We give some thought to trying to get into the House for Prime Minister's question period - the last before the election - but the thought of wasting ages in a queue and then not getting in decides us against. Do go to the War Museum, but it's swarming with children on school break, so we settle for going through the submarine and opt instead for the Victoria and Alberta (Museum), which is probably less of a kiddy drawing card despite some excellent hands-on exhibits. This proves to be right as the tube is crammed with families but most are siphoned off before we reach the V&A.
Victoria and Albert is hosting 3 special exhibits, one of which, Decode: Digital Design Sensations, we saw reviewed in a newspaper in cyprus some time ago. So we buy our concessions tickets and head in. It's a very nice collection of digital decor, some of which is interactive. So we see a tree in silhouette on the wall that moves in response to the wind blowing outside the museum and scatters silhouette leaves on the floor. Other digitally programmed screens have abstract patterns that respond to the viewers movement or sound. It's a fascinating exhibition with a hint of the possibilities of future decor.
Stop at Waitrose at the mark-down moment (around 5 p.m.) on the way home and acquire a packet of spinach falafel to add to our chicken and vegetables for dinner. Delicious.
JAWORSKI TRAVELS
We live our lives forever taking leave - Rilke
Counter
Monday, 12 April 2010
Tuesday, April 6/2010
To the Barbican to use the internet (me) and catch up on papers and magazines (J). Check the Cock Tavern theatre and can see that we're not going to be going to La Boheme. It's a fundraiser, no concession prices, and even the champagne, nice though it would be, would not compensate for paying a hundred quid each for the tickets. Also check times and prices for some of the day trips we have in mind. By comparison with La Boheme, train tickets to Cookham look very reasonable at £10 each.
In the afternoon we take advantage of the fine weather to follow the Thames east from Tower Bridge. So we get off the tube by the Tower of London and follow the river round by St. Katharine's Pier. We've never been here before and really aren't in the right income bracket to have done. The harbour is full of the most amazing yachts. Quite a pleasure walking and admirinig though. We follow the cobbled street past warehouses and water front flats, some fairly old marine facilities, and some buildings recreated as upscale accommodation. follow Wapping High St. and then Wapping Wall until we come to the Prospect of Whitby, arguagly the oldest pub in London. In its earliest period it was the scene of cockfights and bare knuckle fights. Somewhat later it was frequented by Turner and Whistler, who used it as a vantage point for painting the Thames. We pick a window table and enjoy a glass of bitter. Looking out over the river as boats - from river cruisers to a barge to a small but very fast speedboat - and birds - gulls, ducks and coots - go past. The water itself is hypnotic, and there's the sound of the waves underneath our small-paned window.
We've passed two other pubs, survivors in a Wapping High Street that once was home to 36 pubs in a rough dockside neighbourhood. There's the Town of Ramsgate, with a bloody history of its own as the "hanging" Judge Jeffreys was captured there and later executed after the overthrow of James II. We also pass the Captain Kidd pub, named after the pirate Captain Kidd who was executed nearby in 1701. Execution Dock gave pirates what was known as the Grace of Wapping when they were tied to a stake until the tide covered them three times.
In the afternoon we take advantage of the fine weather to follow the Thames east from Tower Bridge. So we get off the tube by the Tower of London and follow the river round by St. Katharine's Pier. We've never been here before and really aren't in the right income bracket to have done. The harbour is full of the most amazing yachts. Quite a pleasure walking and admirinig though. We follow the cobbled street past warehouses and water front flats, some fairly old marine facilities, and some buildings recreated as upscale accommodation. follow Wapping High St. and then Wapping Wall until we come to the Prospect of Whitby, arguagly the oldest pub in London. In its earliest period it was the scene of cockfights and bare knuckle fights. Somewhat later it was frequented by Turner and Whistler, who used it as a vantage point for painting the Thames. We pick a window table and enjoy a glass of bitter. Looking out over the river as boats - from river cruisers to a barge to a small but very fast speedboat - and birds - gulls, ducks and coots - go past. The water itself is hypnotic, and there's the sound of the waves underneath our small-paned window.
We've passed two other pubs, survivors in a Wapping High Street that once was home to 36 pubs in a rough dockside neighbourhood. There's the Town of Ramsgate, with a bloody history of its own as the "hanging" Judge Jeffreys was captured there and later executed after the overthrow of James II. We also pass the Captain Kidd pub, named after the pirate Captain Kidd who was executed nearby in 1701. Execution Dock gave pirates what was known as the Grace of Wapping when they were tied to a stake until the tide covered them three times.
Monday, April 5/2010
We'd thought of Easter Monday as a public holiday observed more in the public than the private sector - as in Canada - but it's more widely observed here. Thus the planned engineering works disrupting the underground continue, the Barbican is pretty well silent and the streets in The City, commercial heart of London, are deserted.
But not the museums, so we spend a couple of hours in the Museum of London, a favourite. The pre-historic section includes bison horns and spears thrown as an offering into the Thames. There's also a presentation in the medieval gallery. A woman in period dress talks about medieval medicine. She's done quite a bit of reearch and it's interesting, and frequently disgusting, e.g. sitting in a bath of pigeon dung to cure a fever or tasting urine for diagnostic purposes. Some odd things did work. Rubbing chicken brains on the gums of a teething infant worked because it softened the gums.
But not the museums, so we spend a couple of hours in the Museum of London, a favourite. The pre-historic section includes bison horns and spears thrown as an offering into the Thames. There's also a presentation in the medieval gallery. A woman in period dress talks about medieval medicine. She's done quite a bit of reearch and it's interesting, and frequently disgusting, e.g. sitting in a bath of pigeon dung to cure a fever or tasting urine for diagnostic purposes. Some odd things did work. Rubbing chicken brains on the gums of a teething infant worked because it softened the gums.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Sunday, April 4/2010
Could actually have watched the Malaysian Grand Prix rerun this afternoon and gone to Easter Mass this morning, but my reading of the tiny type in the telly guide proves inadequate, and, thinking there is no rerun, we opt for the race. And it's a good race, followed by brunch.
In the afternoon we take the bus up to Hampstead - not very far actually - and hop off once the shops look interesting. Happens to be opposite a lane that we follow through to the next street and round the corner to a little alcove full of shops, about half of which are open. There's a quilt shop and one with delightful miniatures for dollshouses, including a tiny cat with a paw in a goldfish bowl. And there are jewellery shops - where I fall for a delicate old silver and amethyst ring that J buys for me. It's a lovely little spot with older, if not necessarily antique, jewellery, and the old lady minding it for her friend tells us about suffragette jewellery - if a piece had gems in purple, white and green, such as amethyst, diamond and emerald or jade, then it identified a suffragette.
Then further by bus to Golders Green, where we browse through a Polish food shop - they have pickled herring but not the sort we want. And a bookstore where we find a double cd of Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields songs. The sunny weather has held.
Back by bus for our Easter dinner - trout fillets, baked potatoes and vegetables and sticky toffee pudding.
In the afternoon we take the bus up to Hampstead - not very far actually - and hop off once the shops look interesting. Happens to be opposite a lane that we follow through to the next street and round the corner to a little alcove full of shops, about half of which are open. There's a quilt shop and one with delightful miniatures for dollshouses, including a tiny cat with a paw in a goldfish bowl. And there are jewellery shops - where I fall for a delicate old silver and amethyst ring that J buys for me. It's a lovely little spot with older, if not necessarily antique, jewellery, and the old lady minding it for her friend tells us about suffragette jewellery - if a piece had gems in purple, white and green, such as amethyst, diamond and emerald or jade, then it identified a suffragette.
Then further by bus to Golders Green, where we browse through a Polish food shop - they have pickled herring but not the sort we want. And a bookstore where we find a double cd of Vera Lynn and Gracie Fields songs. The sunny weather has held.
Back by bus for our Easter dinner - trout fillets, baked potatoes and vegetables and sticky toffee pudding.
Saturday, April 3/2010
Begin by watching qualifying for tomorrow's Malaysian Grand Prix. it's quite interesting as there is intermittent heavy rain, creating an unpredictable starting grid.
It's on the edge of rain when I go out for a Guardian before qualifying, but bits of sun crep through and we decide to walk over to Kilburn, about a mile away, to explore and also to check out the Cock Tavern, which incorporates a small theatre, currently host to a production of La Boheme - tecommended to us by a man on a bus in Camden Town. Kilburn high road is a pleasure, with some of the rough vibrancy that Queensway had twenty years ago and has lost. There's the Bell pub - where one can have fish and chis and a pint for £6 ($9.25 CAD or €6.60). There are plenty of small shops, some with produce spilling out onto the street, and little street corner markets. At one point we pass a group of exuberant black singers, singing gospel music out of sheer exuberance - no hat out for collections. We find the Cock Tavern. It's a stately brick building, licensed in 1486 and rebuilt in 1900. Upstairs there's a theatre that seats 40, while the downstairs is, apart from the tile mosaic in the entry, a reasonably unprepossessing pub - bare wood floors, a scattering of male regulars and even, as we come through the outer doors, a faint but unmistakeable smell of piss. No refinement, but like Kilburn High Road itself, very real. Unfortunately, it's not possible to buy tickets - or even get prices - here. That has to be done online or by phone.
Take the 31 bus to Camden Town where we get a whole chicken at Somerfield Co-op and then bacon, pitas, milk and trout fillets at Sainsbury's. Then home by tube.
It's on the edge of rain when I go out for a Guardian before qualifying, but bits of sun crep through and we decide to walk over to Kilburn, about a mile away, to explore and also to check out the Cock Tavern, which incorporates a small theatre, currently host to a production of La Boheme - tecommended to us by a man on a bus in Camden Town. Kilburn high road is a pleasure, with some of the rough vibrancy that Queensway had twenty years ago and has lost. There's the Bell pub - where one can have fish and chis and a pint for £6 ($9.25 CAD or €6.60). There are plenty of small shops, some with produce spilling out onto the street, and little street corner markets. At one point we pass a group of exuberant black singers, singing gospel music out of sheer exuberance - no hat out for collections. We find the Cock Tavern. It's a stately brick building, licensed in 1486 and rebuilt in 1900. Upstairs there's a theatre that seats 40, while the downstairs is, apart from the tile mosaic in the entry, a reasonably unprepossessing pub - bare wood floors, a scattering of male regulars and even, as we come through the outer doors, a faint but unmistakeable smell of piss. No refinement, but like Kilburn High Road itself, very real. Unfortunately, it's not possible to buy tickets - or even get prices - here. That has to be done online or by phone.
Take the 31 bus to Camden Town where we get a whole chicken at Somerfield Co-op and then bacon, pitas, milk and trout fillets at Sainsbury's. Then home by tube.
Friday, April 2/2010
Over to Waterloo and then, by train, to Thames Ditton where Jenny and Doug have invited us to good Friday breakfast - hot cross buns. Jenny's mother is here and Emma and Laura and their families, so the table, which can hold twelve easily and more at a squish, is quite full. and the hot cross buns lovely. Babies on their fathers' knees and talk and laughter.
J finds the small blue bag of things accidentally left behind after our trip to Cornwall. Which is just as well, because it includes a piece of blue cheese that he had carefully wrapped, so it would eventually have made its presence felt. But it's fine.
Goodbyes. Jenny and Doug are going on a cruise to the Caribbean the week after next, so we probably won't see them again until next year. Or, technically, much later this year. Cool on the way back, but the cherry blossoms are out and the magnolias are budding.
J finds the small blue bag of things accidentally left behind after our trip to Cornwall. Which is just as well, because it includes a piece of blue cheese that he had carefully wrapped, so it would eventually have made its presence felt. But it's fine.
Goodbyes. Jenny and Doug are going on a cruise to the Caribbean the week after next, so we probably won't see them again until next year. Or, technically, much later this year. Cool on the way back, but the cherry blossoms are out and the magnolias are budding.
Thursday, April 1/2010
Our time in London is half over, so we go down to Victoria to collect the April London planner to see what we shouldn't be missing and to Victoria Coach Station to check on day trips - though here most of the pamphlets are unimformative or missing. Increasingly brochures refer one to the net - and the prices are often cheaper there too.
Home to the bedsit. When we first moved in there was, incongruously, a large brown (presumably) faux leather recliner and a small off-white footstool sitting outside the door to the lower level. There's nothing obviously wrong with them - one supposes they just didn't fit inside someone's tiny bedsit - but they must be filling up with rain water. There was also a bar sized fridge (not working?) which has recently been topped with a television set (also not working?). Interesting collection, a little like a prop room for a drama taking place elsewhere. Most Londoners have no basement and little spare room, so one quite often sees things in skips or left for the binman that look quite salvageable, but can see why they aren't salvaged.
Minor disaster over dinner - not the food. J turns wrong burner on and I have left a glass dinner plate on the now hot burner. when I notice, I remove the glass and it promptly shatters. Had I turned off the burner and left it to cool, the plate would probably have survived. As it is, bits off hot glass embed themselves in the carpet - and are eventually removed by J. Quite dramatic.
Home to the bedsit. When we first moved in there was, incongruously, a large brown (presumably) faux leather recliner and a small off-white footstool sitting outside the door to the lower level. There's nothing obviously wrong with them - one supposes they just didn't fit inside someone's tiny bedsit - but they must be filling up with rain water. There was also a bar sized fridge (not working?) which has recently been topped with a television set (also not working?). Interesting collection, a little like a prop room for a drama taking place elsewhere. Most Londoners have no basement and little spare room, so one quite often sees things in skips or left for the binman that look quite salvageable, but can see why they aren't salvaged.
Minor disaster over dinner - not the food. J turns wrong burner on and I have left a glass dinner plate on the now hot burner. when I notice, I remove the glass and it promptly shatters. Had I turned off the burner and left it to cool, the plate would probably have survived. As it is, bits off hot glass embed themselves in the carpet - and are eventually removed by J. Quite dramatic.
Wednesday, March 31/2010
Up as early as we can manage and over to the National Theatre by eightish to queue for tickets for Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art. It's cold, and while the overhang protects us from rain it's surprisingly windy. But we're third and fourth in line, so we know we'll get tickets. The man ahead says that when the weather is really bad we're sometimes allowed in early, but he supposes it's not that bad.
Tickets pocketed, we go over to Canada House to check the email, exchange rate, etc. They no longer carry Canadian papers "because they're available online" - read economy measure.
The Habit of Art is no disappointment - Bennett's plays never are. This one chronicles an imaginary meeting between Auden and Benjamin Brittain at Oxford in the '70's, both of them past their prime (Auden vulgarly and outrageously so) but persisting, movingly, in the habit of art. Wonderful messy set, casual staging and witty lines. And a good two and a half hours. Never anything thin about what Bennett provides.
Tickets pocketed, we go over to Canada House to check the email, exchange rate, etc. They no longer carry Canadian papers "because they're available online" - read economy measure.
The Habit of Art is no disappointment - Bennett's plays never are. This one chronicles an imaginary meeting between Auden and Benjamin Brittain at Oxford in the '70's, both of them past their prime (Auden vulgarly and outrageously so) but persisting, movingly, in the habit of art. Wonderful messy set, casual staging and witty lines. And a good two and a half hours. Never anything thin about what Bennett provides.
Tuesday, March 30/2010
Out in the afternoon to West Harrow to see Jean. It's been a while as we were in Cornwall and then she had rehearsals for her choir's performance on Saturday night. Good visit and lovely lamb curry with rice, aubergine, dhal, leeks, and green beans. And then apple blackberry crumble with custard. Lovely. Good conversation too - we're not all greed.
Monday, March 29/2010
Up early and over to the National Theatre to queue for tickets to The Power of Yes. The National Theatre is a pleasure for a couple of reasons. It stages plays that are more than spectacle, sometimes experimental or classical, often popular, but usually with genuine artistic merit. And it holds back several of the least expensive (£10) seats until the day of the performance. The doors to the building open at 9:30 and we're there at about 8:20, putting us 8th and 9th in line. Some of the others are better prepared, with folding chairs and cups of coffee and novels, but we've brought newspapers and the wait is worth it.
