Tuesday, December 20/2016

Haircut day. Not raining, though it's cool, and expect that it will be crazy busy by the end of the week, and Thursdays hair dressers and barbers in Cyprus are closed, by legislation it seems. Am prepared with reading material for a long wait but it's dead. No sign of the owner and his wife and one of the two assistants are conspicuously underoccupied. Which leaves me with a dilemma, as I'm obliged to ask the wife if her husband is about. Seems rude, and there was some difficulty about the initial communication which discourages me from adding half-hearted apologies and explanations. But he appears, presumably from the coffee shop and cuts my hair. By the time I leave there are actually four clients for the four staff members. Not busy? People wait - till Friday and Saturday. No doubt. 

Beautiful day.  Meet J at the beach where it's actually hot in the full sun. Someone in wading. Feels like ice cream weather, but we stop at the watch repair shop and then cross the road for coffee at Harry's. The watch shop is tiny, maybe 15 feet by ten, possibly less, but the owner has told J that he only pays €10 a month in rent - more than that for rubbish collection. Stop on the way back at the deli in the market square, to find that their already ridiculously cheap - and perfectly drinkable - Greek cabernet, syrah and merlot are actually on sale, for €2.18 ($3.03 CAD, £1.83) a bottle. Right, so the only question is how much can we carry. We must be a mile and a half from home.