Tuesday, April 7/2026

 

Now this is more like it. Sunny on the terrace. Good breeze for drying clothes. Temperature perfect for pouring a gin on ice.

Though somewhat less than perfect in the political sphere. Protests continue here regarding the suspension of cost of living payments for public workers. Health care workers are not withdrawing their services for now. Some others are, including teachers. The first sign of which was the cheerful sound of children playing in the neighbourhood today. Not everyone unhappy it seems. 

And then of course there’s Trump threatening to destroy a civilisation by tomorrow….

Monday, April 6/2026

Lucky to be invited to Easter Monday dinner at Beverley and John’s house. Beverley has made a super Asian meal, much better than any we have actually eaten in China, though that was a long time ago. 

Lovely pace to their meals. Start with a Thai lime and chicken soup. And then egg rolls with mushrooms in the filling. Followed by Mongolian beef,  curried chicken, pork with apricot, Asian vegetables and noodles. Beautifully distinct flavours.  Would have been more than complete, but John has made his classic crepes for dessert - and we find room! Best, of course, is the company, which would have been good if we’d been eating sandwiches.

Pat kindly gives us a ride home, though she actually lives in the opposite direction. She leaves this week to go back to Scotland for the summer.

Sunday, April 5/2026

Easter cigar. Overlooking the Mediterranean. Neighbours’ grapevine beginning to sport leaves.

Sunny morning. Afternoon showers, but we have freshly baked rock cakes and an F1 film to watch. Then J roasts a chicken with vegetables and we open a bottle of Bordeaux. No egg hunt, but we had stashed away two of our favourite Maximus chocolate bars for dessert. 

Saturday, April 4/2026

 Bottlebrush shrubs line the sidewalk going down the hill to the little supermarket. They’re not new but have suddenly burst into exuberant flower, encouraged no doubt by the frequent rains. And they are planted not beside but in the cement, typical of both North and South and presumably making life difficult for those in wheelchairs or manoeuvring baby prams.  Cheerful though.

Dust is still with us but not nearly as heavy as yesterday. Seems to be heading east, though to be replaced, the forecast says, by showers.

And there is a news report of a man being arrested for stealing three beers. Well, theft is theft, and it’s good to know the police take their responsibilities seriously. But it gets better. The theft occurred last October, when the suspect entered a house through the front door and left with three beers (report fails to specify whether in bottles or tins and inquiring minds want to know). He might reasonably have supposed by April that he had got away with it, but not so. The man was arrested at the airport on Friday as he returned from a trip abroad. So did the police (plural?) make a trip out to the airport in order to make this arrest or were they already there in the course of their more mundane duties? Be interesting to see the sentencing.

Friday, April 3/2026

Courtesy in-cyprus.philenews.com

 Once more, it’s difficult to take a photograph of what isn’t there. In this case the mountain behind our flat. Although a news reporter seems to have done not too badly with a street scene. For the second time we wake to find that the mountain and the sea have both disappeared. This time the culprit is not fog but dust. Saharan dust not unusual here, but meteorological director is quoted as saying “It would not be an exaggeration to say that episodes this strong are recorded once every ten years.

Courtesy Gill Caunt, TRNC 

A fellow North Cypriot had better luck, a better camera or both. Possibly also took the photo at a time of lighter dust cloud than my attempt.

Should have been our regular Friday afternoon gathering but not a good time for the walk down when municipalities are cancelling outside work.

But am a little less than half way through Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News, which I borrowed from the online library, meaning it will vanish when its time is up. An excellent read on an indoor afternoon.

In the interests of which I check the iPad’s charge level and say oh shit. Siri, programmed to answer in a Jeeves style butler’s voice, says primly that he is unable to respond.

Thursday, April 2/2026

Courtesy New Yorker

Wake to find that the mountains have disappeared. So, for that matter has the sea. Mist fairly impressive, but proves not to be highly photogenic. May also be combined with dust, which has been forecast to be with us for the next four days. Difficult to distinguish amongst the fifty or so shades of grey.

Yesterday was EOKA Day, a national holiday in the Republic of Cyprus (South). An interesting and, from the point of view of North Cypriots, unfortunate day to celebrate. 

With apologies, from a previous blog:

“EOKA was a terrorist organisation active from the fifties to the seventies whose aim was political union with Greece, pitting it against the British, Turkish Cypriots, and many fellow Greek Cypriots. While many independence movements have involved violence. EOKA was not an independence movement and did mean death for Turkish Cypriots. Independence was granted by the British in 1960, and the government of the republic later outlawed the organisation, which had been responsible for civilian deaths, including deliberate massacres, and involved with the death of the American ambassador.”

Inevitably, continued celebration of EOKA leads to hostile attitudes and worse. And yesterday men dressed in black threw rocks and, reportedly, [presumably minor] explosives across the buffer zone into the North.

This morning Doğan arrives at the door to collect a document. As is usual with Doğan the text saying he is coming arrives very slightly after D himself. Somewhat apologetically, he calls my attention to a small piece of what is unquestionably dog poo on the doormat. More or less the colour of the doormat as well, so had he not noticed it might have been discovered by more unfortunate means. Interesting, though. A small dog does live across the hall, but it never leaves its apartment. Can’t imagine the nice couple opening the door and directing it to nip over and foul our doormat. Though it seems even more unlikely that a passing dog negotiated the outside door and climbed the eighteen steps to our landing to make a deposit. And, as we have no known enemies, most unlikely of all that a human saw fit to insult us. Really very odd.

Wednesday, April 1/2026

Nine pm and it’s not raining. Glance at the radar does suggest that this snug dry refuge may be temporary. Radar not an April Fool’s posting, unfortunately. Storm even has its own name - Erminio. Also, dust from Libya expected over the next two days.

Previous blogs not particularly reliable re weather comparisons. Don’t always mention it, and any given day’s offering from the skies may be atypical. But do notice that on March 31, 2019 I complained about “more of the same old intermittent rain - as it has been for the last several days and is predicted to be until at least Thursday”, so clearly - or rather murkily - that was a wet March. Even led us to wonder whether, like Joe Btsflg of the old Li’l Abner comics, we walked around under our own permanent rain cloud. Really not that bad this year. Or maybe just becoming more philosophical with age.

Tuesday, March 31/2026

Courtesy Stephen Lewis Foundation 

 Stephen Lewis’s death announced today. A family synonymous with Canada’s NDP and a man equally valued for his work with the UN and in Africa, particularly with regard to HIV/AIDS.