Then over to the Barbican to use the internet and check the magazines. Stop in Camden Town on the way back and home for late lunch. In the evenings it's back to the theatre for the performance. The Power of Yes is an examination by playwright David Hare of the 2008 (and following) financial crisis in a serious of dialogues and incisive comments with characters ranging from Alan Greenspan to George Soros to a bemused playwritht. It's a fast-moving examination, and, in the words of the New Statesman, "not only enlightening - financially and psychologically - but biting, witty, fun." No spectacle at all, but we really enjoy it.
Then over to the Barbican to use the internet and check the magazines. Stop in Camden Town on the way back and home for late lunch. In the evenings it's back to the theatre for the performance. The Power of Yes is an examination by playwright David Hare of the 2008 (and following) financial crisis in a serious of dialogues and incisive comments with characters ranging from Alan Greenspan to George Soros to a bemused playwritht. It's a fast-moving examination, and, in the words of the New Statesman, "not only enlightening - financially and psychologically - but biting, witty, fun." No spectacle at all, but we really enjoy it.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Sunday, March 28/2010
Up very early a)because the time has changed in the night to daylight savings and b)because the Australian Grand Prix begins at 7 (old time 6 of course). Not only hard to wake up but hard to stay awake, so some brief lapses, but a much better race than two weeks ago. Chorizo sausage and red pepper tortilla for brunch, courtesyof Waitrose's mark down.
In the afternoon we go by tube to Spitalfields Market. Its origins are in the mists of time, but in recent times, i.e. the past few years, it's been moving upscale, with prices to match. Still a good browse. My favourite is a long rack of men's jackets labelled bespoke (North Americans read custom made) but nontheless available off the rack. At another stall some wit has made a sign saying that MPs may put goods on their expense accounts but House of Lords memebers must pay cash.
Then to Covent Garden, which is always fun on weekends. Lots of crafts and a lady singing opera, as well as entertainers such as the man on a tightrope juggling knives. Home by tube. A young Asian man kindly offers me his seat, a courtesy I'm not really accustomed to. Have I begun to look old?
In the afternoon we go by tube to Spitalfields Market. Its origins are in the mists of time, but in recent times, i.e. the past few years, it's been moving upscale, with prices to match. Still a good browse. My favourite is a long rack of men's jackets labelled bespoke (North Americans read custom made) but nontheless available off the rack. At another stall some wit has made a sign saying that MPs may put goods on their expense accounts but House of Lords memebers must pay cash.
Then to Covent Garden, which is always fun on weekends. Lots of crafts and a lady singing opera, as well as entertainers such as the man on a tightrope juggling knives. Home by tube. A young Asian man kindly offers me his seat, a courtesy I'm not really accustomed to. Have I begun to look old?
Saturday, March 27/2010
Over to the British Museum for the talk - ancient Egypt and the Island of Cyprus. There are about thirty of us gathered in the Cyprus Gallery. The talk is interesting - before Cyprus was Roman, and long before it was Greek, it was Egyptian, and the museum has a cuneiform tablet recording trade needs. The speaker is informative - about the Egyptian Empire, reaching to the Levant, the Kingdom of Alasiya, centred in the north of Cyprus at Enkomi (near Famagusta), and Cypriot style artefacts found in Egypt and the evidence from shipwrecks, much of this predating the existence of coins.
Trail up Tottenham Court Road looking at the netbooks in the electronics shops. This is where we got J's camera a few years ago. Then up to Camden Town market, which is so busy it's hard to move along the pavement. It starts to rain, so we get on a bus, and off on finchley Road. Look in Waitrose, and hit the mark down moment. So dinner becomes a sweet potato and bean chilli with jalapenos, brown rice and spinach, which proves delicious. the instructions are fun too: "once opened use staight away or we'll come round and get you" and "no vegetables were harmed in the making of this product (apart from a little light chopping)".
Trail up Tottenham Court Road looking at the netbooks in the electronics shops. This is where we got J's camera a few years ago. Then up to Camden Town market, which is so busy it's hard to move along the pavement. It starts to rain, so we get on a bus, and off on finchley Road. Look in Waitrose, and hit the mark down moment. So dinner becomes a sweet potato and bean chilli with jalapenos, brown rice and spinach, which proves delicious. the instructions are fun too: "once opened use staight away or we'll come round and get you" and "no vegetables were harmed in the making of this product (apart from a little light chopping)".
Friday, March 26/2010
Over to the British Museum to check out some upcoming talks. Drool in the ikncredibly expensive shops and stop to see an amazing sculpture. It's probably a little less than a foot long and no more than two inches across and is the oldest sculpture known to exist in the world (about 13000 years), a carving of a male reindeer swimming after a female, done with detail out of a mammoth tusk and discovered in france. Astonishing even to think of reindeer and mammoths in France, let alone in this delicate carving.
Then over to the National Theatre to get the schedule. We badly want to see Alan Bennett's new play, The Habit of Art, but a couple of other plays look really good as well, including David Hare's The Power of Yes.
It's sunny and nice, so we stroll along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. We always look forward to the major installations in the great hall and this one doesnt disappoint. It's by Miroslaw Balka, from Poland, and is a huge black container that the viewer walk into, feeling their way in the dark. Sounds a bit simple, and it is, but there are bits of light, or must be, as you can see subtle smoke effects along the floor. And are those the other people we hear or electronically produced sound? It's surprisingly unnerving - although you can turn around at any point and see clearly enough to navigate.
Then up to the fifth floor, where there's lots of interest, incljuding a roomful of Andy Warhol cows and a collection of old Soviet posters, as well as one of the few copies of Rodin's The Kiss cast in the artist's lifetime. I'm taken with a map of the world by an Italian called Boeti. Each country is shown in the colours of (actually fragments of) its flag, but there are curious distortions of size and shape that are hard to understand.
Then along by bus over Blackfriars Bridge and walk along to Chancery Lane tube station, passing Staples Inn on the way, partly restored to its 16th century origins, the face on Holborn St. looking much as it must have in Tudor times. Off the tube for a quick stop in Camden Town and more tiny tomatoes and onions from Inverness St. market. Lucky to nab them as the stalls are packing up. Then home for the pea soup J made yesterday and pitas with pilchards and tomato, onions, cucumber and strained yoghurt.
Then over to the National Theatre to get the schedule. We badly want to see Alan Bennett's new play, The Habit of Art, but a couple of other plays look really good as well, including David Hare's The Power of Yes.
It's sunny and nice, so we stroll along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. We always look forward to the major installations in the great hall and this one doesnt disappoint. It's by Miroslaw Balka, from Poland, and is a huge black container that the viewer walk into, feeling their way in the dark. Sounds a bit simple, and it is, but there are bits of light, or must be, as you can see subtle smoke effects along the floor. And are those the other people we hear or electronically produced sound? It's surprisingly unnerving - although you can turn around at any point and see clearly enough to navigate.
Then up to the fifth floor, where there's lots of interest, incljuding a roomful of Andy Warhol cows and a collection of old Soviet posters, as well as one of the few copies of Rodin's The Kiss cast in the artist's lifetime. I'm taken with a map of the world by an Italian called Boeti. Each country is shown in the colours of (actually fragments of) its flag, but there are curious distortions of size and shape that are hard to understand.
Then along by bus over Blackfriars Bridge and walk along to Chancery Lane tube station, passing Staples Inn on the way, partly restored to its 16th century origins, the face on Holborn St. looking much as it must have in Tudor times. Off the tube for a quick stop in Camden Town and more tiny tomatoes and onions from Inverness St. market. Lucky to nab them as the stalls are packing up. Then home for the pea soup J made yesterday and pitas with pilchards and tomato, onions, cucumber and strained yoghurt.
Thursday, March 25/2010
Down to the Barbican where I catch up on the internet. Discover a ton of hits on Google for "free lectures+London" just before my time is up. Next time.
Thinking of going to Greenwich, but there's a signals failure and Docklands light railway has severe delays, so head back instead.
Thinking of going to Greenwich, but there's a signals failure and Docklands light railway has severe delays, so head back instead.
Wednesday, March 24/2010
Down to our bank - HSBC at charing Cross - to collect our new debit cards, which we've had mailed here rather than home where they would languish until we got back. The waiting area has big screen tv with a news channel, newspapers and real hardcover books. Does anyone ever have to wait that long? Well, not us. They ask for our passports and check my signature, but the cards are here so we can use the account.
Then to Piccadilly to the Visitor Centre to pick up an amazingly heavy lot of brochures covering all the plays, walks, day trips, etc that we can avail ourselves of for the rest of our stay. And to Camden Town where we pick up an umbrell for 99p (at the 99; store) to replace the one left on the bus yesterday, and stop at Inverness St. market for bananas, apples, peppers, onions, broccoli and cucumber - usually both nicer and cheaper at the market than in the supermarket.
Then to Piccadilly to the Visitor Centre to pick up an amazingly heavy lot of brochures covering all the plays, walks, day trips, etc that we can avail ourselves of for the rest of our stay. And to Camden Town where we pick up an umbrell for 99p (at the 99; store) to replace the one left on the bus yesterday, and stop at Inverness St. market for bananas, apples, peppers, onions, broccoli and cucumber - usually both nicer and cheaper at the market than in the supermarket.
Tuesday, March 23/2010
Moving day. We pack up and say our goodbyes - Jasmine joining in the waving. Train to Waterloo and then tube to Belsize Park. Marty is not in the office as her mother has died and she's gone to Spain for a couple of weeks to settle things. But we're remembered and they even let us pay in two lots without taking a deposit.
So we move in and head out for a paper and the basic supplies and settle down. A nice ground floor flat at number 20. No remote for the telly but a huge shower and an ironing board and iron - should it ever come to that.
So we move in and head out for a paper and the basic supplies and settle down. A nice ground floor flat at number 20. No remote for the telly but a huge shower and an ironing board and iron - should it ever come to that.
Monday, Marc h 22/2
Reluctant departure for the drive back. We'd thought of going by Dartmoor, but there's too much mist and some rain so we go the more direct route. Home to thames Ditton by dinner. Spaghetti with Doug and Jenny - greetings from the dogs and to bed.
Sunday, March 21/2010
Relaxed start and then the tour continues. At Carbis Bay we actually see swimmers in the sea, though the winds are pretty chill. A gig lands with its crew of rowers as well, greeted by enthusiastic dogs obviously belonging to the rowers. The term gig apparently dates to the time when these slim boats took pilots out to incoming ships needing local pilots in the harbour, each competing for the job. Same origins as musical gig?
St. Ives itself is bigger than I expected but every bit as charming. Andy settles himself in the sun at a waterfront pub, the Sloop, established, astonishingly, in 1312. The rest of us split up and explore. The church looks interesting (who was St. Ia?) but says iti's open most weekdays. To prevent interference with worship, one supposes. Anyway it's locked now. Lots of shops, galleries and boutiques open though, but with nothing all that underpriced - compared, say, with Mousehole.
Lots of children on the beach, with spades and buckets and happy dogs. We pick up Cornish pasties (Andy, Jenny and me) - that are streets better than Falmouth's - and Cornish homemade ice cream (Joe and Jenny's mum) and sit on a beam on the edge of the beach eating and watching the man who makes traditional lobster pots out of what looks like willow.
Then a visit with Andy's younger daughter, Olivia, in Penzance. She's seventeen and at a sixth form college, sweet and a little shy. She's not sure about next year's courses but is planning a holiday in Spain in august with her friends. finish up with a drive along the huge Hayle tidal estuary and a view out over the high cliffs to seven miles of unbroken, and almost unpeopled, white sands. So home with visions of rugged cliffs, fine sandy coves, elaborate victorian holiday hotels, and harbour beakwaters in our heads.
Andy makes us dinner - a lovely stirfry with shrimp and a very nice bottle of red wine - whose name I promptly forget. His shelves are lined with fascinating books but it proves impossible to stay awake long enough to read much. I do threaten not to re-emerge from the upstairs loo while reading Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought, though.
St. Ives itself is bigger than I expected but every bit as charming. Andy settles himself in the sun at a waterfront pub, the Sloop, established, astonishingly, in 1312. The rest of us split up and explore. The church looks interesting (who was St. Ia?) but says iti's open most weekdays. To prevent interference with worship, one supposes. Anyway it's locked now. Lots of shops, galleries and boutiques open though, but with nothing all that underpriced - compared, say, with Mousehole.
Lots of children on the beach, with spades and buckets and happy dogs. We pick up Cornish pasties (Andy, Jenny and me) - that are streets better than Falmouth's - and Cornish homemade ice cream (Joe and Jenny's mum) and sit on a beam on the edge of the beach eating and watching the man who makes traditional lobster pots out of what looks like willow.
Then a visit with Andy's younger daughter, Olivia, in Penzance. She's seventeen and at a sixth form college, sweet and a little shy. She's not sure about next year's courses but is planning a holiday in Spain in august with her friends. finish up with a drive along the huge Hayle tidal estuary and a view out over the high cliffs to seven miles of unbroken, and almost unpeopled, white sands. So home with visions of rugged cliffs, fine sandy coves, elaborate victorian holiday hotels, and harbour beakwaters in our heads.
Andy makes us dinner - a lovely stirfry with shrimp and a very nice bottle of red wine - whose name I promptly forget. His shelves are lined with fascinating books but it proves impossible to stay awake long enough to read much. I do threaten not to re-emerge from the upstairs loo while reading Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought, though.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Saturday, March 20/2010
We drive cross-country - well, really cross peninsula tip - to Jenny's brother Andy, who lives in the country near Hayle, actually walking distance from St. Ives, across the fields. More flowers out here than further north, including fields of daffodils grown commercially. Andy lives on a narrow country road in the end cottage of a row of old stone miners' cottages. His place is wonderful - originally it was two units, each wih a single large room downstairs and the same up. This has become a large kitchen, living room and study downstairs and three bedrooms upstairs with added bathrooms. It's a beautiful combination of original features - the thick stone walls and fireplaces - and modern touches like the bathroom skylight.
Andy is welcoming, with coffee around the long wooden table and J, looking around at the hob in the original fireplace with its massive single stone top and out the deep stone window to the heather and the birdfeeders, warms him we may never leave. And then we get the grand tour, as Andy drives us all over he ti end of Cornwall. Starts with St. Michael's Mount, impressive mansion topped island - at high tide - accessible by causeway at low. Through Penzance and along the coast to Mousehole (pronounced Mousel).
Hard competition for the most stunning spot of the day, but Lamorna Cove is a strong contender. Through narrow, twisting lanes (back up if you meet another car) to a little coastal cove surrounded by rugged cliffs, with huge waves crashing against the rocks. There's a massive breakwater and Jenny points to a sign on it warning of uneven steps - eroded into non-existence would be more like it. There's a little restaurant as well, with a pretty impressive local menu. Jenny's mum and Joe and I have crab sandwiches with salad while Jenny has a smoked haddock pasty and Andy seafood soup. The crab sandwich is the best we've had - enormous and thick with fresh sweet crab on granary bread and a plateful of salad.
Then to Minack Point, home of a theatre, where we look down on an amazing cove - whilst nearly being blown off the cliff. Through Zennor, where there's an old stone with a hollow where, the sign says, there was a vinegar dip in times of plague and coins from outside the community were dipped to disinfect them before being taken by a local. A quick look at St. Ives, promised for tomorrow, and home. Andy's booked us at his local for seven.
Andy's loca, the Engine Inn at Cripplesease, is a bit of local history itself. Cornwall is tin mining country and the stack remains of the engines are scattered through the country like small ruins. The Engine Inn was the counting house where miners were paid. Lovely stone building - with good Cornish bitter and nice meals - mine a roast vegetable quiche with a lovely salad. The treat of the evening is readings from the poetry of a now deceased local (well, not local as Cornishmen reckon it as he moved here as an adult), Arthur Caddick. His daughter and others reminisce and read from his poems, some of which are quite funny.
