Saturday, March 21/2026

 Officially spring as of yesterday. Admittedly not cold and no heavy rain today but taps on and off and alternating with sunny spells. Correspondent in North Cyprus posted a photo of roads with a lot of snow but turned out that was in the Troodos Mountains. South of the border and high enough that snow is not unusual. When we stayed in Larnaca there were often warnings that Troodos roads were closed to vehicles except those with four wheel drive or chains. Interesting that there still are cars using chains but presume that snow tires don’t exist here. 

As gas prices soar around the world there is an interesting announcement from the TRNC government. Apparently petrol prices will not be rising at the pumps. This by virtue of reducing VAT (value added tax) to zero. There are a number of basics here - petrol, gas cylinders, basic bread - that are controlled by government. They do go up but aren’t subject to profiteering and don’t fluctuate wildly.

Friday, March 20/2026

 Eid in much of the Muslim world, known as Bayram in Turkish. Both words mean festival and the difference is etymological. Eid is Arabic and Bayram Persian in origin. The end of Ramadan is marked by a feast day. Actually according to Islam it is wrong to fast on Bayram and we’re happy to conform.

Despite tradition, it’s not a sunny day. Storms continue to cross the Mediterranean so we stay home and make chili and cheese biscuits (undoubtedly not traditional but good rainy day fare).  Cheese biscuits a bit of a challenge as the last of the baking powder went into yesterday’s rock cakes. So baking soda should work as long as there is enough acid in the mixture. Internet highly dubious but my guess is that if the liquid is sour milk that should do it, and we do have vinegar. Might not publish the recipe, but not bad. 

Have, over the past years, stayed in a number of places less well designed as retreats from the rain. Think, for example of the one room cabin inside the old city walls in Rhodes. The kitchen, such as it was, was a bit of a lean-to. Beside, but not quite attached to, the room in which we slept. Not bad in dry weather but did mean ducking through rain to enter it on wet days. But that was twenty-five years ago - we were young!

Thursday, March 19/2026

Watching the stormy weather trickle its way across the Mediterranean. Fairly heavy rain in the night but only bits of drizzle today.

Good day to be in the kitchen, so lentil soup. Then bake rock cakes with what is the very last bit of baking powder. Tell J it’s a choice between cheese biscuits and rock cakes. He, unsurprisingly, opts for the sweeter of the two.

Long weekend begins tonight at sundown. Government offices and banks closed at noon today. Feel a bit sorry for Turkish Cypriots here who had reasonable hopes for a sunny holiday. It’s the most important holiday of the year and a traditional time for visiting friends and relatives with the saying being that the sun always shines for Bayram. Well, may be lucky yet. ☀️ And truly the lack of a sunny weekend is not as sad as the situation of millions across the Middle East where the end of Ramadan is bringing not festivities but destruction and terror.

Wednesday, March 18/2026

 Last night’s radar looked like we were about to become the victims in a giant real life Pac-Man game. West wind and no escape possible. But come morning and no rain. Briefest of trickles in the afternoon. What was the gobbler doing? Treading water?

So tonight check the radar again.

And there we are. A little pearl of a country totally surrounded by storms. The forecast is for stormy weather for the rest of the week but perhaps that just applies to countries without the magical cloak protecting them. Who knows?

Meanwhile I spot a notice of power cuts down to scheduled maintenance and repairs. West of Girne with a long list of areas of concern. Customers to expect outage between approximately 9:30 and 14:00. Looks like it may include us.

Me: There’s a power cut expected on Wednesday and it looks like it will affect us.

J: That’s Wednesday of next week?

Me: Yes. Wednesday, March 18.

J: But today is March 18.

Me: [at 20:00] Oh well, forget it then. Didn’t happen.

Our magic cloak of protection in operation.

Tuesday, March 17/2026

Saint Patrick’s Day so message Maggi for her birthday. ☘️ A date I would be unlikely to remember if it weren’t always celebrated online, with even Google substituting a shamrock for the double o’s. Only about forty miles from us to her, but between an uncooperative political border and deliberately uncoordinated transport not as simple as it looks.

