Thursday, March 29/2012

J confirms with Mr A that next year's rent will be the same as this - and yes, we can have the confirmation in writing.

Last coffee with Margaret down at George's. Quite a crew there, not all of whom we know. Margaret's been lovely and brought us a little fridge magnet with Paphos Castle as a memento. So I'm glad that I've brought along a little container of the lemon curd I made this morning.

Maggi's last day, so we help her move her boxes and cases down to the mezzanine, m lamenting her inability to reduce the number of boxes despite her best intentions.

We take the bus out to Vlachos in the evening. Arrive a little early and go fo a walk nearly to the second road in to Pyla - just past Beau Rivage Hotel, deserted, semi-dismantled, and for sale. When we get back Jane and Bill are there along with Jane's brother and his wife, who are visiting from England Aylsa and Harry arrive and we have a lovely visit and meal. Harry and Aylsa pack up the leftovers for the animals, the multitude of dogs and cats they share their house with. There are birds too, including a couple of baby birds.The breeding is somewhat accidental.  Harry says, seriously, "I don't encourage it." No Cypriot restaurant hurries you, so we're neearly 3 hours. Aylsa and Harry kindly give us a lift home.

Wednesday, March 28/2012

Word spreads that the Norwegians have been told that the rent will be €100 more next year than we're paying this. This in contrast with Mr Andreas having said the price will be the same next year. As J says, there's no particular obligation to ensure that everyone pays the same. On any given airplane passengers have paid a multitude of different fares, depending on how and where they bought their tickets. All the same, it does seem a little unpleasant if the Norwegians, who have been coming to this hotel longer than we have and stay at least as long in a winter, pay more simply because they are less willing to bargain and, if necessary, leave. We knkow we could go to Paphos and pay less, and do like it there, but on the whole we're quite comfortable here and have friends whom we see here as well.

Tuesday, March 27/2012

There's a sign in the lobby advertising free barbecues at the restaurant every Saturday night. The unwritten understanding, of course, is that it's an incentive to go and purchase drinks. So it appears that a family of four staying here, a couple with two rather overweight daughters, left staff flabbergasted by going and eating copiously and then answering the question "what will you have?" with "nothing."

Monday, March 26/2012

Pass three cars parked on the sidewalk - as per usual in Cyprus - with (most unusually) parking tickets affixed to the windshields. New policeman on the beat? The owners will be astonished.

J has coffeeat Harry's and I a lemon ice cream cone. It is indeed good - as good as in Florence, always my gold standard. And, on the theme of gold, J to Zeus (local pronunciation Zefs) to have his gold chain repaired on the spot.

Last game of Scrabble in the evening as M packs up.

Sunday, March 25/2012

Two events on today, and they conflict. There's the Malaysian Grand Prix, which I finally work out - through time changes, both longitudinal and daylight savings - to be at 11 o'clock. Not bad - pubs open and late enough for a Guinness to be drinkable. But there's also an invitation from Mr. Andreas here at the Sunflower, to a meal at 1 o'clock - in apology, it seems, for the construction inconvenience this winter. It's clear that the race won't quite be finished in time for the meal, so that's a write off. Even more definitely when the race is suspended for a while due to torrential rain in Malaysia.

The meal, however, turns out to be better than anticipated. The Norwegians prove to be very friendly and mostly speak some English. We have quite a good chat with Arvid and Eva, who are sitting next to us and also live next door. Andreas is on our other side and on his best behaviour. He and his wife, a sweet young grandmother, talk to us of their grandchildren and Cypriot customs. The salad is good. Followed by a massive plate of rice and shared platters of beef tenderloin and chips. Plenty of beer and wine nd we and the next door Norwegians drinking a South African cabernet sauvignon, and then finishing the bottle of sauvignon blanc that Mr Andreas and his wife had only toyed with. Actually lovely talking to the Norwegians, who are very friendly but clearly find it easier to talk Norwegian to other Norwegians than to talk English with us - though some of them are very fluent in English. And after all that wine and beer and a number of toasts we're all feeling pretty friendly.

As for the race - eventually we find it was an unexpected Ferari win for Alonso. Next two races in London (us, not the races). Question re sports reporting: When have we heard a North American reporter use a phrase like "suffused with poignancy" as I heard this morning (re football and not racing). Is it necessary to place a 200 word vocabulary limit on Canadian sports reporters?