Andy is welcoming, with coffee around the long wooden table and J, looking around at the hob in the original fireplace with its massive single stone top and out the deep stone window to the heather and the birdfeeders, warms him we may never leave. And then we get the grand tour, as Andy drives us all over he ti end of Cornwall. Starts with St. Michael's Mount, impressive mansion topped island - at high tide - accessible by causeway at low. Through Penzance and along the coast to Mousehole (pronounced Mousel).
Hard competition for the most stunning spot of the day, but Lamorna Cove is a strong contender. Through narrow, twisting lanes (back up if you meet another car) to a little coastal cove surrounded by rugged cliffs, with huge waves crashing against the rocks. There's a massive breakwater and Jenny points to a sign on it warning of uneven steps - eroded into non-existence would be more like it. There's a little restaurant as well, with a pretty impressive local menu. Jenny's mum and Joe and I have crab sandwiches with salad while Jenny has a smoked haddock pasty and Andy seafood soup. The crab sandwich is the best we've had - enormous and thick with fresh sweet crab on granary bread and a plateful of salad.
Then to Minack Point, home of a theatre, where we look down on an amazing cove - whilst nearly being blown off the cliff. Through Zennor, where there's an old stone with a hollow where, the sign says, there was a vinegar dip in times of plague and coins from outside the community were dipped to disinfect them before being taken by a local. A quick look at St. Ives, promised for tomorrow, and home. Andy's booked us at his local for seven.
Andy's loca, the Engine Inn at Cripplesease, is a bit of local history itself. Cornwall is tin mining country and the stack remains of the engines are scattered through the country like small ruins. The Engine Inn was the counting house where miners were paid. Lovely stone building - with good Cornish bitter and nice meals - mine a roast vegetable quiche with a lovely salad. The treat of the evening is readings from the poetry of a now deceased local (well, not local as Cornishmen reckon it as he moved here as an adult), Arthur Caddick. His daughter and others reminisce and read from his poems, some of which are quite funny.
Friday, March 19/2010
Our last day in Falmouth, though already we can imagine staying forever. We separate after breakfast again and Joe and I start off in the direction of the castle. Styop to buy an umbrella - two pounds something - at Trago, a fascinating overgrown general store with everything from shortbread to solid oak tables (£90!! but too heavy to lift, let alone bring home). J's old umbrella has broken and it's starting to rain. We get a little farther this time, but the rain gets heavier and the wind picks up, so we abandon the castle and go for ta at the little aquatic centre - not much to look at on the outside but a pleasant club inside and situated in a boatyard, so interesting views out the windowed front. Interesting Cornwall newspaper as well, with surprisingly good prices on used boats - and some laying hens and cockerels free, or nearly so. Jenny and her mum, meanwhile, have beaten the rain by hopping on a bus to Truro and visiting the cathedral there.
Mystery drive south of Falmouth, past the castle and a Victorian hotel and along the coast, getting happily lost on narrow roads. The signposts seem always to tell us that Gweek is four miles away no matter which way we turn. Then pick up fish and chips for supper. Haddock and mushy peas. Seems to go well with our harbour front home.
Mystery drive south of Falmouth, past the castle and a Victorian hotel and along the coast, getting happily lost on narrow roads. The signposts seem always to tell us that Gweek is four miles away no matter which way we turn. Then pick up fish and chips for supper. Haddock and mushy peas. Seems to go well with our harbour front home.
Thursday, March 18/2010
We have to tear ourselves away from the hypnotic window over the harbour to see the rest of the town. We separate, with Jenny and her mum heading off to see Pendennis Castle, built by Henry VIII as part of a line of southern defense against the Spanish, while Joe and I explore the little shops and lanes in the old town. There aren't many tourists about, so we get a fair view of the place as it is, busy and friendly and full of little shops with Cornish pasties or fis and chips, clothing shops, antique shops, bakeries, tearooms and pubs. We pick up a chicken and some salad and wine for dinner, leave it at the flat and head out toward the castle. But by this time it's raining, so we stop at the intriguingly named Oggy Oggy for Cornish pasties. I have a cheese and mushroom one and J the traditional steak, potato and veg. He's not overly impressed, in part because I described it in advance as somewhat similar to a meat pie, instead of as a substitute for a sandwich and he can see how much more he'd like it with gravy. Yes, he knows that miners used to take the pasties as a lunch, complete in one pastry, but couldn't they have let it evolve later? Would like to stop at the church, King Charles the Martyr (this was a royalist stronghold in the civil war), which is nestled in the crook of the street, but it's locked.
Meet back at the flat with Jenny and her mother, who have walked out to Pendennis Castle, passing little wild violets on the way, having had an earlier start in that direction than we did, and taken a taxi back once it got wetter. So more time in front of the magical window, and J roasts the chicken for dinner.
Meet back at the flat with Jenny and her mother, who have walked out to Pendennis Castle, passing little wild violets on the way, having had an earlier start in that direction than we did, and taken a taxi back once it got wetter. So more time in front of the magical window, and J roasts the chicken for dinner.
Wednesday, March 17/2010
We're off on our west country trip, stopping in Wimbledon to collect Jenny's mum. It takes a while to clear the city but we're out through Hampton Court and into rural Surrey, then Wiltshire. Stop briefly at Stonehenge. We don't take the time for the tour - Cornwall is a long way away - but get a pretty good look across the field. In fact its location in the midst of farmland is one of the most striking things about it. Though it's probable that the fields were woodland in the distant past - or would that have made importing the giant rocks not just amazing but impossible? Stop at a petrol station to pick up a little for lunch. Canadian highway stations come off very badly by comparison. The convenience shop here includes chicken Kiev and chardonnay, though we settle for bread and cheese and yoghurt.
Through fields and along Bodmin Moor, we avoid the motorways when possible and head down from Truro to Falmouth on the south coast of Cornwall. The directions break down a bit as there are road repairs in the town but a young woman gives Jenny extremely good, if complicated, alternate directions, which Jenny, impressively, remembers. So down the old cobbled high street and through an almost impossibly narrow lane, Old Church Yard, possible only with the outside driving mirrors retracted, and we're there.
The flat belongs to friends of Jenny's, originally the home of Jenny's friend Jessica, who now uses it for holidays and also lets it. And it's absolutely brilliant - would be the envy of anyone looking for a coastal film set. It's in the oldest part of the town, set on a harbour that has been a centre of ship repairs, fishing and travel for centuries. There is a flat below (currently being renovated) and one above, but they're all nestled into the rock of the embankment so that the one below is invisible and the top two look like separate little cottages. It's lovely inside as well - particularly the living room which has a large floor to ceiling window in front, incorporating French doors to a little balcony overhanging the harbour.
The harbour is quiet but alive, with dozens of sailboats, loading quays, freighters, and even a large military ship of some sort in battleship grey. It's equally fascinating in daylight, with the circling gulls and activity on the boats, and after nightfall when the shipboard lights come on.
A short exploratory walk along the harbour and its shops. We pass a restaurant where celebrity cook Rick Stein has a new fish and chip shop opening Friday - it's full today with "practice" customers eating and workmen finishing off the paint. No more volunteers needed, so we go home and Jenny makes an omelet and vegetables and we all turn in.
Through fields and along Bodmin Moor, we avoid the motorways when possible and head down from Truro to Falmouth on the south coast of Cornwall. The directions break down a bit as there are road repairs in the town but a young woman gives Jenny extremely good, if complicated, alternate directions, which Jenny, impressively, remembers. So down the old cobbled high street and through an almost impossibly narrow lane, Old Church Yard, possible only with the outside driving mirrors retracted, and we're there.
The flat belongs to friends of Jenny's, originally the home of Jenny's friend Jessica, who now uses it for holidays and also lets it. And it's absolutely brilliant - would be the envy of anyone looking for a coastal film set. It's in the oldest part of the town, set on a harbour that has been a centre of ship repairs, fishing and travel for centuries. There is a flat below (currently being renovated) and one above, but they're all nestled into the rock of the embankment so that the one below is invisible and the top two look like separate little cottages. It's lovely inside as well - particularly the living room which has a large floor to ceiling window in front, incorporating French doors to a little balcony overhanging the harbour.
The harbour is quiet but alive, with dozens of sailboats, loading quays, freighters, and even a large military ship of some sort in battleship grey. It's equally fascinating in daylight, with the circling gulls and activity on the boats, and after nightfall when the shipboard lights come on.
A short exploratory walk along the harbour and its shops. We pass a restaurant where celebrity cook Rick Stein has a new fish and chip shop opening Friday - it's full today with "practice" customers eating and workmen finishing off the paint. No more volunteers needed, so we go home and Jenny makes an omelet and vegetables and we all turn in.
Tuesday, March 16/2010
Wake to sun and silence. It's so quiet in Thames Ditton after the traffic of central Larnaca. You can lie in bed in the morning and listen to the birds sing.
Jenny is looking after Jasmine (14 months) for the day while Emma is at work and Doug and Giles off working on an electrical job of Giles's. Jasmine is lovely - round-faced, big-eyed and usually happy, though today she has a cold and is a little clingy. Still up for a joke, though, and thinks it pretty funny when she coughs and Joe says ah-choo. She's beginning to talk and knows quite a few words as well as some that she can sign, like bird. We take a morning walk round Thames Ditton admiring the flowers and, in the afternoon take Jasmine round Kingston in her pushchair as Jenny is visiting the dentist. She's quite happy to come with us and interested in everything. Later Jenny and I go round to the hall where Sam and Kai are being inducted into scouts. Laura and Nathan are there with Cody, who's the same age as Jasmine. When Sam and Kai put one hand on the flag and raise the other, Cody is quite interested and puts his hand in the air as well.
Jenny is looking after Jasmine (14 months) for the day while Emma is at work and Doug and Giles off working on an electrical job of Giles's. Jasmine is lovely - round-faced, big-eyed and usually happy, though today she has a cold and is a little clingy. Still up for a joke, though, and thinks it pretty funny when she coughs and Joe says ah-choo. She's beginning to talk and knows quite a few words as well as some that she can sign, like bird. We take a morning walk round Thames Ditton admiring the flowers and, in the afternoon take Jasmine round Kingston in her pushchair as Jenny is visiting the dentist. She's quite happy to come with us and interested in everything. Later Jenny and I go round to the hall where Sam and Kai are being inducted into scouts. Laura and Nathan are there with Cody, who's the same age as Jasmine. When Sam and Kai put one hand on the flag and raise the other, Cody is quite interested and puts his hand in the air as well.
Monday, March 15/2010
Last day, so we're up early. I to the hairdresser to get a cut to last until we get home. As usual, we have too much food left, but that does allow for good sandwiches at the airport. The bus goes at 12:30 to the new airport - larger than the old but without the nice open air deck where we used to picnic. Do find enough seating for our roast chicken and artichoke sandwiches though.
Thanks probably to the looming strike, the plane is only half full and very relaxed. Everyone who wants two seats has them. A very nice chicken curry for dinner with a fairly good Bordeaux. The little dishes seem too good to be throwaways so I inquire (thinking that the bedsit is sometimes underequipped) and the stewardess insists that I keep two - and in fact returns with some disposable cups and again later with two small brandies in case the beds should prove hard in the bedsit.
London's lights are warm and the bridges sparkle. We land at Terminal 5 and Jenny comes to meet us. As we feared, access to T5 is chaotic and not well signed but Jenny is cheerful and gracious about it - she's now had experience with Terminal 5 so next time she'll know. And home to Doug and the dogs - who seem to remember us (the dogs, that is, Doug clearly does).
Thanks probably to the looming strike, the plane is only half full and very relaxed. Everyone who wants two seats has them. A very nice chicken curry for dinner with a fairly good Bordeaux. The little dishes seem too good to be throwaways so I inquire (thinking that the bedsit is sometimes underequipped) and the stewardess insists that I keep two - and in fact returns with some disposable cups and again later with two small brandies in case the beds should prove hard in the bedsit.
London's lights are warm and the bridges sparkle. We land at Terminal 5 and Jenny comes to meet us. As we feared, access to T5 is chaotic and not well signed but Jenny is cheerful and gracious about it - she's now had experience with Terminal 5 so next time she'll know. And home to Doug and the dogs - who seem to remember us (the dogs, that is, Doug clearly does).
Monday, 22 March 2010
Sunday, March 14/2010
The suitcases don't hold much but take longer to pack for that as it's like a Chinese puzzle. Pause for brunch and then later a true break as we head over to the little sports bar to watch the opening race of the 2010 Formula One season. We'd checked earlier and the bartender had been helpful - but the timing was the same as a Rangers vs Dundee football match as well as a rugby match - would we mind watching on the little screen in the corner? No, we'd be delighted to watch at all. But when we arrive we find that almost everyone is here for the race - both big screens - with a couple of people seated at the bar following the rugby. Nice atmosphere and a pint of Guinness each. Sort of half way between watching at home and being at the race track. Clearer commentary and easier to identify the cars at home while the racetrack has the noise and excitement. Not a wildly exciting race though. New rules and cars finishing in more or less the order they started in. And the Bahrain track suffers from monochrome desert colouring.
Then over to the internet cafe across the back lane to choose the seats for tomorrow's flight. A half dozen computers with sticky keys (well mine, anyway) and full of young male foreign students. The one next to me is Romanian and he spends his hour chatting with a pretty girl (she fills the screen). I'd rather not be listening as it's a bit distracting but it's hard not to hear: No, don't take off your shirt - there are other people here, know what I mean.
M&M drop in for a last goodbye and the last of the g&t and artichokes, Magne so tired after a long day out that he falls asleep in his chair.
Then over to the internet cafe across the back lane to choose the seats for tomorrow's flight. A half dozen computers with sticky keys (well mine, anyway) and full of young male foreign students. The one next to me is Romanian and he spends his hour chatting with a pretty girl (she fills the screen). I'd rather not be listening as it's a bit distracting but it's hard not to hear: No, don't take off your shirt - there are other people here, know what I mean.
M&M drop in for a last goodbye and the last of the g&t and artichokes, Magne so tired after a long day out that he falls asleep in his chair.
Saturday, March 13/2010
Moving day. And the last minute nearly forgots as we note that the drying rack is still on the balcony and J threads an old t-shirt through the handle holes in an already sealed box. It looks too much, but everything packs into M's little hired car - except J himself, who walks the short distance. No lift to the mezzanine at the Sunflower but we get it safely stowed away.
Then off to Agia Napa - or rather the hills above it - to a little chapel accessible by dirt track. The Greek name translates as "St. Forty" - and we joke about Ali Baba and the forty thieves, as the chapel is actually a large cave that has had a whitewashed cement wall built across the front - blue wooden door inserted. Inside there is the usual icon and oil lamp - clearly a holy place for genertions, probably centuries. There is a visitors' book, hard covered with damp - soft pages drifting loose. It's been taking entries since 2002 and we're now on the last page. As that's pretty full, I turn to look at the inside cover, which turns out to be a double page schematic of the London Underground system, routes in full colour.
We sit outside for a while, eating crisps and sharing beer and looking over the fields to a haze covered sea. Maggi's been photographing the flowers on our walk along the path - stunning little purple flowers like miniature violets, poppy-like white ones, silvery stars, yellow daisies and golden mimosa bushes in full flower as far as the eye can see. Others we're not even sure of. Orchids? There are a lot in Cyprus, which has its own little ecology due to having escaped the ravages of the ice age but received deposits from glaciers moving south.
As we sit, other visitors come and go. A Greek man shows us the contents of his plastic bag. He's been picking something in the fields, and we suppose snails, as we've spotted some ourselves, but he shows us a green spiky thing about two inches in diameter. Yes, it's to eat - and a few minutes later a aboy comes back to us with something cut in pea sized pieces, and tasting somewhat like raw peas. So a wild artichoke of some sort. Not bad, but probably better sauteed.
Then a German couple arrive with backpacks and hiking boots. Not young but quite fit. They've been walking cross-country and Maggi points them on to St. Elias chapel, also on a hill. From there they'll be able to get a bus home. And we ourselves wander back to the car and drive on back, stopping at Agia Napa harbour - now beginning to bloom with tourists - for a sandwich and a beer. Lovely day - warm but not too hot. Agia Napa is more touristy than Larnaca, but it's also closer to the lovely hills and fields of rural Cyprus.
Then off to Agia Napa - or rather the hills above it - to a little chapel accessible by dirt track. The Greek name translates as "St. Forty" - and we joke about Ali Baba and the forty thieves, as the chapel is actually a large cave that has had a whitewashed cement wall built across the front - blue wooden door inserted. Inside there is the usual icon and oil lamp - clearly a holy place for genertions, probably centuries. There is a visitors' book, hard covered with damp - soft pages drifting loose. It's been taking entries since 2002 and we're now on the last page. As that's pretty full, I turn to look at the inside cover, which turns out to be a double page schematic of the London Underground system, routes in full colour.
We sit outside for a while, eating crisps and sharing beer and looking over the fields to a haze covered sea. Maggi's been photographing the flowers on our walk along the path - stunning little purple flowers like miniature violets, poppy-like white ones, silvery stars, yellow daisies and golden mimosa bushes in full flower as far as the eye can see. Others we're not even sure of. Orchids? There are a lot in Cyprus, which has its own little ecology due to having escaped the ravages of the ice age but received deposits from glaciers moving south.
As we sit, other visitors come and go. A Greek man shows us the contents of his plastic bag. He's been picking something in the fields, and we suppose snails, as we've spotted some ourselves, but he shows us a green spiky thing about two inches in diameter. Yes, it's to eat - and a few minutes later a aboy comes back to us with something cut in pea sized pieces, and tasting somewhat like raw peas. So a wild artichoke of some sort. Not bad, but probably better sauteed.
Then a German couple arrive with backpacks and hiking boots. Not young but quite fit. They've been walking cross-country and Maggi points them on to St. Elias chapel, also on a hill. From there they'll be able to get a bus home. And we ourselves wander back to the car and drive on back, stopping at Agia Napa harbour - now beginning to bloom with tourists - for a sandwich and a beer. Lovely day - warm but not too hot. Agia Napa is more touristy than Larnaca, but it's also closer to the lovely hills and fields of rural Cyprus.
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Friday, March 12/2010
British Airways cabin crew union announces strike dates but they begin five days after we fly. By bedtime we have everything packed - wrapped, boxed, taped and tied, except for the microwave and the drying rack for the clothes - the latter inherited at some point along the way. Actually most of the useful bits and pieces were inherited or from charity shops but they're all things that come in handy - like the soup pot or the serrated knife and the radio. It's rather an editorial "we" - the we that have finished packing. I've helped line things up but J has done all the slotting in as well as sealing all with hockey tape and tying up with cord.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Thursday, March 11/2010
The juggling begins. Maggi has kindly offered to drive our boxes over to the Sunflower on Saturday morning. this is actually two days before we leave, so we have to make decisions now before we're quite finished about what to store, what to take with us and what to discard.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Wednesday, March 10/2010
The body of former Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulis has been discovered covered with a thin layer of earth in a grave (already occupied as nearly as one can make out - where are the lurid tabloids when a story cries out for gory details?) in a Nicosia cemetery other than the one from which it disappeared. And arrests have been made of two cypriots (well, one was already in jail, for murder no less - the infamous "Al Capone of previous police humiliation) and a man of Indian nationality. It appears the Indian was paid only €200, much less than he says he was promised, to go back to India and start a new life. He'll undoubtedly be deported to India after prison (I'm inappropriately presuming conviction) but the new life he'd wanted won't be quite the same.
A warm day. The western end of the Mediterranean is still subject to snowstorms - in Spain and the south of France - but the eastern end has been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in Tel Aviv over 30 and ours reliably in the 20's, in part thanks to a blanketing of Saharan dust.
We're definitely in the clear now with regard to the flight on Monday. British Airways are still negotiating with the union representing cabin crew, but regardless of the outcome they can't strike before our flight as they must give seven days notice. So Monday night will see us in London. Jenny says she was at Hampton Court on the weekend and the crocuses are up but the daffodils are late this year.
A warm day. The western end of the Mediterranean is still subject to snowstorms - in Spain and the south of France - but the eastern end has been unseasonably warm, with temperatures in Tel Aviv over 30 and ours reliably in the 20's, in part thanks to a blanketing of Saharan dust.
We're definitely in the clear now with regard to the flight on Monday. British Airways are still negotiating with the union representing cabin crew, but regardless of the outcome they can't strike before our flight as they must give seven days notice. So Monday night will see us in London. Jenny says she was at Hampton Court on the weekend and the crocuses are up but the daffodils are late this year.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Tuesday, March 9/2010
Walk out to M&M's for a curry lunch. We stop on the way at the flamingo Hotel exhibit, still taken with the batik of Lefkara but unhappy about its ill-fitted framing. Have a chat with Paulina, the young Bulgarian receptionist. Would the artist consider selling it unframed for less. She promises to try to find out.
Lovely chicken curry - mouthwatering smells from the time we enter the lift. And we're all a little sad that our time in Cyprus seems to be coming so rapidly to an end.
Lovely chicken curry - mouthwatering smells from the time we enter the lift. And we're all a little sad that our time in Cyprus seems to be coming so rapidly to an end.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Monday, March 8/2010
J has a large bag of artichokes from Saturday's market (€1.70 for the bag - £1.53 GBP or $2.40 CAD). They're quite a bit of work as he peels down to the hearts, but incredibly good. Much too good not to share, so M&M stop to have an early lunch with the sliced hearts sautéed and other nibbles. Minus tablecloth as we've begun packing things away for the season.
There's an exhibition opening at the gallery on Stadiou, so we go. Turns out to be paintings by a man called rinos Stefani. We try to be appreciative but fail. It's not simply that the pictures are ugly - there's no reason that art shouldn't be ugly - it's that try as we might we can't spot any signs of talent. J points out that a high proportion of the paintings are dated 2009, and it's hard not to think that none of them has taken very long to produce - childish, charmless and devoid of impact. We've circled the gallery twice when it's time for the speeches to start and we decide that's our cue to leave. No real point in waiting for the wine and nuts. Lovely warm night for the walk back though.
There's an exhibition opening at the gallery on Stadiou, so we go. Turns out to be paintings by a man called rinos Stefani. We try to be appreciative but fail. It's not simply that the pictures are ugly - there's no reason that art shouldn't be ugly - it's that try as we might we can't spot any signs of talent. J points out that a high proportion of the paintings are dated 2009, and it's hard not to think that none of them has taken very long to produce - childish, charmless and devoid of impact. We've circled the gallery twice when it's time for the speeches to start and we decide that's our cue to leave. No real point in waiting for the wine and nuts. Lovely warm night for the walk back though.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Sunday, March 7/2010
Go to Mass and discover that Fr. Wilhelm has gone oon rest and renewal leave and been replaced by Fr. Andrew, a Canadian Franciscan of Filipino origin. This is his first parish, but he seems like a good choice, given the large number of Filipina workers in the parish. The public address system is not the clearest, so most of the specific wording of his first sermon misses us, but it seems that he has used up enough material for his first three homilies in one go.
In the afternoon Maggi cycles over and we play Scrabble.
In the afternoon Maggi cycles over and we play Scrabble.
Saturday, March 6/2010
Jane and Bill Curtis at coffee place as well as Maggi, so we thing of Jane's "coffee spot" painting.
One of the commentators on Gordon Brown's testimony before the Chilcot committee of inquiry yesterday: like a group of guinea pigs trying to tackle a brown bear. And, further on the prime ministerial theme, Stephen Harper makes the BBC news - unusual for any Canadian non-sports story. So we're informed that there was a suggestion that the words to "O Canada" be revised and I think that this could be a good thing, as the French words are brilliant but the English are pretty uninspired, not to say mindlessly repetitive. Turns out that's not it though. Harper has suggested that "all thy sons" might be replaced by something gender neutral - and been booed back into 24 Sussex.
One of the commentators on Gordon Brown's testimony before the Chilcot committee of inquiry yesterday: like a group of guinea pigs trying to tackle a brown bear. And, further on the prime ministerial theme, Stephen Harper makes the BBC news - unusual for any Canadian non-sports story. So we're informed that there was a suggestion that the words to "O Canada" be revised and I think that this could be a good thing, as the French words are brilliant but the English are pretty uninspired, not to say mindlessly repetitive. Turns out that's not it though. Harper has suggested that "all thy sons" might be replaced by something gender neutral - and been booed back into 24 Sussex.
Friday, March 4/2010
London's temperature hits double digits so there's some hope at the end of their worst winter in 30 years. And not a moment too soon, as we're to fly back there in ten days. Fingers still crosse that the threatened cabin crew strike at British Airways won't intervene. They have to give seven days notice, so if we make it through to Monday evening without strike notice we're in the clear. Actually there would be no difficulty about staying on here, probably in the same flat, and we're not booked in the bedsit util the 23rd. What's at risk is our much anticipated trip to Cornwall with Jenny and her mum.
Watch Gordon Brown testifying before the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, carried live by BBC World television. While in theory Brown's testimony ought to be as interesting as Blair's, this doesn't prove to be the case. Of course Blair testified on what ws a rainy day in Cyprus, whilst today is sunny, so there were fewer alternatives to viewing, but it's more than that. There's no performance art about Brown's delivery - just a bull ahead monotoone for hours, the gist of which is that the invasion was the right thing to do and the army was always as well funded as they wished to be during the invasion and occupation. The two positions are probably equally subject to dispute and equally lacking in humility, but with Tony the fascination (and much of the annoyance) was always in the dance, which earned a certain admiration despite any disapproval.
J, coming back from the bakery, squeezes his way past a parked car and finds himself facing the back seat, where a woman wearing a hijab is uncovered to breast feed her baby. J says her mouth opened in shock - and she instinctively covered her face.
Watch Gordon Brown testifying before the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq, carried live by BBC World television. While in theory Brown's testimony ought to be as interesting as Blair's, this doesn't prove to be the case. Of course Blair testified on what ws a rainy day in Cyprus, whilst today is sunny, so there were fewer alternatives to viewing, but it's more than that. There's no performance art about Brown's delivery - just a bull ahead monotoone for hours, the gist of which is that the invasion was the right thing to do and the army was always as well funded as they wished to be during the invasion and occupation. The two positions are probably equally subject to dispute and equally lacking in humility, but with Tony the fascination (and much of the annoyance) was always in the dance, which earned a certain admiration despite any disapproval.
J, coming back from the bakery, squeezes his way past a parked car and finds himself facing the back seat, where a woman wearing a hijab is uncovered to breast feed her baby. J says her mouth opened in shock - and she instinctively covered her face.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Thursday, March 4/2010
We find Maggi's little old lady (probably no older than we are) who does dressmaking and repairs in a little shop near the market and she agrees to turn the collars on three of J's Tilley's shirts for €5 apiece, giving them a new lease on life. Ready tomorrow.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Wednesday, March 3/2010
We have new neighbours in the building opposite, seen only, of course, when they are out on the balcony. The previous tenants had two cute little girls who appeared on weekends, sometimes permitted to use the laptop, which spent most of its time outside next to the ashtray. The new people have no children in evidence and fill the balcony with amazing amounts of wash. So far I haven't subscribed to J's suggestion that the woman takes in laundry, largely because I can't imagine there being any profit in it in modern times, but I'm beginning to think he may be right. It's hard to imagine how one small household could generate three or four lines of wash a day, day after day.
We walk out to M&M's in the afternoon. It's windy, but a warm wind and a lovely walk along the seafront. The waves are high enough that we get a little of the splash. There are plans for a new walkway out along Makenzy (spelling correct by local custom) and it will certainly make life safer for pedestrians, as for most of the way there is no sidewalk and walkers are caught between speeding cars and the crumbling edge of the roadway. Lovely and sunny on their balcony drinking g&t and looking at the shifting colours of the sea.
Then with Maggi over to the Flamingo Hotel, which is displaying the work of local artists, including Jane Curtis, whom we saw at Saturday's coffee. She has a number of paintings on the Cypriot theme, including a small water colour of a coffee spot in a typical Cypriot village which we all like . there is also a batik artist, identified only as Breda, with intriguing pictures, J's favourite being one called Lefkara.
Jacob Zuma, South African president, is visiting the UK, staying at Buckingham Palace with the newest of his three wives - leaving one to wonder what the facilities are at the palace for accommodating heads of state choosing to travel with more than one wife.
We walk out to M&M's in the afternoon. It's windy, but a warm wind and a lovely walk along the seafront. The waves are high enough that we get a little of the splash. There are plans for a new walkway out along Makenzy (spelling correct by local custom) and it will certainly make life safer for pedestrians, as for most of the way there is no sidewalk and walkers are caught between speeding cars and the crumbling edge of the roadway. Lovely and sunny on their balcony drinking g&t and looking at the shifting colours of the sea.
Then with Maggi over to the Flamingo Hotel, which is displaying the work of local artists, including Jane Curtis, whom we saw at Saturday's coffee. She has a number of paintings on the Cypriot theme, including a small water colour of a coffee spot in a typical Cypriot village which we all like . there is also a batik artist, identified only as Breda, with intriguing pictures, J's favourite being one called Lefkara.
Jacob Zuma, South African president, is visiting the UK, staying at Buckingham Palace with the newest of his three wives - leaving one to wonder what the facilities are at the palace for accommodating heads of state choosing to travel with more than one wife.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Tuesday, March 2/2010
M&M arrive unexpectedly mid-morning, having just delivered back their hired car after 3 months of freedom and mobility. So tea and biscuits and chat. They're not here much longer than we are - another week.
Lovely weather - sunny and warm with light breeze. Always the nicest weather is just as we're about to leave, though of course the better way to look at it is that we miss the nastiest weather elsewhere. J says many more tourists down at the waterfront cafes now that the spring weather is here. And the flowers are looking somewhat refreshed, though there have been beds of petunias, snapdragons and marigolds all winter.
Lovely weather - sunny and warm with light breeze. Always the nicest weather is just as we're about to leave, though of course the better way to look at it is that we miss the nastiest weather elsewhere. J says many more tourists down at the waterfront cafes now that the spring weather is here. And the flowers are looking somewhat refreshed, though there have been beds of petunias, snapdragons and marigolds all winter.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Monday, March 2/2010
J home with bags of grapefruit and oranges, the oranges with dark green leaves still attached, so we can sit in the flat and inhale citrus. It's spoiled us for oranges in England and Canada - they're so disappointing by comparison.
The storm that devastated Madeira has moved northeast through Portugal and Spain and into France, with heavy rains, coastal flooding, and winds as high as 175 km an hour. At least 45 people died in France, and the newscaster refers to them as having, in the majority of cases, drowned in their sleep. A chilling image, but the reality must have been so much more horrific.
The storm that devastated Madeira has moved northeast through Portugal and Spain and into France, with heavy rains, coastal flooding, and winds as high as 175 km an hour. At least 45 people died in France, and the newscaster refers to them as having, in the majority of cases, drowned in their sleep. A chilling image, but the reality must have been so much more horrific.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Sunday, February 28/2010
Wake briefly in the early hours to an horrific storm. Can't tell whether we're hearing hail or heavy rain, but the winds are violent and the lightning non-stop. Still wet and windy in the morning, so out to the nearest bakery for a loaf of round village bread, sprinkled with sesame seeds and still hot, and back with the bread and the Sunday paper.
Saturday, February 27/2010
Jimmy's Café for morning coffee/beer. M&M are there as well as Jane and Bill Curtis, a retired English couple who live in Pyla in the winter and on their boat in the summer. Lovely letting the sun sink in. M&M back later for tea and the second half of J's cake. by two the dark clouds are moving in from the north and later the rain starts.
We watch a BBC documentary on a re-emergent Stalinism in Russia and Georgia. New school textbooks ignore stalin's crimes and vastly underestimate the number of his victims in the interests of inculcating "positive history." And many citizens are happy to rethink the past in order to have heroes to admire rather than villains to regret. Thus the past is rewritten in accordance with a Russian saying that goes "You never know what is going to happen yesterday." And we remember driving across Moscow in 1991, three weeks before the coup attempt, and seeing an enormous bust of Lenin being carted away in the back of a truck.
Dubai news reports items seized by customs, including drugs and "materials used in witchcraft."
We watch a BBC documentary on a re-emergent Stalinism in Russia and Georgia. New school textbooks ignore stalin's crimes and vastly underestimate the number of his victims in the interests of inculcating "positive history." And many citizens are happy to rethink the past in order to have heroes to admire rather than villains to regret. Thus the past is rewritten in accordance with a Russian saying that goes "You never know what is going to happen yesterday." And we remember driving across Moscow in 1991, three weeks before the coup attempt, and seeing an enormous bust of Lenin being carted away in the back of a truck.
Dubai news reports items seized by customs, including drugs and "materials used in witchcraft."
Friday, February 26/2010
Starts out a cool but dry day, long enough for J to get in his exercise at the beach and for us to head over to the student centre for the internet and a look at the Friday paper. While we're at the student centre - umbrellaless - the rain starts, and the rest of the day is nasty, wet and very windy. A good day to hunker down with soup and television documentaries and reading. Now alternating our last two books, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Robertson Davies' Fifth Business. Happily, we're across the road from a little charity shop, so it's impossible to run out of books entirely - but that road quickly becomes three inches deep in water during heavy rains. Suitable only for waterproof boots.
Fall asleep watching the late night film on the swedish chanel - the original Little Lord Fauntleroy with Mickey Rooney - subtitled in Swedish.
Fall asleep watching the late night film on the swedish chanel - the original Little Lord Fauntleroy with Mickey Rooney - subtitled in Swedish.
Friday, 26 February 2010
Thursday, February 25/2010
Meet Maggi over at student internet and she and Magne come back for tea - until J suggests impromptu lunch with vegetable soup, Danish blue cheese and mackerel spread. They leave for supermarket and promised rain starts, violently with thunder and lightning and heavy waves lapping over the sidewalk and into the covered passageway of our building. Maggi says deep water and abandoned cars further up Gregori Afxentiou Street toward the internet. It's a spot we regularly saw flooding from our fourth floor vantage spot the year we lived in the Chryssopolis Hotel.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Wednesday, February 24/2010
Packaging much the same here as at home. J breaks a shoelace and finds that he can buy a packet of ten at the discount shop for only a euro. thus he is now the proud possessor of nine pairs of shoelaces surplus to requirements, including a pair of orange ones and a pair of pink. The problem, of course, being that a single pair of black shoelaces costs noticeably more than his multipack.
We get two weather forecasts here in English - or actually, in the case of Euronews, in silence. CYBC, the government chanel, provides a brief forecast at the end of its short evening English news, while Euronews, in the morning, pans quickly over a map of Europe, allowing little time for a focus that would, in any case, be wasted as the map itself is slightly out of focus. Neither forecast extends beyond 24 hours, which is perhaps a blessing - as I look at BBC website's weather at the internet and find heavy showers predicted in Larnaca for the next four days.
We get two weather forecasts here in English - or actually, in the case of Euronews, in silence. CYBC, the government chanel, provides a brief forecast at the end of its short evening English news, while Euronews, in the morning, pans quickly over a map of Europe, allowing little time for a focus that would, in any case, be wasted as the map itself is slightly out of focus. Neither forecast extends beyond 24 hours, which is perhaps a blessing - as I look at BBC website's weather at the internet and find heavy showers predicted in Larnaca for the next four days.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Tuesday, February 24/2010
Sort out the implications of British Airwayss strike possibilities. They must give 7 days notice of a strike and must strike, if they are going to do so, within 28 days of a strike vote. This gives them a 3 week window - with our flight to London in the middle.
M&M round to dinner as we all reflect how little time is let. Coq au vin and the fruit cake which J has been carefully feeding with brandy for weeks, along with a little brandy sauce.
M&M round to dinner as we all reflect how little time is let. Coq au vin and the fruit cake which J has been carefully feeding with brandy for weeks, along with a little brandy sauce.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Monday, February 22/2010
Maggi drops in for a cup of tea and a game of Scrabble - and we think of how much easier this will be if we're in the same building next year.
British Air cabin crews complete a strike vote with over 80% in favour. They're committed to not striking over Easter, but we're scheduled to fly with them three weeks earlier, on the 15th of March. Mixed sympathies, as the cabin crews are the nicest thing about BA.
British Air cabin crews complete a strike vote with over 80% in favour. They're committed to not striking over Easter, but we're scheduled to fly with them three weeks earlier, on the 15th of March. Mixed sympathies, as the cabin crews are the nicest thing about BA.
Monday, 22 February 2010
Sunday, February 21/2010
Still some haze, but it's warming. Temperature in the mid-twenties as we head down to the waterfront. Children, tourists, balloons, ice creams muchin evidence. One stall has a huge variety of inexpensive wares for sale including the pseudo-spiritual - Bob Marley t-shirts, a large dream catcher, and a fluorescent crucifix.
Saturday, February 20/2010
Quick trip down to Sunflower to book the 4th floor flat for next winter. A thirteen minute walk from here. So we're committed- and happy about it. Then back to the market place. M&M areat Jimmy's Cafe drinking Cyprus cofee while we take advantage of the hot sun and split a large beer.
Look up Thursday's "gifthead fish" via Google and find that the only good hit is a reference to my own blog entry. So clearly there is a problem with the name. Accepting Google's suggestion that the fish in question may be "gilt-head", I pursue this and find that gilt-head is a particularly nice tpe of bream, and further that Greeks and Cypriots know it as tsipoura. So presumably Berlitz's entry has relied on poor handwriting or enunciation at some point, l and f not being very near each other on the keyboard.
Look up Thursday's "gifthead fish" via Google and find that the only good hit is a reference to my own blog entry. So clearly there is a problem with the name. Accepting Google's suggestion that the fish in question may be "gilt-head", I pursue this and find that gilt-head is a particularly nice tpe of bream, and further that Greeks and Cypriots know it as tsipoura. So presumably Berlitz's entry has relied on poor handwriting or enunciation at some point, l and f not being very near each other on the keyboard.
Friday, February 19/2010
With M&M to check out Sunflower hotel apartments, J having spoken to the manager yesterday. The only downside is location, a bit north of the central area and promenade. On the positive side, the flats we're shown are sunny (southern exposure), clean and well-furnished and the price is good (€510 a month). We're all impressed.
Friday, 19 February 2010
Thursday, February 18/2010
Ask J if the naked woman was at the beach today when he went for his morning exercise. No, but there was a woman who walked the length of the beach backward while chanting.
J back from Carrefour with three lovely looking fish. He says there was a huge heap of them fresh in, and as fast as they arrived customers swooped on them. The fish was only identified by a Greek name - tsipoura - which means nothing to us, so we look it up in the little Greek Berlitz, which translates it as gifthead fish. Interesting, if not especially helpful. Food terms are actually one of the things the Berlitz does best. Many of the phrases seem not likely to be needed - "can you find me a secretary" - while others are rather horrifying - "can you give me an anesthetic?"
The fish proves to be lovely and we have just finished dinner when M&M arrive for a visit - unfortunately for them in time for fish smells as well as tea and biscuits.
J back from Carrefour with three lovely looking fish. He says there was a huge heap of them fresh in, and as fast as they arrived customers swooped on them. The fish was only identified by a Greek name - tsipoura - which means nothing to us, so we look it up in the little Greek Berlitz, which translates it as gifthead fish. Interesting, if not especially helpful. Food terms are actually one of the things the Berlitz does best. Many of the phrases seem not likely to be needed - "can you find me a secretary" - while others are rather horrifying - "can you give me an anesthetic?"
The fish proves to be lovely and we have just finished dinner when M&M arrive for a visit - unfortunately for them in time for fish smells as well as tea and biscuits.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Wednesday, February 18/2010
The evening news predicts Saharan dust haze will continue until Sunday and says that hospitals are prepared for more people with breathing difficulties. We must have good lungs because we never notice the difference.
And also re the news, the prize for the most blatant nerve goes to the Israeli government. In response to speculation that they are responsible for the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai. As forged european passports were used by the assassin crew, four of them stolen identities of British citizens living in Israel, and as the whole operation was complex and sophisticated, suspicion has naturally fallen on Mossad (motive plus modus operandi). The Israeli government's reply is not that they are not guilty but that it "can't be proven." And, they add, that in case they prefer ambiguous statements.
And in the "only in Cyprus" category, a man in his 30's has been arrested and charged with firing his gun in the air at a Cape Greco picnic site on Green Monday, causing minor injuries to two people.
And also re the news, the prize for the most blatant nerve goes to the Israeli government. In response to speculation that they are responsible for the murder of a Hamas leader in Dubai. As forged european passports were used by the assassin crew, four of them stolen identities of British citizens living in Israel, and as the whole operation was complex and sophisticated, suspicion has naturally fallen on Mossad (motive plus modus operandi). The Israeli government's reply is not that they are not guilty but that it "can't be proven." And, they add, that in case they prefer ambiguous statements.
And in the "only in Cyprus" category, a man in his 30's has been arrested and charged with firing his gun in the air at a Cape Greco picnic site on Green Monday, causing minor injuries to two people.
Tuesday, February 16/2010
J, out for his early morning exercise, passes a middle-aged woman emerging onto the beach from her swim. She strips naked to get dressed. When J completes the half kilometre length of the beach she is still not dressed.
M&M back from their silver wedding anniversary trip to Athens and over to have a drink and share their experiences - from marble bathroom (in the hotel off Omonia) to funicular ride. A lovely long weekend it sounds.
M&M back from their silver wedding anniversary trip to Athens and over to have a drink and share their experiences - from marble bathroom (in the hotel off Omonia) to funicular ride. A lovely long weekend it sounds.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Monday, February 15/2010
Very quiet on this holiday morning. No traffic heading to work, and last night's revellers no doubt enjoying a lie in. Warm enough, but the sun a pale disk seen through pervasive dust haze, presumably from the Sahara again.
The promenade active but not nearly as busy as yesterday, costumes somewhat thinner on the ground and the ice rink not quite as full, although still doing business at €10 per person. The booths are still set up as well - roasted chestnuts, popcorn, nuts, cotton candy, astonishingly tacky jewellery. The local artist still has her table with small paintings of traditional houses and flowered archways, but the bouncy castle has gone. The cafes are still busy though, as is the beach. In one corner a net has been set up and a volleyball game is in progress. Nearby a football (soccer) game is taking place with foreign students or workers, one man stripped to the waist and others in shorts and shirts. A number of fathers and young children with brightly coloured kites, Green Monday being the traditional day for kite flying. Yesterday one kite was a distant speck,held by what seemed like a half mile of line. Today's are more tentative. Dogs and children explore the rest of the beach, and in the bay there are three ships at holiday anchor.
In accordance with local custom, we have fish for supper, though no picnic this year.
The promenade active but not nearly as busy as yesterday, costumes somewhat thinner on the ground and the ice rink not quite as full, although still doing business at €10 per person. The booths are still set up as well - roasted chestnuts, popcorn, nuts, cotton candy, astonishingly tacky jewellery. The local artist still has her table with small paintings of traditional houses and flowered archways, but the bouncy castle has gone. The cafes are still busy though, as is the beach. In one corner a net has been set up and a volleyball game is in progress. Nearby a football (soccer) game is taking place with foreign students or workers, one man stripped to the waist and others in shorts and shirts. A number of fathers and young children with brightly coloured kites, Green Monday being the traditional day for kite flying. Yesterday one kite was a distant speck,held by what seemed like a half mile of line. Today's are more tentative. Dogs and children explore the rest of the beach, and in the bay there are three ships at holiday anchor.
In accordance with local custom, we have fish for supper, though no picnic this year.
Sunday, February 14/2010
Find out at Mass that the lovely old lady who always sat a few pews ahead has died during the week. Her husband is there alone. For two years now she has been looking more fragile by the week, in the end barely able to stand,but with thehelp of her husband and an extremely attentive Sri Lankan maid, she was always there, though for some time Fr. Wilhelm has gone to the pew to give her communion, rather than have her brave the queue.
After brunch we go down to the promenade. Pass the ice rink, busy with children and adults skating in counterclockwise circles - the centre of the rink occupied by three short palm trees - permanent and immovable parts of the square on which t he rink has been made. Everyone wears the same bright blue plastic skates - no temptation for theft here - and many of the kids do fairly well, considering how little opportunity for practice they must get.
The promenade is busy too. It's sunny and over 20, as well as being a long weekend. Many ice creams in sight as well as candy and grilled corn on the cob. Quite a lot of the children are showing off their carnival costumes, with princesses and spermen muc in evidence, the youngest of them barely upright, unsteady legs hurrying to catch up as they hurtle forward.
Must be parties in the evening, as the streets are just crazy with non-stop traffic, roaring motorbikes, singing and whoops out of the dark - all long into the night.
After brunch we go down to the promenade. Pass the ice rink, busy with children and adults skating in counterclockwise circles - the centre of the rink occupied by three short palm trees - permanent and immovable parts of the square on which t he rink has been made. Everyone wears the same bright blue plastic skates - no temptation for theft here - and many of the kids do fairly well, considering how little opportunity for practice they must get.
The promenade is busy too. It's sunny and over 20, as well as being a long weekend. Many ice creams in sight as well as candy and grilled corn on the cob. Quite a lot of the children are showing off their carnival costumes, with princesses and spermen muc in evidence, the youngest of them barely upright, unsteady legs hurrying to catch up as they hurtle forward.
Must be parties in the evening, as the streets are just crazy with non-stop traffic, roaring motorbikes, singing and whoops out of the dark - all long into the night.
Saturday, February 13/2010
Down to Prinos greengrocers, and the customer chaos there is like the last supermarket day before Christmas. Thetraditional food for Green Monday is fish, or seafood, and green vegetables and carts are heaped high. We come home with large bags of oranges and grapefruit as well as a few tomatoes and cucumbers. We're always saying that it's surprising there aren't een more car accidents here (and it is one of the worst countries in europe) and sure enough as we cross the road between Carrefour and Prinos we skirt an accident that must just have happened - damage to vehicles only. Driving while on the telephone is illegal here, but almost universally practised. Although the high accident rates pre-date mobile phones.
Friday, February 12/2010
Heading into a long weekend as Green (or Clean depending on tradition/translation) Monday approaches - a day of picnics, kite flying and carnival activities before Lent begins on Wednesday. It's warmed up too - 20 degrees and the breeze is mild.
Quotation from our current reading, The Day of the Scorpion: "Compulsively tidy people, one is told, are alwas wiping the slate clean, trying to give themselves what life denies all of us, a fresh start."
Quotation from our current reading, The Day of the Scorpion: "Compulsively tidy people, one is told, are alwas wiping the slate clean, trying to give themselves what life denies all of us, a fresh start."
Friday, 12 February 2010
Thursday, February 11/2010
Reading Hello, new free magazine J has brought home. And it should be free as it's mostly advertising, thinly disguised and otherwise, although it's possible to subscribe to it for €25 a year. Despite being written in English, it seems to have heavy Russian input (thus all the photos entered in the most beautiful girls contest are Russian or Ukrainian), and some phrases that seem to have suffered in translation. For example an article on Home Spas begins with the following advice -
After drawing the face and neck with a small amount of fat cream you can proceed to the following movements: Attach 4 fingers of the left hand and 4 fingers of the right hand to the corners of your mouth.
By the time we reach the legs, it's:
Use your towel or massage gloves to mash hip and thigh.
And there's information on water treatment as well:
For example, bath salts, which not only makes the water smell, but also reduces stiffness, or drugs from plant extracts.
Or alternatively there are herbs:
Bath with rosemary extract has a calming and refreshing effect and besides that cleans the pores. After such a bath you can't take a shower but should immediately go to bed.
And this evening radio and television celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison - beginning his most impressive contribution to South Africa at 71, an age when he might so reasonably have retired to some post incarceration peace. It's very humbling.
After drawing the face and neck with a small amount of fat cream you can proceed to the following movements: Attach 4 fingers of the left hand and 4 fingers of the right hand to the corners of your mouth.
By the time we reach the legs, it's:
Use your towel or massage gloves to mash hip and thigh.
And there's information on water treatment as well:
For example, bath salts, which not only makes the water smell, but also reduces stiffness, or drugs from plant extracts.
Or alternatively there are herbs:
Bath with rosemary extract has a calming and refreshing effect and besides that cleans the pores. After such a bath you can't take a shower but should immediately go to bed.
And this evening radio and television celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison - beginning his most impressive contribution to South Africa at 71, an age when he might so reasonably have retired to some post incarceration peace. It's very humbling.
Wednesday, February 10/2010
There's an exhibition of paintings opening tonight at the Kypriaki Gonia Gallery on Stadiou, so we go. The artist is Yianis Pelekanos, and we know nothing about him, but our social calendar is not too full for such little interludes, nor is Maggi's and she joins us.
the paintings are a delight - naive scenes of pre-industrial rural and village life in Cyprus - warm, nostalgic and busy, with a strong narrative element. So there are scenes of farmyard activities, complete with household tasks in one corner of the picture and field work in another. And there's the scene of the young Cypriot man arriving home from abroad - to the consternation of his parents and former girlfriend as he is accompanied by a blonde foreign wife and small children. The previous sweetheart stands to the rear, her welcoming bouquet bitterly discarded on the floor. And there's even a political painting - a record of protesting women being removed from the railway tracks outside a trai station, complete with British soldiers and a union jack. (There is now no railway i Cyprus, as it was removed after the end of British occupation).
The artist is there, and another man (gallery director?) white haired and affable, greeting arrivals, chatting and stopping to explain one of the paintings to us. We also meet another artist - a Cypriot living in Exeter with his wife and six children, who is here doing a fascinating job making painted records of archaeological artifacts, capturing qualities the camera misses.
Maggi back afterward for a game of Scrabble.
the paintings are a delight - naive scenes of pre-industrial rural and village life in Cyprus - warm, nostalgic and busy, with a strong narrative element. So there are scenes of farmyard activities, complete with household tasks in one corner of the picture and field work in another. And there's the scene of the young Cypriot man arriving home from abroad - to the consternation of his parents and former girlfriend as he is accompanied by a blonde foreign wife and small children. The previous sweetheart stands to the rear, her welcoming bouquet bitterly discarded on the floor. And there's even a political painting - a record of protesting women being removed from the railway tracks outside a trai station, complete with British soldiers and a union jack. (There is now no railway i Cyprus, as it was removed after the end of British occupation).
The artist is there, and another man (gallery director?) white haired and affable, greeting arrivals, chatting and stopping to explain one of the paintings to us. We also meet another artist - a Cypriot living in Exeter with his wife and six children, who is here doing a fascinating job making painted records of archaeological artifacts, capturing qualities the camera misses.
Maggi back afterward for a game of Scrabble.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Tuesday, February 9/2010
Showers off and on - more off, actually. Walk out to M&M's for late lunch. Pork roast with the lovel Norwegian sauerkraut - softer and sweeter than German and with a little caraway. Must try it at home some time. Marinated strawberries and melon after. And mellow chat.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Sunday, February 7/2010
The tourist organisation info lists today's beach entertainment as jazz, so we duly head down to the stage for eleven. It's not jazz but Cypriot country music and dance. Still quite interesting though, as J picks out the agricultural contribution to the choreography. Closely related to both Turkish and Ukrainian styles. And the sea as a backdrop.
Saturday, February 6/2010
Chill beginning but the sun is warm enough that we shed jackets and soak it in at the market coffee place. In fact warm enough for beer instead of coffee. J off to the beach for his morning walk - usually a rapid 5-6 miles. He says one day he spotted the pigeons in a flock on the ground all paying him special attention, cocking their heads to follow him, and realised that their real interest was soprano Emma Shaplin on his MP3.
Friday, February 5/2010
Interesting internet info on Jerzy Kosinski, author of the astonishing book The Painted Bird, which we are now reading, as well as of Being There. Turns out he committed sicide in 1991 with his literary reputation greatly tarnished. There are claims that Being There was plagiarised from a pre-war Polish book (though there must have been significant changes as there can't have been television in pre-war Poland). As for The Painted Bird, it seems that Kosinski relied heavily on translators and assistants to the point that one poet claimed he should have been given credit as author, though others could have said the same. And, in some ways worst of all, The Painted Bird is not at all autobiographical, though Kosinski - who admittedly never said it was - had encouraged people to believe it was based on his life. It turns out that far from spending his early years surviving on his own in German occupied Eastern Europe, he lived with his parents in a Russian border town in the east of Poland, admittedly told never to say he was Jewish.
While the quality of fiction is not dependent on the life of the writer, there is nontheless a problem. When some events in the book seemed not credible, the reader extended credit - after all Kosinski should know as his childhood was spent in the same horror. That authority is gone, and there is a certain sense of betrayal.
While the quality of fiction is not dependent on the life of the writer, there is nontheless a problem. When some events in the book seemed not credible, the reader extended credit - after all Kosinski should know as his childhood was spent in the same horror. That authority is gone, and there is a certain sense of betrayal.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Thursday, February 4/2010
Down to Prinos fruit and vegetable market near Carrefour. Confirm what we observed earlier in the week and at the Saturday market - vegetable prices have risen. Some have held almost the same but others are up anywhere from 100 to nearly 400%, especially broccoli, cauliflower and courgettes. Hard to imagine why in a country that grows produce year round. Are we just at the end of a particular harvest cycle?
Purely by chance, we spot Larnaca's carnival parade. We pass it at the square (triangle really) where the Laiki bank is. Or more accurately stand as it passes us, the way being cleared by a policeman, all flashing lights and redirection. There are some good costumes but it's all a bit bedraggled - and over in about 90 seconds. Guess this isn't Limassol.
President Christofias shown on the news engaged in one of those embarrassingly long handshakes, suggesting superglue and serving as a multiple photo op. Back at work after being briefly hospitalised for exhaustion on Monday at the end of Ban Ki Moon's visit. A thankless visit for Ban, of course, as the only thing that makes Greek cypriots angrier than being ignored by the outside world is not being ignored - interpreted as interference, despite the UN chief's skill at walking on eggs.
Purely by chance, we spot Larnaca's carnival parade. We pass it at the square (triangle really) where the Laiki bank is. Or more accurately stand as it passes us, the way being cleared by a policeman, all flashing lights and redirection. There are some good costumes but it's all a bit bedraggled - and over in about 90 seconds. Guess this isn't Limassol.
President Christofias shown on the news engaged in one of those embarrassingly long handshakes, suggesting superglue and serving as a multiple photo op. Back at work after being briefly hospitalised for exhaustion on Monday at the end of Ban Ki Moon's visit. A thankless visit for Ban, of course, as the only thing that makes Greek cypriots angrier than being ignored by the outside world is not being ignored - interpreted as interference, despite the UN chief's skill at walking on eggs.
Wednesday, February 3/2010
Kieran's twelfth birthday - the last of the winter ones.
We're reading Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, an amazing novel about a small boy wandering across Eastern Europe on his own through forests and often hostile villages, much as Kosinski himself survived the Holocaust that took the lives of most of his family.
Maggi over in the evening for a game of Scrabble and glass of wine.
We're reading Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, an amazing novel about a small boy wandering across Eastern Europe on his own through forests and often hostile villages, much as Kosinski himself survived the Holocaust that took the lives of most of his family.
Maggi over in the evening for a game of Scrabble and glass of wine.
Tuesday, February 2/2010
Pass shop window displaying carnival costumes - similar to North American Hallowe'en costumes - in sizes from small child to adult. Limassol is the place for the biggest parade but there will be a smaller one here as well just before Lent.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Monday, February 1/2010
February, and it feels as if spring is here, the sun warm in the morning. take a very quick look at places in the Canary Islands re next year - and see prices similar to here but with much better facilities. quick calculation: price increase over 9 years at our old home, the Eleanora is 157%. There have been some "improvements" there, but not ones that make it much more attractive to us - and they include decreased cupboard space.
Dinner at Militzi's with M&M - though it's an early enough dinner that Cypriots might well regard it as late lunch. Magne has beef kleftiko - a week's meat on the plate it looks like - and the rest of us beef stifado, with a side order of pilaf to share. Huge portions, and, when Maggi mentions that the stifado had a little too much vinegar (as indeed it did) we find ourselves treated to free liqueurs (for the women) and brandies (for the men).
Dinner at Militzi's with M&M - though it's an early enough dinner that Cypriots might well regard it as late lunch. Magne has beef kleftiko - a week's meat on the plate it looks like - and the rest of us beef stifado, with a side order of pilaf to share. Huge portions, and, when Maggi mentions that the stifado had a little too much vinegar (as indeed it did) we find ourselves treated to free liqueurs (for the women) and brandies (for the men).
Monday, 1 February 2010
Sunday, January 31/2010
Sunny and warm winds and everyone out on the promenade. The scent of sugar announces the cotton candy booth before we can see it and there's also a stall where they're grilling corn on the cob and roasting chestnuts. The ice cream kiosks are also seeing queues. Take a walk on the pier. The boat with a bar on deck is doing a fair business. there's now a tent-style bar on the beach itself - not bad and chairs outside as well as in. It does seem the beginning of the dividing out of the beach by the various commercial interests, though. Already there are large areas staked with skeletons of beach ubrellas and a huge stack of chaise long frames looking like an industrial recycling tip, as well as fairly unsightly corrugated metal storage sheds advertising hotel and beach umbrella hire. How much longer until it looks like the south of Spain, with only narrow public paths leading down to the sea between the large tracts cordoned off by hotels and their deck chairs.
M&M stop for tea on their way back from Limassol, bringing a lovely herbal tea mixture with them, courtesy of Maggi's friend Anita, who is studying Greek with her.
M&M stop for tea on their way back from Limassol, bringing a lovely herbal tea mixture with them, courtesy of Maggi's friend Anita, who is studying Greek with her.
Saturday, January 30/2010
Overcast, and still windy. We have only to glance out the window to see the small palm trees whipping round - our weather vanes. But it's warm enough and rain not in the forecast, so we meet for coffee as usual. Then go to view the sample apartment for rent at Petrou Brothers. It's nicely designed as a summer hotel room. Pointlessly large kitchen with little cupboard space and bedroom with no chairs - only the bed to sit on whilst watching the flat-screened but too small television fixed to the wall in the corner. So the extensive renovations are essentially redecorating aimed at creating spare and cool rooms for the summer beach crowd.
Friday, January 29/2010
BBC World carries live the Chilcot Iraq inquiry today as Tony Blair testifies. And then it rains, so I get drawn in and watch pretty much the whole six hours. J waits for a weather break and heads to the beach for a walk (and I to the internet, passing a dead rat on the way back, outside the new restaurant that opened last year). But it's on until 7, given the time change.
Gives rise to images of Blair at confession:
Bless me Father for I have, I have...yes, well it's impportant for you to understand what a very difficult time it's been, and of course there are things that seem clear in hindsight that just weren't the chief concern when I...no, of course I did have plans, there was a great deal of planning...it's just that in the event the things I planned for were not the same as the ones that transpired. Could I have planned better? Well no, I genuinely believe that I planned extremely well - it's just that wicked people came and spoiled my plans. A firm purpose of amendment? No, if I had it all to do again I wouldn't change a thing.
Gives rise to images of Blair at confession:
Bless me Father for I have, I have...yes, well it's impportant for you to understand what a very difficult time it's been, and of course there are things that seem clear in hindsight that just weren't the chief concern when I...no, of course I did have plans, there was a great deal of planning...it's just that in the event the things I planned for were not the same as the ones that transpired. Could I have planned better? Well no, I genuinely believe that I planned extremely well - it's just that wicked people came and spoiled my plans. A firm purpose of amendment? No, if I had it all to do again I wouldn't change a thing.
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Thursday, January 28/2010
Our flat faces a little back street. Opposite us a large building housing offices and the little charity shop that supports animal rescue on the ground floor. Above, there is a mixture of flats and offices. This morning a man in business suit comes out onto the balcony across from us and lines up on the railing a small cup of Cypriot coffee, the requisite glass of water to accompany same, and an ashtray.
There are many people smoking outside these days. A smoking ban for restaurants and bars came in January 1st amidst the usual grumbling - though the climate makes outdoor coffee pleasant most of the time. Thus a commentator tells of the man who always sat on the bar stool nearest the window, where he could see the television screen and blow his smoke out the window. As of January 1 he has moved his bar stool just outside the window, from which place he can still see the tv - and blow his smoke in through the window.
The Swedish chanel rebroadcasts Obama's state of the nation address, complete with subtitles. It's a good speech of course - from a speaker who's always excellent - but what fascinates me is the stagecraft, almost choreography. The applause and even standing ovations at the end of every second phrase. It's obviously the convention, and of course the Republicans aren't cheering, but the co-ordinated bursts of enthusiasm are so utterly foreign to either Canadian or British mentality that they'd be impossible to organise. Maybe in the Middle East.
There are many people smoking outside these days. A smoking ban for restaurants and bars came in January 1st amidst the usual grumbling - though the climate makes outdoor coffee pleasant most of the time. Thus a commentator tells of the man who always sat on the bar stool nearest the window, where he could see the television screen and blow his smoke out the window. As of January 1 he has moved his bar stool just outside the window, from which place he can still see the tv - and blow his smoke in through the window.
The Swedish chanel rebroadcasts Obama's state of the nation address, complete with subtitles. It's a good speech of course - from a speaker who's always excellent - but what fascinates me is the stagecraft, almost choreography. The applause and even standing ovations at the end of every second phrase. It's obviously the convention, and of course the Republicans aren't cheering, but the co-ordinated bursts of enthusiasm are so utterly foreign to either Canadian or British mentality that they'd be impossible to organise. Maybe in the Middle East.
Wednesday, January 27/2010
Maggi over in the evening for a drink and a game of Scrabble. Just like old times.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Tuesday, January 26/2010
Recovery of bodies continues from the Ethiopian plane that crashed shortly after take off from Beirut. Dismissing terrorism, spokespeople all point to the fact that the plane - which went down in a ball of fire, breaking up before it hit the sea - took off in a bad storm. A probable lightning hit is mentioned. This is disturbing with regard to other flights - are lightning hits frequent and should all planes be grounded during electrical storms? And if it isn't highly hazardous to fly through thunder storms, why is everyone so certain it was ligntning and not an explosion?
A young drunk comes into the student internet, first identifiable by scent. There's a free computer next to mine and he pulls up a chair, talking first to the man on the other side and then to himself. Briefly he puts his head down on his arms and appears to sleep - then stumbles out.
A young drunk comes into the student internet, first identifiable by scent. There's a free computer next to mine and he pulls up a chair, talking first to the man on the other side and then to himself. Briefly he puts his head down on his arms and appears to sleep - then stumbles out.
Monday, January 25/2010
The Finns have created a new human right - to the internet. They have guaranteed to bring high speed broadband to every household in a country with fairly low population density. Canada please note.
Monday, 25 January 2010
Sunday, January 24/2010
Rainyish day - well, January is when the little rain that cyprus gets does fall. So reading and telly. We're now reading Julian Rathbone's A Very English Agent. Spy fiction set in the early 19th century. Well researched and as interesting for the social background as the narrative.
The Doha Debates are on BBC World tv in the afternoon. Today's resolution: the present government in Afghanistan is not worth fighting for. (Resolution passes 51:49). The Doha debates are mainly impressive for the caliber of the debaaters they are able to attract - high level UN representatives, ambassadors, MPs, etc.