Where we do go is down to the Bestmar to the west of us (there are two). A little more than a mile and a pleasant walk. Poppies occasionally making their way through cracks n the pavement. Pass quite a few loquat trees with as yet unripe fruit and several golden chalice flowers reminding us of the luxuriant vine by Fehmi’s office. 

There are several new housing developments, finished or in progress, in what used to be fields, as well as older single houses that have been here for years. Takes us a while to remark on what is not there - people walking along the road. We actually pass only two - a couple about our age and obviously local. Twenty-five years ago there were many fewer cars but more people about, as well as men with the kind of motor bikes that win no races and can probably not get licensed any more.

Bestmar is bigger than our local grocery store. Prices occasionally much better though often pretty similar but selection different, particularly in the sinful bits - chocolate, drink and cigars. Note that they have (frozen) back bacon. Actually quite nice looking. It’s imported from the Netherlands. Not unusual to see pork products in the larger supermarkets but clearly not a big seller locally. 

Supermarket seems busier than usual for early afternoon, probably because Bayram is coming up on Friday, the most important feast day of the year in Muslim countries. So about equivalent to getting in provisions on December 22 in a Christian country.

Monday, March 16/2026

 Wake to find that the mountains and the sea have reappeared. And it’s sunny. Temperature 19 in the shade, higher in the sun of course. Still very windy.

And enjoying it while we can. We’re heading into the most important holiday weekend of the year and the prediction is that it will be a wet one, with showers and thunder showers beginning Wednesday afternoon and continuing through the weekend. Not cold, though.

Sunday, March 15

Beware the Ides of March. Rain and gale force winds again. Although could be worse. In the Troodos mountains the winds just short of hurricane strength. It will be colder there as well. The rain here at times heavy enough that it looks like sleet but isn’t. Temperature actually in the teens.

Our own mountains have disappeared in the mist. Seems particularly strange as we live part way up the mountain side. And on the north the sea has also disappeared. As if the landscape had been an illusion.

The war continues as hopelessly as ever. Including bizarre speculation on the whereabouts of Netanyahu. Our usually reliable sources - none of which are mainstream - admit that most announcements have been highly speculative at best. And not necessary to be a computer expert to spot the sixth finger on one of Bibi’s hands in the photo purporting to prove his continuing health or to note the odd behaviour of the coffee in the cup he is holding. Once more reminded of the title of the biography of rebel journalist the late Claud Cockburn, Believe Nothing Until it has been Officially Denied.

And not all bizarre occurrences are world scale. A small puzzle involving coloured circles that I enjoy on the iPad has just begun giving its - fortunately minimalist - instructions in Vietnamese. I am occasionally given information in Greek or - less often - in Turkish. Explained by varied VPN use. Years ago there was a spate of Czech instructions and, more awkwardly, Japanese. And now Vietnamese. Not one of my keyboards, but there’s always Google translate.

Vietnamese instructions 

Saturday, March 14/2026

Wake up to the sound of rain on the tiles of the terrace. Go to check the radar on the iPad and draw a blank page. No internet. Does that mean no power? Seems so. Reflect that a day squeezed in between Friday the thirteenth and the Ides of March is likely to have some negativity attached. But in all fairness can think of few places with a happier winter climate, which is a large part of why we’re here - although the culture is at least as significant. And the electricity is back before it’s time to make coffee - though we could always have boiled water on a gas burner.

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the death of Tony Benn, patriarch of the Labour left, orator, anti-war campaigner. He spent over fifty years as an MP and eventually retired in order to “have more time for politics “. There are a number of memorial tributes online today including one from journalist Owen Jones, who included this photograph of himself with the eighty-eight year old Benn at an event in London in November 2013, Benn’s second last public appearance. A photograph of particular interest to us because we were there, actually in the front row as a result of my having mistaken the starting time so that we arrived very early.

We were in Malta at the time of Benn’s death and I reflected on the London event and posted :

“We knew then that we were lucky and it might well be our last chance. A beacon of the left, yes, but beyond that a man of overwhelming personal integrity. No quiet retirement, though he would have been 89 next month. Certainly no ossifying of ideas or principles. As Harold Wilson quipped, he immatured with age.”