Thursday, February 25/2010

Meet Maggi over at student internet and she and Magne come back for tea - until J suggests impromptu lunch with vegetable soup, Danish blue cheese and mackerel spread. They leave for supermarket and promised rain starts, violently with thunder and lightning and heavy waves lapping over the sidewalk and into the covered passageway of our building. Maggi says deep water and abandoned cars further up Gregori Afxentiou Street toward the internet. It's a spot we regularly saw flooding from our fourth floor vantage spot the year we lived in the Chryssopolis Hotel.

Wednesday, February 24/2010

Packaging much the same here as at home. J breaks a shoelace and finds that he can buy a packet of ten at the discount shop for only a euro. thus he is now the proud possessor of nine pairs of shoelaces surplus to requirements, including a pair of orange ones and a pair of pink. The problem, of course, being that a single pair of black shoelaces costs noticeably more than his multipack.

We get two weather forecasts here in English - or actually, in the case of Euronews, in silence. CYBC, the government chanel, provides a brief forecast at the end of its short evening English news, while Euronews, in the morning, pans quickly over a map of Europe, allowing little time for a focus that would, in any case, be wasted as the map itself is slightly out of focus. Neither forecast extends beyond 24 hours, which is perhaps a blessing - as I look at BBC website's weather at the internet and find heavy showers predicted in Larnaca for the next four days.

Tuesday, February 24/2010

Sort out the implications of British Airwayss strike possibilities. They must give 7 days notice of a strike and must strike, if they are going to do so, within 28 days of a strike vote. This gives them a 3 week window - with our flight to London in the middle.

M&M round to dinner as we all reflect how little time is let. Coq au vin and the fruit cake which J has been carefully feeding with brandy for weeks, along with a little brandy sauce.

Monday, February 22/2010

Maggi drops in for a cup of tea and a game of Scrabble - and we think of how much easier this will be if we're in the same building next year.

British Air cabin crews complete a strike vote with over 80% in favour. They're committed to not striking over Easter, but we're scheduled to fly with them three weeks earlier, on the 15th of March. Mixed sympathies, as the cabin crews are the nicest thing about BA.

Sunday, February 21/2010

Still some haze, but it's warming. Temperature in the mid-twenties as we head down to the waterfront. Children, tourists, balloons, ice creams muchin evidence. One stall has a huge variety of inexpensive wares for sale including the pseudo-spiritual - Bob Marley t-shirts, a large dream catcher, and a fluorescent crucifix.

Saturday, February 20/2010

Quick trip down to Sunflower to book the 4th floor flat for next winter. A thirteen minute walk from here. So we're committed- and happy about it. Then back to the market place. M&M areat Jimmy's Cafe drinking Cyprus cofee while we take advantage of the hot sun and split a large beer.

Look up Thursday's "gifthead fish" via Google and find that the only good hit is a reference to my own blog entry. So clearly there is a problem with the name. Accepting Google's suggestion that the fish in question may be "gilt-head", I pursue this and find that gilt-head is a particularly nice tpe of bream, and further that Greeks and Cypriots know it as tsipoura. So presumably Berlitz's entry has relied on poor handwriting or enunciation at some point, l and f not being very near each other on the keyboard.

Friday, February 19/2010

With M&M to check out Sunflower hotel apartments, J having spoken to the manager yesterday. The only downside is location, a bit north of the central area and promenade. On the positive side, the flats we're shown are sunny (southern exposure), clean and well-furnished and the price is good (€510 a month). We're all impressed.

Thursday, February 18/2010

Ask J if the naked woman was at the beach today when he went for his morning exercise. No, but there was a woman who walked the length of the beach backward while chanting.

J back from Carrefour with three lovely looking fish. He says there was a huge heap of them fresh in, and as fast as they arrived customers swooped on them. The fish was only identified by a Greek name - tsipoura - which means nothing to us, so we look it up in the little Greek Berlitz, which translates it as gifthead fish. Interesting, if not especially helpful. Food terms are actually one of the things the Berlitz does best. Many of the phrases seem not likely to be needed - "can you find me a secretary" - while others are rather horrifying - "can you give me an anesthetic?"

The fish proves to be lovely and we have just finished dinner when M&M arrive for a visit - unfortunately for them in time for fish smells as well as tea and biscuits.

Wednesday, February 18/2010

The evening news predicts Saharan dust haze will continue until Sunday and says that hospitals are prepared for more people with breathing difficulties. We must have good lungs because we never notice the difference.

And also re the news, the prize for the most blatant nerve goes to the Israeli government. In response to speculation that they are responsible for the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai. As forged european passports were used by the assassin crew, four of them stolen identities of British citizens living in Israel, and as the whole operation was complex and sophisticated, suspicion has naturally fallen on Mossad (motive plus modus operandi). The Israeli government's reply is not that they are not guilty but that it "can't be proven." And, they add, that in case they prefer ambiguous statements.

And in the "only in Cyprus" category, a man in his 30's has been arrested and charged with firing his gun in the air at a Cape Greco picnic site on Green Monday, causing minor injuries to two people.

Tuesday, February 16/2010

J, out for his early morning exercise, passes a middle-aged woman emerging onto the beach from her swim. She strips naked to get dressed. When J completes the half kilometre length of the beach she is still not dressed.

M&M back from their silver wedding anniversary trip to Athens and over to have a drink and share their experiences - from marble bathroom (in the hotel off Omonia) to funicular ride. A lovely long weekend it sounds.

Monday, February 15/2010

Very quiet on this holiday morning. No traffic heading to work, and last night's revellers no doubt enjoying a lie in. Warm enough, but the sun a pale disk seen through pervasive dust haze, presumably from the Sahara again.

The promenade active but not nearly as busy as yesterday, costumes somewhat thinner on the ground and the ice rink not quite as full, although still doing business at €10 per person. The booths are still set up as well - roasted chestnuts, popcorn, nuts, cotton candy, astonishingly tacky jewellery. The local artist still has her table with small paintings of traditional houses and flowered archways, but the bouncy castle has gone. The cafes are still busy though, as is the beach. In one corner a net has been set up and a volleyball game is in progress. Nearby a football (soccer) game is taking place with foreign students or workers, one man stripped to the waist and others in shorts and shirts. A number of fathers and young children with brightly coloured kites, Green Monday being the traditional day for kite flying. Yesterday one kite was a distant speck,held by what seemed like a half mile of line. Today's are more tentative. Dogs and children explore the rest of the beach, and in the bay there are three ships at holiday anchor.

In accordance with local custom, we have fish for supper, though no picnic this year.

Sunday, February 14/2010

Find out at Mass that the lovely old lady who always sat a few pews ahead has died during the week. Her husband is there alone. For two years now she has been looking more fragile by the week, in the end barely able to stand,but with thehelp of her husband and an extremely attentive Sri Lankan maid, she was always there, though for some time Fr. Wilhelm has gone to the pew to give her communion, rather than have her brave the queue.

After brunch we go down to the promenade. Pass the ice rink, busy with children and adults skating in counterclockwise circles - the centre of the rink occupied by three short palm trees - permanent and immovable parts of the square on which t he rink has been made. Everyone wears the same bright blue plastic skates - no temptation for theft here - and many of the kids do fairly well, considering how little opportunity for practice they must get.

The promenade is busy too. It's sunny and over 20, as well as being a long weekend. Many ice creams in sight as well as candy and grilled corn on the cob. Quite a lot of the children are showing off their carnival costumes, with princesses and spermen muc in evidence, the youngest of them barely upright, unsteady legs hurrying to catch up as they hurtle forward.

Must be parties in the evening, as the streets are just crazy with non-stop traffic, roaring motorbikes, singing and whoops out of the dark - all long into the night.

Saturday, February 13/2010

Down to Prinos greengrocers, and the customer chaos there is like the last supermarket day before Christmas. Thetraditional food for Green Monday is fish, or seafood, and green vegetables and carts are heaped high. We come home with large bags of oranges and grapefruit as well as a few tomatoes and cucumbers. We're always saying that it's surprising there aren't een more car accidents here (and it is one of the worst countries in europe) and sure enough as we cross the road between Carrefour and Prinos we skirt an accident that must just have happened - damage to vehicles only. Driving while on the telephone is illegal here, but almost universally practised. Although the high accident rates pre-date mobile phones.

Friday, February 12/2010

Heading into a long weekend as Green (or Clean depending on tradition/translation) Monday approaches - a day of picnics, kite flying and carnival activities before Lent begins on Wednesday. It's warmed up too - 20 degrees and the breeze is mild.

Quotation from our current reading, The Day of the Scorpion: "Compulsively tidy people, one is told, are alwas wiping the slate clean, trying to give themselves what life denies all of us, a fresh start."