In the evening we watch a french film on Dubai television - a good film and, interestingly, subtitled in both Arabic and English. Film punctuated by loud singing outside as groups (of sports fans?) return home. It occurs to us that public singing is virtualy never heard in Canada any more - we pay people or electronic devices to do our singing for us.
The Doha Debates are on BBC World tv in the afternoon. Today's resolution: the present government in Afghanistan is not worth fighting for. (Resolution passes 51:49). The Doha debates are mainly impressive for the caliber of the debaaters they are able to attract - high level UN representatives, ambassadors, MPs, etc.
In the evening we watch a french film on Dubai television - a good film and, interestingly, subtitled in both Arabic and English. Film punctuated by loud singing outside as groups (of sports fans?) return home. It occurs to us that public singing is virtualy never heard in Canada any more - we pay people or electronic devices to do our singing for us.
Saturday, January 23/2010
Gloriously sunny at our market coffee spot, though the night rain still spots the table and chairs til they're wiped. Quite bus this morning as everyone seems to emerge from the past showers into the sunlight.
In the evening M&M come over for supper - fish chowder.
In the evening M&M come over for supper - fish chowder.
Friday, January 22/2010
The news of the day is that a woman has been arrested and accused of the recent killing of the head of the Sigma television station and various other media enterprises. The theory is that she hired the hitmen who actually did the deed as an act of revenge. It seems she had been a tv presenter at Sigma and had been sacked by the boss - the murder victim. It's hard to know which is the more astonishing - that an ordinary person should wish to hire contract killers (and for such a trivial reason as having been fired) or that she should have the money and the contacts to do so.
Thursday, January 21/2010
The censorship program on the student internet computers functions like an old nanny who is well-meaning but hopelessly out of touch. Thus keeping track of world currencies - or things that affect them, like the price of crude oil - is made more difficult as I am protected from (shudder) "investment" and many of the world's most reputable newspapers are banned because they contain sports news.
This morning I have a few extra minutes and decide to look up one of my ancestors - Hannah Odell, born 1798 - to see if I can spot any new information. One site looks possible but turns out to be forbidden. Grounds cited: match making.
The English news is not on the cypriot government television station when I check. The television station has a nightly English language news broadcast lasting less than ten minutes. Tonight it is displaced by a tennis match from Australia featuring cyprus's beloved Marcos Baghdatis - obviously a replay as it's the middle of the night in Australia. Baghdatis is pretty likeable, and a good player, heavily supported by fans who, J points out, are carrying far more Greek flags than cypriot. Eventually replay ends and news follows. cypriots with video recorders suffer much more than we do from the frequent unannounced program changes - shows occasionally starting earlier than scheduled as well as later.
This morning I have a few extra minutes and decide to look up one of my ancestors - Hannah Odell, born 1798 - to see if I can spot any new information. One site looks possible but turns out to be forbidden. Grounds cited: match making.
The English news is not on the cypriot government television station when I check. The television station has a nightly English language news broadcast lasting less than ten minutes. Tonight it is displaced by a tennis match from Australia featuring cyprus's beloved Marcos Baghdatis - obviously a replay as it's the middle of the night in Australia. Baghdatis is pretty likeable, and a good player, heavily supported by fans who, J points out, are carrying far more Greek flags than cypriot. Eventually replay ends and news follows. cypriots with video recorders suffer much more than we do from the frequent unannounced program changes - shows occasionally starting earlier than scheduled as well as later.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Wednesday, January 20/2010
Malcolm's eagerly awaited 12th birthday - eight time zones away.
Buying toothpaste at Elomas, we check out the various teas - including a herbal one called cinnamon and gloves. Outside Elomas there is a small free English language magazine - mostly advertising - called Larnaca News. Not much content, but a small news item mentions the fact there was, on the morning of December 22, an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale. And we remember waking early in the morning and being aware that the building was trembling - slightly but unmistakeable, and more than momentarily.
Buying toothpaste at Elomas, we check out the various teas - including a herbal one called cinnamon and gloves. Outside Elomas there is a small free English language magazine - mostly advertising - called Larnaca News. Not much content, but a small news item mentions the fact there was, on the morning of December 22, an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale. And we remember waking early in the morning and being aware that the building was trembling - slightly but unmistakeable, and more than momentarily.
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Tuesday, January 19/2010
There's nearly 3 inches of water in the red bucket when we get up in the morning. The ceiling in our top floor flat leaks in the same spot as last year and began doing so last night in the downpour. Far from being distressed, we had positively welcomed the leak, remembering that last year we acquired a shiny new red plastic bucket to catch the drips - and that it made an excellent washtub later for handwashes, bigger and more convenient than the kitchen sink. This bucket, though, is a grubby mop pail, fit for catching drips but not for clean clothes. But the rain has stopped so it should soon be gone. Maggi quips "life's tough at the top."
Finish reading Good and Faithful Servant - unauthorised biography of Maggi Thatcher's press secretary. Quite an interesting study of how a neutral civil service job became an instrument for pushing Thatcher's personal views - and sometimes even the press secretary's own views , even when they were not shared by cabinet. Also an early but notable step in the vesting of authority in unelected advisors rather than cabinet - now of course standard practice whether in tory Canada or New Labour UK.
Maggi's text re the sheep's head she ate at lunch in Nicosia: the eyeball was surprisingly tasty. J shudders and says he's glad he heard after he had finished eating.
Finish reading Good and Faithful Servant - unauthorised biography of Maggi Thatcher's press secretary. Quite an interesting study of how a neutral civil service job became an instrument for pushing Thatcher's personal views - and sometimes even the press secretary's own views , even when they were not shared by cabinet. Also an early but notable step in the vesting of authority in unelected advisors rather than cabinet - now of course standard practice whether in tory Canada or New Labour UK.
Maggi's text re the sheep's head she ate at lunch in Nicosia: the eyeball was surprisingly tasty. J shudders and says he's glad he heard after he had finished eating.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Monday, January 18/2010
Umbrella day. The worst of rain in Cyprus - or Larnaca at least - is that there is nowhere for the rain to go except in sheets down the pavements and deep puddles at the corners. The country is chronically short of water but a shocking amount of the rainfall is simply taken down to the sea in the storm sewers. The problem is coompounded by Cypriot drivers, many of whom are pedestrian blind and feel compelled to race up to the intersection spraying widely before waiting for a light to change. So a ten block walk is a minor obstacle course, dodging gutter hoses jetting onto the sidewalks, jumping metre wide puddles and aiming for the least flooded paving stone in a passage. A fair workout.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Sunday, January 17/2010
Warm, but windy and sunless. With the weather report the explanation emerges - the sky is full of dust blown north from the Sahara Desert, so the sun is mostly invisible - occasionaly seen in faint outline - and those with breathing difficulties are told to stay inside.
Saturday, January 16/2010
Meet M&M at the market for coffee. It rained a little in the night, so the chairs need a wipe down, but it's sun and warmth now. And all the colour of market stalls. We only need eggs - seldom bought more than 6 at a time here, as they should be fresh. We wait our turn for the eggs, watching as the green olives in a bucket are mixed with slivers of garlic, oil and lemon juice. J manages to get one to taste before the lot are scooped into a plastic bag for the enthusiastic purchaser. It's hard to walk past the fresh fruit and vegetables and herbs without discovering things that we need - so broccoli spears and carrots by the time we leave - though we're passing everything from shiny blue-black aubergines to an enormous round of halvah.
Meet Berndt and Britta on the way back. They're now happily ensconced in the remodelled - and repriced - Eleonora. Britta speaks no English, but her fingers quickly simulate bugs crawling as Berndt remembers that he last saw us as we were looking for an alternative after our disastrous introduction to the Frangiorgio. We say we like the Kition, but then everyone sighs as we think of it's being torn down.
Meet Berndt and Britta on the way back. They're now happily ensconced in the remodelled - and repriced - Eleonora. Britta speaks no English, but her fingers quickly simulate bugs crawling as Berndt remembers that he last saw us as we were looking for an alternative after our disastrous introduction to the Frangiorgio. We say we like the Kition, but then everyone sighs as we think of it's being torn down.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Friday, January 15/2010
Stop at MTN, the mobile phone place to buy a €10 top up card. Referred by person A to person B and then back again. Much shuffling about, rifling through desk drawers, etc. Small red metal box containing cards opened with key, then abandoned for search of back room. return to re-examine contents of red box. Finally I receive a card - which turns out to be a €20 top up. I point out the error. Don't worry about it, he says.
Maggi texts at noon to say they're driving up to Pyla, the mixed Greek and Turkish village just south of the border to have an Efes (Turkish beer) - would we like to come? So out along the dhekelia Road and north, then inland, to Pyla. On a whim, Maggi suggests we leave the car at the border and walk over to the Turkish village on the other side. There we stop on the main street and share two Efes, as men help us find chairs at the little plastic outdoor table. The sun makes a weak appearance, so it's just warm enough. Maggi buys six Efes to take back and J has a brief chat with a man selling sacks of potatoes by a huge fragrant rose bush. Does he think things will be better now with the Greeks? He does, but doesn't have the vocabulary to elaborate. At the border M compliments the young Turkish officer on his aftershave, to his embarrassment, and we tease her about having discovered a technique for bringing things through customs.
Maggi texts at noon to say they're driving up to Pyla, the mixed Greek and Turkish village just south of the border to have an Efes (Turkish beer) - would we like to come? So out along the dhekelia Road and north, then inland, to Pyla. On a whim, Maggi suggests we leave the car at the border and walk over to the Turkish village on the other side. There we stop on the main street and share two Efes, as men help us find chairs at the little plastic outdoor table. The sun makes a weak appearance, so it's just warm enough. Maggi buys six Efes to take back and J has a brief chat with a man selling sacks of potatoes by a huge fragrant rose bush. Does he think things will be better now with the Greeks? He does, but doesn't have the vocabulary to elaborate. At the border M compliments the young Turkish officer on his aftershave, to his embarrassment, and we tease her about having discovered a technique for bringing things through customs.
Friday, 15 January 2010
Thursday, January 14/2010
The day starts with rain and before my eyes are open I can hear that the cars on the streets are driving through puddles. It continues intermittently through the day, though it's not cold. M&M stop fo tea on their way out for groceries.
Wednesday, January 13/2010
Wake to news of Haiti's earthquake - and like the tsunami of five years ago, the news only gets more horrific as the day goes on.
Pick up the price sheet on mobile phone charges. The cost of sending a text is 2 cents EU (or 3 cents Canadian) - more or less nothing, on the basic pay as you go card. And nothing at all, of course, to receive texts. Canadians overpay so badly.
Notice on the dubai chanel advising watchers that it is time for Dhur Prayer - one of the five prayers of the Moslem day, regulated by the sun. There is, however, no prayerful break in regular programming, which continues as usual, diverting the faithful. J says this is a shift from their earlier practice of providing Moslem prayer interludes.
Pick up the price sheet on mobile phone charges. The cost of sending a text is 2 cents EU (or 3 cents Canadian) - more or less nothing, on the basic pay as you go card. And nothing at all, of course, to receive texts. Canadians overpay so badly.
Notice on the dubai chanel advising watchers that it is time for Dhur Prayer - one of the five prayers of the Moslem day, regulated by the sun. There is, however, no prayerful break in regular programming, which continues as usual, diverting the faithful. J says this is a shift from their earlier practice of providing Moslem prayer interludes.
Tuesday, January 12/2010
Walk down to Smart, Elomas and Carrefour, starting off past the huge Nicolaides City building that was under construction all last winter. It's finished now, but not very full. J peeks in and says that the ground floor offices don't seem very populated. Certainly there is no sign at all of occupation on most of the higher storeys - 12 plus a penthouse above the ground floor. Is it a symbol of a breaking construction bubble?
Elomas has had less and less of interest as it has moved increasingly to frozen food, but we see a new acquisition - bottles of Spanish wine at €1.19 ($1.80 CAD, £1.10 GBP). Later proves to be young and undistinguished, but perfectly drinkable.
Elomas has had less and less of interest as it has moved increasingly to frozen food, but we see a new acquisition - bottles of Spanish wine at €1.19 ($1.80 CAD, £1.10 GBP). Later proves to be young and undistinguished, but perfectly drinkable.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Monday, January 11/2010
J observes the body language as the traffic police pull overlocal motorists in presumably random road checks - smiles, handshakes, pats on the arm, chit chat. It's no wonder that tickets go disproportionately to the tourists.
The weather forecast for tomorrow shows some clouding over with possible showers in parts of the island, which could probably use the rainfall as water reserves are a perennial problem here. BBC's international weather map shows the same predicted high for Winnipeg and Atlanta tomorrow - three degrees.
Pride and Prejudice finished. Our copy made rather difficult reading as it had been previously owned by a student of diligent habits but no especial insight. Thus each page features much underlining as well as extensive highlighting in a variety of garish colours, some of them remarkably difficult to read through. All this accoompanied by the most obvious of commentary in a childishly rounded hand. Not, unfortunately, a book in good enough shape to donate to the charity shop.
The weather forecast for tomorrow shows some clouding over with possible showers in parts of the island, which could probably use the rainfall as water reserves are a perennial problem here. BBC's international weather map shows the same predicted high for Winnipeg and Atlanta tomorrow - three degrees.
Pride and Prejudice finished. Our copy made rather difficult reading as it had been previously owned by a student of diligent habits but no especial insight. Thus each page features much underlining as well as extensive highlighting in a variety of garish colours, some of them remarkably difficult to read through. All this accoompanied by the most obvious of commentary in a childishly rounded hand. Not, unfortunately, a book in good enough shape to donate to the charity shop.
Monday, 11 January 2010
Sunday, January 10/2010
Katy's birthday. The only downside to winter travel is how far away we are from family - but the grandchildren live in three different directions and the nearest of them 600 miles away, so visits would never be winter anyway.
Sunday treats of brunch with the Cypriot smoked tenderloin best done by J's favourite butcher - no doubt all the health hazards of any cured meat, but a little of this carries a lot of flavour. And the Sunday Cyprus Mail, complete with radio and telly guide and puzzles - though J grumbles that the actual content is pretty thin.
Sunday treats of brunch with the Cypriot smoked tenderloin best done by J's favourite butcher - no doubt all the health hazards of any cured meat, but a little of this carries a lot of flavour. And the Sunday Cyprus Mail, complete with radio and telly guide and puzzles - though J grumbles that the actual content is pretty thin.
Saturday, January 9/2010
Market day and unseasonably warm - but we meet a bit early for beer. there is a treat in store though, as Maggi invites us back for lunch - beautiful oven-cooked lamb which she collects from her favourite take-away spot. Leisurely lunch and then walk along the beach as far as the barrier where the airport land begins. The beach is much sandier here than the main beach in town - a proper holiday beach, but nearly deserted as it's off-season. In the distance we can see the little dragon-shaped fishing boats. Above, planes take offf from the airport and we try to identify the airlines. Then walk home along the seafront.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Friday, January 8/2010
Second day of the traffic police making themselves important on the main thoroughfare outside with much whistling and waving. Not entirely clear what the objective is as motorists are pulled over - checking papers? What they're not doing is worrying about illegal mufflers or excessive noise, so when we watch films whole snatches of dialogue disappear, victims of the motorcycle cowboys, leaving us sorry we're no good at reading the Greek subtitles.
Maggi and Magne stop ini the late afternoon with Ellen, the travel rep that was with us in Israel two years ago. She's been giving a talk on a forthcoming trip to Jordan. Some talk of ex-president Papadopoulos's still missing body. Ellen's teory is that the objective was ransome, and she cites a Balkan precedent involving a lawyer with some ties to P.
Maggi and Magne stop ini the late afternoon with Ellen, the travel rep that was with us in Israel two years ago. She's been giving a talk on a forthcoming trip to Jordan. Some talk of ex-president Papadopoulos's still missing body. Ellen's teory is that the objective was ransome, and she cites a Balkan precedent involving a lawyer with some ties to P.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Thursday, January 7/2010
End of the holidays and back to ordinary time. Another warm and sunny day, as we awake to news of closures and cancellations due to snow all over Europe.