Saturday, March 24/2012

Coffee at Harry's and some of the patrons are eating ice creams and say they're excellent. Maggi and her friend Laurel are slated to join us but don't show, having got waylaid shopping. Stunning coffee spot in front of St Lazarus Church with its lovely Venetian tower.

Planning for London in not much more than a week's time, so googling accordingly. The obvious in the way of galleries, museums and theatres, but also making a list of eating places, as we're not doing our own cooking. Amazing what comes up by googling things like "ridiculously cheap" (along with positive terms, of course) and "BYO + no corkage" is good as well. Lots of Indian and vegeterian spots, but by no means only those. Canadians always seem a bit prim - wanting to say "inexpensive" or "good value." It's quite easy to search for British holidays or restaurants by saying "very cheap" - and there are some real winners in the mix.

Friday, March 23/2012

Meet J at the beach after his morning constitutional. On the way I pass the Avenue, originally hotel apartments and now mostly just apartments. It's surrounded by police tape and fire investigators are there as well, though the building seems to be intact and there ae tenants leaning over their balconies observing. And I remember that there were sirens around one a.m. Later we hear that the fire was started by a cigarette in the reception area.

Down Makenzy (yes, correct local spelling) to look at the paintings on display by local aartists. Jane has some there - and sold one last week. There's also a batik we really like, but like most framed works it's just too big to try to take back. Coffee at Harry's on the way back. J comes home later with half a kilo of fresh picked Derynia strawberries from Prinos.

Thursday, March 22/2012

To the dentist to get our teeth examined and cleaned. No rebate for there being one less tooth to clean, but at €45 each we're not complaining. thought we'd miss Thursday morning coffee, but we're done in time. Lovely soaking in the sun, but sunglasses definitely needed..

Wednesday, March 21/2012

M back from Dubai and we go to Dhekelia for the film. The base gets current films and charges only €4 for students and seniors. The legroom is amazing - estimate a 6 foot pitch from the back of one chair to€ the same point in the row ahead. No difficulty in finding a seat either - exactly thirteen patrons there, almost all at the €4 rate. Hard to know how they do it.

The film itself, though, is, unfortunately horror verging (as horror so easily does) on the silly: The Woman in Black. It's adapted from the novel and stage play. The play is the second longest running in the west end, but then the longest running is The Mousetrap - simply a bad play that has become famous for being famous. Some lovely Victorian settings tonight, but ultimately an unsatisfactory script. I'd avoided reading the review in the Cyprus Mail, the reviewer being usually self-indulgent and rather annoying. When I do read it after the film, it turns out the reviewer is lukewarm, but for not quite the righht reasons.

Clear evening s we leave the theatre and Harry points out Jupiter and Venus and Mars.

Tuesday, March 20/2012

Jane and Bill and Aylsa and Harry to dinner. Maggi still in Dubai. Six people means bringing in the plastic chairs from the balcony but they're reasonably comfortable and there are also the 2 armchairs anc couch. Lovely to be able to sit in a circle in comfortable seats where we can all hear everyone and not just the person next. A lot of laughter. Harry can be very funny and describes being called on stage at a magician's show and finding after all the abracadabra a chicken sticking its squawking head out of his fly.

Monday, March 19/2012

Haircut in the moroning, taking Miranda Carter's biography of Anthony Blunt along. Forget to take the book with me to the chair where I'm parked for fifteen minutes or so after the girl has wetted my hair. Like not rememering to take a book out of the doctor's waiting room and into the examining room, where there's nothing to read except wall charts on the reproductive system.

Chicken into a itre of wine as per the two fat ladies' instructions for tomorrow's coq au vin. J also makes pork goulash and chicken liver paté and does the time consuming cutting of the artichokes while I read to him - now an Ian Rankin novel.

Sunday, March 18/2012

First Grand Prix of the season. The AAustralian, so it's at eight in the morning - a bit too early for a sports bar. The good news is that it's broadcast on BBC Radio 5 live, courtesy of the British forces radio. The bad that no television station we get covers it so it's all audio, no video. Good race though.

Maggi off on a trip to Dubai.

Finish Tony Benn's diary (1991-2001). Amazing energy - Benn, not us.

Saturday, March 17/2012

St. Patrick's Day and Maggi's birthday so we have a longish lunch here with meze Jaworski style - sautéed artichoke hearts, tzatziki, humus with caramelised onions, mackerel spread, etc. Cheesecake but no candles. Give her the Egyptian t-shirt we found at the animal shelter shop - sadly more her size than mine, as well as being her colour.

