Maggi texts in the morning to see if we want to go to Livadia (Larnaca suburb) as they're on a grocery trip, so we go along for the ride. From the car we spot a forklift hoisting new mattresses to the first floor of the Frangiorgio hotel Apts, where they are being taken in from a balcony. A nice replacement at the scene of last year's beetle infestation.
Interesting linguistic point above. I note I have said the mattresses were hoisted to the first floor. In Europe (UK included here) the floor you enter from the street is the ground floor and the one above it the first. An occasional disappointment to North Americans who think they have only 3 storeys to trudge up and find they have four. As with many other usages, though, it seems we adjust without thinking about it. Or not, on occasion. There was the time that J, looking at a Cypriot street, said that the pavement was new and I, looking down at the sidewalk (British English read pavement) said I didn't think so - there were weeds growing in the cracks.
The end of the Christmas season, as tomorrow is Epiphany, a major holiday here. So our homemade decorations will be coming down, along with the public decorations and those in shop windows, some of which are very nice. And interesting, from a North American viewpoint. There is some use of red and green, but much more of gold or ivory and gold - much classier. And St. Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often clad in gold, occasionally in other colours like blue, and is not necessarily rotund. Leading to the somewhat annoying realisation that the common western stereotypical Santa image owes its origin to Coca Cola advertisements and not to any more historical tradition.
And as I walk home with the eggs, crossing the parking lot behind the market place, I see a Santa Claus in a wheelchair. He's nearly life-sized and red-suited, being wheeled across the lot in a red satin covered armchair on four small wheels. Off-stage now for the season.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS