Monday, December 13/2010

Walk down to the post office and tourist office - for maps and new bus timetables. The post office is opposite the Kition, our home for the last two winters. It looks deserted, other than the little convenience shop on the ground floor. Then we spot the handlettered sign advertising furniture for sale, and in the covered walkway through the building are bits and pieces of furniture from the hotel, most of it looking a little worn and yellowed, exposed to the world in daylight like this - dressing tables with paint chipped at the corners, even our old drapes in a sad heap. Rather like a dignified lady forced to evacuate in her underclothes. Nothing is underpriced either - white plastic garden chairs for the balcony are €2 each.

J checks at the Eleonora, newly (well, last year) tarted up and relet. Long stay rate - €1300 a month. That's close to 50% more than last year's quote and I'm indignant. Did you ask if there's a single person in there actually paying that? It's the old Cypriot trick of negotiating a different price with each customer. Sometimes a manager will even ask one to remind him of the price agreed the previous spring.

As usual, the language of translation affords entertainment. So I am puzzled by an advertisement for tins of "pilled tomatoes" though I might have been a little quicker had I heard it aloud. Of course - peeled tomatoes. And the small fish labelled "smell" on the next page are pretty obvious, if a bit offputting. But the caveat on Lidl's special offers stating "all prices without decorations" continues to be a mystery.