Friday, March 16/2012

Weather finally sunny and warm - seasonal in fact for kCyprus. But, most unfairly, equally sunny and warm in much of Canada, including record breaking 20's in northern Ontario. The Great Lakes aren't supposed to match the Mediterranean before the end of winter!

Thursday, March 15/2012

Meet Margaret, Leslie, Sharon et al for coffee.  Sharon's mother is here, visiting from England.
 To Vlachols in the evening with the usual crew plus Bill and Jane's neighbour Maureen, who is about to leave to visit her daughter in Dubai nd says the races there leave Ascot in second place for glamour. J and I both order the moussaka  - but everyone else's looks good too.

Wednesday, March 14/2012

Dinner with Maggi and Marj on Marj's last day in Cyprus. Nice getting to chat with her again and very nice meal - lamb kleftiko and Lebanese style pastries. Some serious fasting in order - but not likely.

Tuesday, March 13/2012

The forecast was unpromising, but we're lucky. It stops pouring just before we leave for the bus to Limassol. As we wait for the bus on the waterfront, I read some of the posted timetables for local buses. One advertises itself as going to Central Abattoir, Political Asylum, and Kofinoy Station. An interesting combination. And on the way to Limassol we do stop at the bus station in Kofinoy village and pass the signpost for the central abattoir. No sign of political asylum though - maybe it's just a state of mind.

Rains again on the way, but stops as we reach Limassol. Sam and Andy pick us up, Andy driving, and back to the house in Erimi. We go to Curium Beach for coffee, sitting outside, a few feet away from the sea, which is turbulent and multicoloured today. It's so beautiful and so easy to take for granted in this country.

Talking with Sam always interesting - such clear insights with that lovely balance, assured but not imposing. And very nice also to see Andy again and catch up a little. He says Olivia has found a job as a nanny for a Canadian couple - work which, happily for her, requires her to travel with the family. Sam makes an interesting - and delicious middle eaastern dish with browned onions,  and layers of rice, aubergine and fish, as well as quite a lot of allspice. A keeper!  Then strawberries and cream.

Once more rain just before we leave but not as we wait for the bus or walk home from it. And during the day dry enough for us to eat outside in Sam's Roman villa style garden. Perfect.

Monday, March 12/2012

Coffee at Harry's with Lynette and Alex, and as we drink the temperature drops and the wind comes up, to the point where sandwich boards outside cafés are in danger of becoming airborne. As we walk back there are spatters of rain.

In the evening L and A ccome over for a drink. They`re off tomorrow, heading for Turkey and - they hope - a second try at an Iranian visa. They`re hoping that Ankara has good enough relations that this may work - as it didn`t from Nicosia. The difficulty is that the Iranians seem to prefer organised tours or, at the least, carefully planned itineraries with prebooked arrangements, whereas A and L are reluctant to make a lot of bookings without knowing that their visa application will be approved. They`ll already be out over  €200 on an application - non-refundable if it isn't approved. They're also thinking of going to India, so we'll be interested in hearing how it goes.

Sunday, March 11/2012

Lazy day. Brunch with the local daily, which isn't very good but does come up with basic information and some unintentional humour. There's also so much evidence that Cyprus is not an EU country in a functional sense. There is this week a letter complaining that EU directives require that retailers repair or provide refunds for defective goods for a two year period after purchase - a requirement that is ignored by Cypriot merchants, who often deny that there is any such law, and ignored by government agencies as well, so that complaints are useless. This corresponds with what others have said - that Cyprus rregularly pays fines rather than comply with EU regulations.

And, in similar vein, one section of today's paper reports that the government has passed a law prohibiting air traffic controllers from striking while another section announces the three dates in the coming week when four-hour strikes will occur.

In the evening Maggi and her friend Marge come up for a Cyprus brandy and a chat. Marge laid back, interesting and well informed.

Saturday, March 10/2012

Coffee at Harry's - sunny and warm enough now that we opt for a table in partial shade. Amble through the market, now buzzing with Saturday colour and trade  - everything from artichokes to strawberries to pomelos to net bags of live snails.

In the evening we go to Lynette and Alex's flat where we've been invited for curry. It's lovely, and so is the pleasure of tlk with like minded people. Easy to find it's nearly midnight and when we were twenty the conversation would probably have gone on  until dawn.