Thursday, February 11/2010

Reading Hello, new free magazine J has brought home. And it should be free as it's mostly advertising, thinly disguised and otherwise, although it's possible to subscribe to it for €25 a year. Despite being written in English, it seems to have heavy Russian input (thus all the photos entered in the most beautiful girls contest are Russian or Ukrainian), and some phrases that seem to have suffered in translation. For example an article on Home Spas begins with the following advice -

After drawing the face and neck with a small amount of fat cream you can proceed to the following movements: Attach 4 fingers of the left hand and 4 fingers of the right hand to the corners of your mouth.

By the time we reach the legs, it's:

Use your towel or massage gloves to mash hip and thigh.

And there's information on water treatment as well:

For example, bath salts, which not only makes the water smell, but also reduces stiffness, or drugs from plant extracts.

Or alternatively there are herbs:

Bath with rosemary extract has a calming and refreshing effect and besides that cleans the pores. After such a bath you can't take a shower but should immediately go to bed.

And this evening radio and television celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison - beginning his most impressive contribution to South Africa at 71, an age when he might so reasonably have retired to some post incarceration peace. It's very humbling.

Wednesday, February 10/2010

There's an exhibition of paintings opening tonight at the Kypriaki Gonia Gallery on Stadiou, so we go. The artist is Yianis Pelekanos, and we know nothing about him, but our social calendar is not too full for such little interludes, nor is Maggi's and she joins us.

the paintings are a delight - naive scenes of pre-industrial rural and village life in Cyprus - warm, nostalgic and busy, with a strong narrative element. So there are scenes of farmyard activities, complete with household tasks in one corner of the picture and field work in another. And there's the scene of the young Cypriot man arriving home from abroad - to the consternation of his parents and former girlfriend as he is accompanied by a blonde foreign wife and small children. The previous sweetheart stands to the rear, her welcoming bouquet bitterly discarded on the floor. And there's even a political painting - a record of protesting women being removed from the railway tracks outside a trai station, complete with British soldiers and a union jack. (There is now no railway i Cyprus, as it was removed after the end of British occupation).

The artist is there, and another man (gallery director?) white haired and affable, greeting arrivals, chatting and stopping to explain one of the paintings to us. We also meet another artist - a Cypriot living in Exeter with his wife and six children, who is here doing a fascinating job making painted records of archaeological artifacts, capturing qualities the camera misses.

Maggi back afterward for a game of Scrabble.

Tuesday, February 9/2010

Showers off and on - more off, actually. Walk out to M&M's for late lunch. Pork roast with the lovel Norwegian sauerkraut - softer and sweeter than German and with a little caraway. Must try it at home some time. Marinated strawberries and melon after. And mellow chat.

Sunday, February 7/2010

The tourist organisation info lists today's beach entertainment as jazz, so we duly head down to the stage for eleven. It's not jazz but Cypriot country music and dance. Still quite interesting though, as J picks out the agricultural contribution to the choreography. Closely related to both Turkish and Ukrainian styles. And the sea as a backdrop.

Saturday, February 6/2010

Chill beginning but the sun is warm enough that we shed jackets and soak it in at the market coffee place. In fact warm enough for beer instead of coffee. J off to the beach for his morning walk - usually a rapid 5-6 miles. He says one day he spotted the pigeons in a flock on the ground all paying him special attention, cocking their heads to follow him, and realised that their real interest was soprano Emma Shaplin on his MP3.

Friday, February 5/2010

Interesting internet info on Jerzy Kosinski, author of the astonishing book The Painted Bird, which we are now reading, as well as of Being There. Turns out he committed sicide in 1991 with his literary reputation greatly tarnished. There are claims that Being There was plagiarised from a pre-war Polish book (though there must have been significant changes as there can't have been television in pre-war Poland). As for The Painted Bird, it seems that Kosinski relied heavily on translators and assistants to the point that one poet claimed he should have been given credit as author, though others could have said the same. And, in some ways worst of all, The Painted Bird is not at all autobiographical, though Kosinski - who admittedly never said it was - had encouraged people to believe it was based on his life. It turns out that far from spending his early years surviving on his own in German occupied Eastern Europe, he lived with his parents in a Russian border town in the east of Poland, admittedly told never to say he was Jewish.

While the quality of fiction is not dependent on the life of the writer, there is nontheless a problem. When some events in the book seemed not credible, the reader extended credit - after all Kosinski should know as his childhood was spent in the same horror. That authority is gone, and there is a certain sense of betrayal.

Thursday, February 4/2010

Down to Prinos fruit and vegetable market near Carrefour. Confirm what we observed earlier in the week and at the Saturday market - vegetable prices have risen. Some have held almost the same but others are up anywhere from 100 to nearly 400%, especially broccoli, cauliflower and courgettes. Hard to imagine why in a country that grows produce year round. Are we just at the end of a particular harvest cycle?