J sautés the nicest salmon fillet I've ever tasted for dinner. We have it with mushrooms, bulgur pilaf and a salad, juggling the timing around Lost in Austen, the four part serial based on interaction between the characters of Pride and Prejudice and a girl from present day London. In honour of which we are reading Pride and Prejudice aloud - though the television serial is progressing faster than our reading.
J sautés the nicest salmon fillet I've ever tasted for dinner. We have it with mushrooms, bulgur pilaf and a salad, juggling the timing around Lost in Austen, the four part serial based on interaction between the characters of Pride and Prejudice and a girl from present day London. In honour of which we are reading Pride and Prejudice aloud - though the television serial is progressing faster than our reading.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Wednesday, January 6/2010
Epiphany. The holiday begins gloriously sunny. When we wake up it's 13 in the shade but by mid-morning when we go down to the beach for the festivities it's hot - we check the little travel thermometer from our spot in the full sun by the petunias opposite the end of the pier. Forty-two in the sun - over 107 Fahrenheit!
The focal point is the parade. The red-coated band is nice, and the gold-crowned archbishop impressive enough, but the militarism, from dozens of cadets to soldiers with fixed bayonets, seems distressingly incongruous. The parade moves, carryiing a sacred icon, from St. Lazarus Church, traditionally considered to be the second burial place of the Biblical Lazarus, down to the pier, where the waters are blessed in commemoration of the baptism of Christ, and a cross is thrown in the water for the young men to dive and retrieve. It's prudently attached to a string lest they miss it in the sand. Maggi laughs and says "Oh ye of little faith."
We meet up with M&M and Maggi and I gather some of the aromatic eucalyptus-like leaves that have been strewn on the pier to take them home. Then we wander along the front, enjoying the crowd - children with ice cream or candy floss and animal-shaped balloons, stalls selling sweets or jewellery and toys, tourists and local families in carnival mode.
Back to our place for lunch. We're ready for cold beer and have some meze style snacks. Our holiday meal.
The focal point is the parade. The red-coated band is nice, and the gold-crowned archbishop impressive enough, but the militarism, from dozens of cadets to soldiers with fixed bayonets, seems distressingly incongruous. The parade moves, carryiing a sacred icon, from St. Lazarus Church, traditionally considered to be the second burial place of the Biblical Lazarus, down to the pier, where the waters are blessed in commemoration of the baptism of Christ, and a cross is thrown in the water for the young men to dive and retrieve. It's prudently attached to a string lest they miss it in the sand. Maggi laughs and says "Oh ye of little faith."
We meet up with M&M and Maggi and I gather some of the aromatic eucalyptus-like leaves that have been strewn on the pier to take them home. Then we wander along the front, enjoying the crowd - children with ice cream or candy floss and animal-shaped balloons, stalls selling sweets or jewellery and toys, tourists and local families in carnival mode.
Back to our place for lunch. We're ready for cold beer and have some meze style snacks. Our holiday meal.
Tuesday, January 5/2010
Maggi texts in the morning to see if we want to go to Livadia (Larnaca suburb) as they're on a grocery trip, so we go along for the ride. From the car we spot a forklift hoisting new mattresses to the first floor of the Frangiorgio hotel Apts, where they are being taken in from a balcony. A nice replacement at the scene of last year's beetle infestation.
Interesting linguistic point above. I note I have said the mattresses were hoisted to the first floor. In Europe (UK included here) the floor you enter from the street is the ground floor and the one above it the first. An occasional disappointment to North Americans who think they have only 3 storeys to trudge up and find they have four. As with many other usages, though, it seems we adjust without thinking about it. Or not, on occasion. There was the time that J, looking at a Cypriot street, said that the pavement was new and I, looking down at the sidewalk (British English read pavement) said I didn't think so - there were weeds growing in the cracks.
The end of the Christmas season, as tomorrow is Epiphany, a major holiday here. So our homemade decorations will be coming down, along with the public decorations and those in shop windows, some of which are very nice. And interesting, from a North American viewpoint. There is some use of red and green, but much more of gold or ivory and gold - much classier. And St. Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often clad in gold, occasionally in other colours like blue, and is not necessarily rotund. Leading to the somewhat annoying realisation that the common western stereotypical Santa image owes its origin to Coca Cola advertisements and not to any more historical tradition.
And as I walk home with the eggs, crossing the parking lot behind the market place, I see a Santa Claus in a wheelchair. He's nearly life-sized and red-suited, being wheeled across the lot in a red satin covered armchair on four small wheels. Off-stage now for the season.
Interesting linguistic point above. I note I have said the mattresses were hoisted to the first floor. In Europe (UK included here) the floor you enter from the street is the ground floor and the one above it the first. An occasional disappointment to North Americans who think they have only 3 storeys to trudge up and find they have four. As with many other usages, though, it seems we adjust without thinking about it. Or not, on occasion. There was the time that J, looking at a Cypriot street, said that the pavement was new and I, looking down at the sidewalk (British English read pavement) said I didn't think so - there were weeds growing in the cracks.
The end of the Christmas season, as tomorrow is Epiphany, a major holiday here. So our homemade decorations will be coming down, along with the public decorations and those in shop windows, some of which are very nice. And interesting, from a North American viewpoint. There is some use of red and green, but much more of gold or ivory and gold - much classier. And St. Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus is often clad in gold, occasionally in other colours like blue, and is not necessarily rotund. Leading to the somewhat annoying realisation that the common western stereotypical Santa image owes its origin to Coca Cola advertisements and not to any more historical tradition.
And as I walk home with the eggs, crossing the parking lot behind the market place, I see a Santa Claus in a wheelchair. He's nearly life-sized and red-suited, being wheeled across the lot in a red satin covered armchair on four small wheels. Off-stage now for the season.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Monday, January 4/2010
The Dubai chanel much taken up with the grand opening of the new Burj - tallest building in the world by far at 828 m (the exact height having been kept a secret until the final moment). The tone of the commentary is incredibly self-congratulatory and utterly untempered by any suggestion that the sands on which it is built mayhave shifted with the financial winds. Worse than the threat of fiscal bankruptcy is the moral bankruptcy that underlies the whole state. Much of Dubai's construction has been achieved at the expense of virtual slave labour provided by men from countries like Pakistan who leave their families, pay to acquire jobs, and live in work camps, often going without the pay they were promised and unable to afford the fare home without it. All this to provide an obscenely luxurious tax free haven in the midst of a region that includes the very poor. It's hard to look at the new tower as anything other than a monument to vanity - tempting the fates of fire and disaster. A tower of Babel?
Monday, 4 January 2010
Sunday, January 3/2010
Warm enough that we're pleased to take the shady side of the street coming home from Mass. Not everywhere, though. BBC World's weather map (never its best offering) shows 2 weather spots in Canada, one of which is Winnipeg, with -25 forecast for Tuesday. And then we see clips of Beijing where snow has filled the streets and halted flights - very haard to imagine for anyone who remembers sweltering in China.
Saturday, January 2/2010
An odd sort of day - middle of a four day weekend for some purposes and ordinary Saturday for others. The shop where we intend to buy eggs is closed - so one each tomorrow - but J's favourite butcher shop is open, the doorways heavily hung with sausages and the air heavy with their lovely smoky aroma. As I walk in, my hair brushes against some cured meat hanging in the entry - and how many others have done the same? We buy a smoked pork fillet - much nicer (though more expensive) than the supermarket ones.
Only one market stall is open, and reasonably busy, so we get bananas, mushrooms and courgettes. Text from Maggi asking where we are. At themarket - does she want coffee: So we meet at our regular cafe - but it's sunny and quite warm, so we opt to split a large (66 cl) abeer 3 ways instead of coffee.
Midafternoon M texts again to say that she hasn't seen Magne for hours, actually since morning, and has checked his usual haunts as well as the promenade - twice. she waits until four and then, with darkness coming on, goes to the police station, kitty-corner to us. Somewhat to our surprise, the police are quite good about it, checking the hospitals for accident victims and having the regular patrols keep an eye out. And it pays off when, a couple of hours later, the policee return him home, apparently after his discovery in a cafe near St. Lazarus. Maggi says the police were "kind and efficient." Interestingly, their weakness as a force is also their strength. Because they are relational rather than official, they are reluctant to deal with driving infractions when they may end up prosecuting friends of friends, and thus we all suffer from cowboy drivers with illegal mufflers and there is a shocking rate of road death. On the other hand, they seem able to take quite a familial approach to an elderly man gone astray, and all ends well.
Only one market stall is open, and reasonably busy, so we get bananas, mushrooms and courgettes. Text from Maggi asking where we are. At themarket - does she want coffee: So we meet at our regular cafe - but it's sunny and quite warm, so we opt to split a large (66 cl) abeer 3 ways instead of coffee.
Midafternoon M texts again to say that she hasn't seen Magne for hours, actually since morning, and has checked his usual haunts as well as the promenade - twice. she waits until four and then, with darkness coming on, goes to the police station, kitty-corner to us. Somewhat to our surprise, the police are quite good about it, checking the hospitals for accident victims and having the regular patrols keep an eye out. And it pays off when, a couple of hours later, the policee return him home, apparently after his discovery in a cafe near St. Lazarus. Maggi says the police were "kind and efficient." Interestingly, their weakness as a force is also their strength. Because they are relational rather than official, they are reluctant to deal with driving infractions when they may end up prosecuting friends of friends, and thus we all suffer from cowboy drivers with illegal mufflers and there is a shocking rate of road death. On the other hand, they seem able to take quite a familial approach to an elderly man gone astray, and all ends well.
Friday, January 1/2010
Stunningly lovely day - the thermometer reads 18 in the shade but it's clearly much warmer in the sun, and there's plenty of sun and mild breeze. We walk out to M&M's along the promenade and past the old fort and the restaurants. Militzi'as crowded as one would expect and doing a brisk business, the outside tables crowded with families out for New Year's lunch.
We're out for lunch ourselves, and Maggi's made a lovely one, starting with Parma ham and melon and moving through Stroganoff to creme brulee. Beautiful way to start 2010 with friends. Check out the view from their roof, which is amazing, out over the bay. And we remember living at the Athene watching the shifting colours of the sea and listening to the waves at night.
We're out for lunch ourselves, and Maggi's made a lovely one, starting with Parma ham and melon and moving through Stroganoff to creme brulee. Beautiful way to start 2010 with friends. Check out the view from their roof, which is amazing, out over the bay. And we remember living at the Athene watching the shifting colours of the sea and listening to the waves at night.
Thursday, December 31/2009
New Year's Eve. A day in which regular activities don't so much finish early as drift into celebration. There's a market on, but a rather smaller version of the regular Saturday market, with some of the larger stalls missing. We meet M&M at our usual coffee spot, actually rather behind the cafe and a bit littered, but deliciously warm in the sun.
By the time we go home, about noon, some businesses have begun their traditional New Year's Eve barbecues, once upon a time events that were open to customers and passers by alike. We pass a long cypriot style barbecue - rectangular trough with a dozen spits durning a row of browning birds, surrounded by employees on the street corner.
The main New Year's Eve celebrations are at the north end of the beach, the stage on Europa Square only a block away from us. We wait until about half past eleen and head over to joiin the crowd. There are singers on stage and a sound system designed to cause hearing impairment. We thread through the crowd lookiing for the booths belonging to the breweries and wine companies, which dispense beer and wine in plastic cups, ignoring the tables with pretty picked over plates ofnuts. As always, the beer and wine are free - though the wine is a prett young domestic - and there's absolutely no sign of drunkenness. In fact large numbers of people, the majority probably, are not drinking at all, and some are drinking soft drinks.
It's a very mixed crowd - predominantly young adults but also old people, children, and quite a lot of babies, some of them fast asleep. There are a surprisiingly hign number of Moslems - many families with young mothers in hijabs, babies in pushchairs and small children in tow. some revellers have clearly come directly from indoor parties and we're passed by a sparkler of young women, one a girl in a short black off the shoulder sequinned dress - fetching, but probably freezing. We ourselves have bundled up warmly for temperatures probably in te low teens. We sit on a bench on the promenade watching the throng - some tourists, some local, probably disproportionately resident foreigners.
The birds are uneasy about disturbed roosting, and as they flit past we hear the first of the New Year in the deep tones of the horn of the ship anchored in the bay. Then the sky is alive with fireworks and we watch, standing on the beach. As they finish, J points to the sky where first one and then a second small fire-lifted hot air balloon drifts through the dark sky and out to sea - Thai style balloons like the ones we ourselves sent off last year in Chiang Mai, little skyward signs of human hope. As we leave the beach we pass a stack of empty sparkling wine bottles, neatly stacked for disposal by peaceful celebrators. Avoid stepping on a small white dog out on his lead and a bit overwhelmed by the festivities. Ahead of us are two seventyish couples, the women doing a few jive steps together as they leave. They turn out to be Scandinavian residents of our hotel, and we wait while the tiny lift takes them up first. Then home for us. It's 2010.
By the time we go home, about noon, some businesses have begun their traditional New Year's Eve barbecues, once upon a time events that were open to customers and passers by alike. We pass a long cypriot style barbecue - rectangular trough with a dozen spits durning a row of browning birds, surrounded by employees on the street corner.
The main New Year's Eve celebrations are at the north end of the beach, the stage on Europa Square only a block away from us. We wait until about half past eleen and head over to joiin the crowd. There are singers on stage and a sound system designed to cause hearing impairment. We thread through the crowd lookiing for the booths belonging to the breweries and wine companies, which dispense beer and wine in plastic cups, ignoring the tables with pretty picked over plates ofnuts. As always, the beer and wine are free - though the wine is a prett young domestic - and there's absolutely no sign of drunkenness. In fact large numbers of people, the majority probably, are not drinking at all, and some are drinking soft drinks.
It's a very mixed crowd - predominantly young adults but also old people, children, and quite a lot of babies, some of them fast asleep. There are a surprisiingly hign number of Moslems - many families with young mothers in hijabs, babies in pushchairs and small children in tow. some revellers have clearly come directly from indoor parties and we're passed by a sparkler of young women, one a girl in a short black off the shoulder sequinned dress - fetching, but probably freezing. We ourselves have bundled up warmly for temperatures probably in te low teens. We sit on a bench on the promenade watching the throng - some tourists, some local, probably disproportionately resident foreigners.
The birds are uneasy about disturbed roosting, and as they flit past we hear the first of the New Year in the deep tones of the horn of the ship anchored in the bay. Then the sky is alive with fireworks and we watch, standing on the beach. As they finish, J points to the sky where first one and then a second small fire-lifted hot air balloon drifts through the dark sky and out to sea - Thai style balloons like the ones we ourselves sent off last year in Chiang Mai, little skyward signs of human hope. As we leave the beach we pass a stack of empty sparkling wine bottles, neatly stacked for disposal by peaceful celebrators. Avoid stepping on a small white dog out on his lead and a bit overwhelmed by the festivities. Ahead of us are two seventyish couples, the women doing a few jive steps together as they leave. They turn out to be Scandinavian residents of our hotel, and we wait while the tiny lift takes them up first. Then home for us. It's 2010.
Wednesday, December 30/2009
Last day of regular business before the New Year's shut down and frenzied activity at the supermarkets. Last day at student internet too before 4 day holiday. Steady stream there of genuine students, free of classes now, mostly engaged in highly unacedemic pursuits. Games are forbidden on these computers but the tell-tale sound effects are unjistakeable. There is a censorship system installed which works rather unpredictably. Maggi reports that it denies access to OANDA's foreign currency exchange site, and I struggle to remember whether one can use the site for speculation as well as information. More annoyingly, the Globe and Mail's website is verboten. The reason given is that it is, or may be, a sports site. Of course it does, like any newspaper, have a sports section, but that's scarcely a defining feature of what is, arguably, Canada's most serious newspaper. But no point in arguing with a computer - or in this case with computer centre staff.
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