Friday, March 9/2012

J to the beach for his morning walk and I to George`s café to meet up with Margaret and Leslie for a cuppa. Actually pretty hot walking in the sun, but after the cool weather we've been having no one is complaining. We're back to Cyprus sun.

In the afternoon Maggi, her friend Marge (visiting from Scotland for a week) and Jane and I go to the base at Dhekelia for fish and chips at the restaurant (portions so big that two would really have done the four of us). We're there for a production of Little Shop of Horrors - a combined effort on the part of King Richard School and the little theatre group. It's light and fun and fairly good for amateur, despite the female lead having difficulty carrying a tune. Probably would have been more interesting but less professional had it been entirely a student production.

Thursday, March 8/2012

When I'm in the lobby using the computer, Mr. Andreas calls me over to the desk where he's talking to another guest - a young man. And asks if "we" have a password for the hotel wifi. Yes. He's surprised. Do I know it? Yes. Can I tell this young man? Yes, I say, and I'll write it down so you can tell other users.

Take Alex and Lynette to the charity shop as A is running low on reading. We meet up with J and over to Harry's café for a Cyprus coffee in the sun. Not at the prices A and L have been getting used to in Egypt, but a striking location with St Lazarus Church in the background. They ask us to join them for dinner but we can see it will be simpler aat our place - we`re more set up for long term. So L makes two enormous and beautiful salads and we cook chicken, rice and vegetables. And we all settle in for an evening of food, wine, and chat.

Wednesday, March 7/2012

Coffee with Margaret and another friend. I ask afterward what the friend's name is, having sat with her before. Margaret says that she calls her Doula,  but then adds that it's not her name - but if I say it quickly no one notices. Well, helpful as a technique maybe....

Alex and Lynette, our Australian friends arrive back from Egypt - and Jordan and Israel -  and give us a call. So we go over to share some wine and a great deal of chat about their travels. They were in Cairo for about two weeks as well as time in Israel and Palestine and more extensive travel in Jordan than we've done. They've now been away from Australia nearly a year and going strong.

Tuesday, March 6/2012

Horrible story of Nicosia area family who watched their house collapse as the municipality carried out major roadworks. The municipality and contractor each blamed the other. Most shocking, the insurance company, Laiki, which is a major bank, refused to pay out on the grounds that they had not been informed by the policy holder that there were roadworks happening. It's such a ridiculous objection that it's quite clear that they would have used any feeble excuse aat all. And all this was three years ago, with no compensation by anyone. Unbelievable!

Monday, March 5/2012

Maggi to dinner as we have a sort of spaghetti carbonade with artichoke hearts, mushrooms and caramelised onions replacing the bacon. As we look the ingredients over we can see there's lots for three, so nice evening.

Sunday, March 4/2012

The morning paper announces that Paphos airport was "left unstaffed" overnight. The strikes continue - mosly a half day at a time but it's definite hit and miss whether one can leave as scheduled. It must be affecting tourism as people with a week's holiday can't afford to mess it up.

Saturday, March 3/2012

Warm sun again and Cyprus coffee lazily in front of Harry's Café - shirtsleeve weather in the sun.

Friday, March 2/2012

We're reading (aloud) a volume of Tony Benn's diaries, this one covering 1991-2001. Tony Benn, the left wing icon, thoroughly Old Labour, who stayed fast as the party shifted to New Labour under his feet. Benn was first elected to the British parliament in 1950, when J and I were not yet in school, and left in 2001. During the whole of this time he kept, and at regular intervals published, a political (and occasionally personal) diary. He's cheerful, extrovert, and amazingly energetic.

His memory is wonderful - and the perspective of course is quite remarkable. So many people that one thinks of only as historical figures he knew. He met both Nehru and Gandhi, and entered the house shortly after World War II, in which he served in the airforce. And J and I remember the meeting of totally uncompromising hardline Commuists that we went to in London a couple of years back, where they dismissed Tony Benn because he hadn't been against WWII. He is extremely principled though. He would, in the normal course of events, have become Lord Stansgate on the death of his father but rejected the hereditary peerage on principle.

