Probably the hottest day, although to be fair 38 on my app may well have been higher than our garden reality. Didn’t run out to check the thermometer. Besides, 100 used to sound so much more impressive. We’re the caught in the middle generation. People who can actually say we’re 250 miles from Winnipeg, so if you drive 100 km/hour you’ll be there by lunch. Or even it’s been over 30 degrees all week. I think it must be 95 today.
Wait until dusk to go back to the cash point. AOK this time. Walk through the old city coming back. Small and not so small groups gathered outside little cafés. Guitars in some groups, and singing. The last call to prayer comes as the last afterglow leaves the sky. We are so going to miss this place.
Reports online from expats being refused consular assistance to cross to the South. The demand from the South was sheer bloody mindedness to begin with. Demanding a test was one thing but the consular assistance was simply obstructionist. However it seems now that those with EU and Commonwealth passports are having their embassies and high commissions tell them that they are not being allowed to give them “permission” to pass. In the case of EU citizens, this is a violation of EU law, so eventually knuckles will be rapped and changes made. Commonwealth somewhat different, but at minimum their high commissions could be expressing unhappiness at the retrograde step. The Republic of Cyprus more than most countries, is eager to cultivate support and good will and to attract tourists. There is no need for countries to act as if holding their citizens hostage and forcing them to leave through what the RoC regards as an illegal port is no inconvenience.
Having said which, we are not, of course, genuinely hostages nor unable to leave by other means, but the consular stance should be a little less supine.