Purely by chance, we spot Larnaca's carnival parade. We pass it at the square (triangle really) where the Laiki bank is. Or more accurately stand as it passes us, the way being cleared by a policeman, all flashing lights and redirection. There are some good costumes but it's all a bit bedraggled - and over in about 90 seconds. Guess this isn't Limassol.

President Christofias shown on the news engaged in one of those embarrassingly long handshakes, suggesting superglue and serving as a multiple photo op. Back at work after being briefly hospitalised for exhaustion on Monday at the end of Ban Ki Moon's visit. A thankless visit for Ban, of course, as the only thing that makes Greek cypriots angrier than being ignored by the outside world is not being ignored - interpreted as interference, despite the UN chief's skill at walking on eggs.

Wednesday, February 3/2010

Kieran's twelfth birthday - the last of the winter ones.

We're reading Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, an amazing novel about a small boy wandering across Eastern Europe on his own through forests and often hostile villages, much as Kosinski himself survived the Holocaust that took the lives of most of his family.

Maggi over in the evening for a game of Scrabble and glass of wine.

Tuesday, February 2/2010

Pass shop window displaying carnival costumes - similar to North American Hallowe'en costumes - in sizes from small child to adult. Limassol is the place for the biggest parade but there will be a smaller one here as well just before Lent.

Monday, February 1/2010

February, and it feels as if spring is here, the sun warm in the morning. take a very quick look at places in the Canary Islands re next year - and see prices similar to here but with much better facilities. quick calculation: price increase over 9 years at our old home, the Eleanora is 157%. There have been some "improvements" there, but not ones that make it much more attractive to us - and they include decreased cupboard space.

Dinner at Militzi's with M&M - though it's an early enough dinner that Cypriots might well regard it as late lunch. Magne has beef kleftiko - a week's meat on the plate it looks like - and the rest of us beef stifado, with a side order of pilaf to share. Huge portions, and, when Maggi mentions that the stifado had a little too much vinegar (as indeed it did) we find ourselves treated to free liqueurs (for the women) and brandies (for the men).

Sunday, January 31/2010

Sunny and warm winds and everyone out on the promenade. The scent of sugar announces the cotton candy booth before we can see it and there's also a stall where they're grilling corn on the cob and roasting chestnuts. The ice cream kiosks are also seeing queues. Take a walk on the pier. The boat with a bar on deck is doing a fair business. there's now a tent-style bar on the beach itself - not bad and chairs outside as well as in. It does seem the beginning of the dividing out of the beach by the various commercial interests, though. Already there are large areas staked with skeletons of beach ubrellas and a huge stack of chaise long frames looking like an industrial recycling tip, as well as fairly unsightly corrugated metal storage sheds advertising hotel and beach umbrella hire. How much longer until it looks like the south of Spain, with only narrow public paths leading down to the sea between the large tracts cordoned off by hotels and their deck chairs.

M&M stop for tea on their way back from Limassol, bringing a lovely herbal tea mixture with them, courtesy of Maggi's friend Anita, who is studying Greek with her.

Saturday, January 30/2010

Overcast, and still windy. We have only to glance out the window to see the small palm trees whipping round - our weather vanes. But it's warm enough and rain not in the forecast, so we meet for coffee as usual. Then go to view the sample apartment for rent at Petrou Brothers. It's nicely designed as a summer hotel room. Pointlessly large kitchen with little cupboard space and bedroom with no chairs - only the bed to sit on whilst watching the flat-screened but too small television fixed to the wall in the corner. So the extensive renovations are essentially redecorating aimed at creating spare and cool rooms for the summer beach crowd.

Friday, January 29/2010

BBC World carries live the Chilcot Iraq inquiry today as Tony Blair testifies. And then it rains, so I get drawn in and watch pretty much the whole six hours. J waits for a weather break and heads to the beach for a walk (and I to the internet, passing a dead rat on the way back, outside the new restaurant that opened last year). But it's on until 7, given the time change.

Gives rise to images of Blair at confession:

Bless me Father for I have, I have...yes, well it's impportant for you to understand what a very difficult time it's been, and of course there are things that seem clear in hindsight that just weren't the chief concern when I...no, of course I did have plans, there was a great deal of planning...it's just that in the event the things I planned for were not the same as the ones that transpired. Could I have planned better? Well no, I genuinely believe that I planned extremely well - it's just that wicked people came and spoiled my plans. A firm purpose of amendment? No, if I had it all to do again I wouldn't change a thing.