work though, and they leave happy if jobless.

Thursday, March 5/2009

Our afternoon read aloud book is now Edith Sitwell's The Queens and the Hive, a history of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. We're more than half through, so reasonable hope of finishing before we leave. It's quite highly dependent on primary sources, many of which are fascinating, irony and malice coming down undiminished through the intervening four centuries.



In the evening M&M drop by for their rain cheque drink (unable to stop yesterday).

Wednesday, March 4/2009

Two early morning stories courtesy of UK BBC5 underline just how different political concerns can be elsewhere. In Tanzania there is a problem with albinos being murdered as their body parts can be sold to witch doctors making spells to create wealth. And in Kenya the president complains bitterly about rumours that he has a second wife - threatening lawsuits.

Ash Wednesday (Eastern Church that is) and a lovely day.

Tuesday, March 3/2009

Settle our bill for the remaining time. We leave for London in two weeks, and as usual wonder where the time has gone. We'll miss Dave in the UK, which is too bad.

Monday, March 2/2009

Traditionally Green Monday is a day for picnics, the locals heading off to the countryside with barbecues and folding tables. So Maggi has planed a picnic for us and collects us at 10 for a drive out toward Kiti Beach, just south of us along the coast. On the way, we pay a short visit to Angeloktisti Church. The church itself is 11th century but built on a much earlier church site. The original apse is still there as well as a lovely 6th century mosaic with the virgin Mary and archangels. We've been there before but not recently.

We then head for Kiti Dam, out of curiosity, and eventually find it - bone dry. Surprising, since we've had more rain recently and the water is supposed to be coming over the dam at a couple of reservoirs. We do find a lovely old church nearby though, a stone building surrounded by ancient looking olive trees, the trunks gnarled and intertwined. The church is locked but looks cared for, despite the large number of spent cartridgeslying about. Cypriots are enthusiastic hunters, typically wearing - unbelievably - camouflage on their hunting expeditions.

We have our picnic lunch at Kiti Beach. Magne had wanted a barbecue but Maggi opted for simplicity so we've brought sandwiches, fruit, olives, pickled herring, cheese, beer and iced doughnuts. Then efforts to fly the kite that Maggi was given at Zorbas Bakery. THis is a traditional kite flying day and several picnickers near us have theirs soaring but we're not very successful in getting ours up. The beach has quite interesting stones and we pick them over while Maggi goes off to investigate a beach hut. Drive back along the coast stopping at Kiti Lighthouse as well as photographing the flamingos at the salt lake. A lovely day.

Sunday, March 1/2009

Text from Jenny as we wake, to say that they are leaving Bahamas and about to sail up the Amazon. They'll be back in London by the time we get there so we'll get to hear all about their trip.

Reverse pattern - clouds disappear in late morning. After Sunday brunch we take a walk along the waterfront, enjoying the sun. As usual on a Sunday it's full of locals and tourists alike along the promenade. It's warm but windy and we watch a little girl's chagrin when the top of her candy floss blows off and skites along the sidewalk. Many of the children are wearing their carnival costumes, enjoying them for as many days as possible - a small female lion walks with her parents, her tail dragging dispiritedly along the pavement. As well as ice cream, cotton candy and hot dogs (one euro each, but none in evidence) there are helium balloons, toys and cheap jewellery on sale. And games of chance: small homemade wooden pinball games stand in front of plush animals and other prizes.

The newsreader on the Dubai chanel, whose English is fluent and almost unaccented, refers to a statement by the "Angelican" (accent on the second syllable, pronounced jell) bishop of Cyprus and the Middle East.

Saturday, February 28/2009

The pattern of weather seems to have been, typically, sunny in the morning, then clouding over and, sometimes, afternoon showers. So this morning begins sunny but J points to the rising bank of cloud in the north. Coffee at the marketplace with M&M but by 11 the dark clouds are rolling in and there's a slight chill in the air. After market J and I walk down to Prinos greengrocers, prudently taking umbrellas. Prinos is insanely busy as its produce is excellent and we're into a long weekend. Not only a long weekend, but a Monday on which the tradition is to have a picnic featuring green vegetables, bread and seafood. As we leave, a thunderstorm hits and, mindful of the recent ligntning strike death, we wait until it's moved east before putting up lightning rod umbrellas. By the time we reach the Polish shop - for pickled herring - the rain, never heavy, has stopped.

Friday, February 27/2009

Headng into a long weekend in Cyprus Monday is clean Monday or green Monday depending on translation - the day preceding kShrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. These latter occurred in the western Church a week ago courtesy of the Gregorian calendar. This year Easter is a week apart in the two jurisdictions. Usually it's more; occasionally the same date.

This weekend there will be parades in some places and children in costume everywhere - princesses and spidermen much in evidence. Not only children if the shop window displays are anything to go by. There must be adult costume parties in the offing.