Out for a bit of pre-holiday errands. Stop at the watchmaker’s for my new watch strap. Some have come in but not all. No black the right size - would I settle for brown? No problem. Reminds me of moving to Sioux Lookout and going to buy a replacement watch strap. Went to the Northern store where there were two that were the right size. Bought the one that was not pink and thought it would be possible to save a lot of time in my new town.
Then to the butcher shop. It’s one we’ve been frequenting for years but still takes a bit of finding because it was located on the edge of the municipal market. The shop hasn’t moved but the market has, or rather will have done once they finish constructing the much postponed new market. Meanwhile a multi-storey car park is being built where the old market used to be and the route to the remaining shops is convoluted. Butcher’s worth hunting for, though. Beautiful cuts of meat and - the delicacy we’ve come for - well aged smoked pork fillet.
Then, on our way back, a stop at the East European shop. There used to be several in central Larnaca. Now this is the only one we’ve found remaining. Looking for pickled herring. And finding it. Reading labels in here sometimes tricky. Russian names for ingredients often similar to Polish, but Cyrillic alphabet slows things down considerably.
Very nearly useless news report on visit of agriculture minister to a supermarket. Gems such as decrease in sales of turkey and beef may be down to thirty percent price rise. Sounds entirely probable. However the minister adds cheerfully that demand should remain strong as Cypriots are a nation of meat eaters. True enough. The small amounts of meat described in the Mediterranean diet definitely don’t reflect practice here. (Actually it seems that the earliest observations of the diet came from the post war period when meat was in short supply and didn’t necessarily reflect local preferences in better times). Then the stats: a well off family of four will spend about €166 on about 35 items for the Christmas meal, a four member family “on a budget” about €92 on 19 items, and a poorer family about €24 for 11 items. Presumably a homeless family might spend nothing at all. No suggestion as to what the goods in the basket might be or what kind of income each designation represents. Article concludes by saying prices not expected to fluctuate much before Christmas. That would be in the remaining two days? Occasionally wonder if the Greek news items here are any more useful than the English. But there are sometimes good opinion pieces. And then there is the unintended humour.
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