The book is hardcover and nearly 700 pages long, so when I got it at the charity shop on Saturday I told J that I couldn't resist but we'd have to come back next year to do it justice, but a week later we're a third of the way through, carried along by Benn's boyish enthusiasm. Despite the enormous spa of his career, he's very focused on the present nd enjoys the company of a wide range of people. The book reveals surprisingly unnuanced views of many issues, but maybe that's what you need to get on with the job. The Times reviewer refers to "the brio of illuminating a life almost entirely free of boredom." There's also the interesting quality of a diary rather than a memoir - the events haven't been mentally edited after the fact.

Thursday, March 1/2012

Brief panic as we discover that the wifi system has been upgraded (good in itself) but requires a password about which the staff appear to know nothing. But, following Kiki's telephone entreaties, a young compputer guru appears and sets a password and all is well - actually a faster connection than before.

To Vlachos for dinner with the usual crowd. It's unusually busy for a weeknight and the staff seem a bit harrassed. Food is good, though. And the moussaka back in form. Wish it were easier to hear in there though. Conversation works best with those immediately beside one. Maybe that's why Greeks always talk so loudly.

Report on the Cypriot news tonight of a court case regarding gambling, which is illegal in the Republic of Cyprus. The accused are all women aged between 70 and 99, and they're accused of playing cards for five and ten euro stakes in a private residence in Limassol. A group thinned out somewhat since the original charges were laid, as two have died and another two lost their memories due to Alzheimer's.

 

Wednesday, February 29/2012

The threatened rain doesn't come, but it's pretty cold - 8 Celsius - and very windy. I set out to meet up with J and Margaret for coffee at George's and decide it's just too cold. Not really too cold for the walk, but too cold to sit shivering outside George's café. So call J, who has the UK mobile in his pocket. He, prudently, doesn't answer, but when it rings he knows I won't be coming.

In the afternoon Kiki has the good news that the rent here won't be going up next year. Was it's J's reference to Paphos, or suggestion that there should be a discount next year to compensate us for this year's renovation noiseOr was it Maggi's mentioning that we have been looking at other hotels? We'll never know - but it won't have been out of the goodness of Mr Andreas' heart.

In theory there is supposed to be an Inspector Frost film on at nine, but, as is often the case, it's been replaced without notice or apology by a different film, not, of course, in English.

Tuesday, February 27/2012

Too wet this morning for walking but we've arranged with Maggi to go to check on a couple of alternate apartment hotels for next year, prudently keeping our options open as management here consider the potential value of this year's "improvements", as well, no doubt, as factoring in the escalating cost of electricity and water.

Larco Hotel Apartments is fully booked - at least the apartments are - which  is not particularly good re prices. One bedroom flats in winter are  €660 a month, mostly occupied by Scandinavians. We're about to leave when the thunderstorm intensifies and there is tremendously heavy rain, which suddenly turns to hail. Quite dramatic as it piles up in front of the glass doors and the street becomes a stream.


We're driving back slowly, so as not to lose the brakes or skid into the intersections. Stop at another hotel - the Onisillous - to check it out. the flats are OK - a little less cosy than the Sunflower but with BBC TV and microwaves. The location has pros and cons - quite near St Lazarus and the beach and nearer the Saturday market, but not as close to the supermarkets or Prinos. The owner is a real charmer though. He's close to eighty and the hotel is a family business. He and his wife live on the premises and his granddaughter has a beauty shop here. But life wasn't always so easy. He invites us to share a cup of Cyprus coffee and Mandarin oranges from his own property, and tells us the story of his progress from barrow to small shops to hotel, with a lovely, quiet, modest style. The flats are €555 a month from November to March and there is, as he shows us, a printed price list - a refreshing change from Mr Andreas' practice of tossing out prices to see what the response is - run it up the flag and see who salutes. So that even when one has a more or less satisfactory price from him there is always the nagging suspicion that someone else has probably done better, or, embarrassingly, worse, or that one may have just lost a game of chicken.


As we're in the lobby there are torrents of rain pouring down the road and lapping up over the sidewalks, with white hail being borne along on the current. Less rain and no hail by the time we get back home, but at one point driving in the car sounded like living inside a drum as it was being beaten.

Monday, February 27/2012

This is clean Monday, also known as Green Monday. Follows carnivals on the Sunday and precedes Lent, which in the Eastern Church begins on Wednesday, February 29 - this year a week later than in the Western Church. In Cyprus, as in Greece, it's celebrated with picnics emphasising seafood and green vegetables and by flying kites.

The sky is threatening, though, and it's extremely windy. J, out for his morning walk along the beach, reports that it's holiday busy and there are plenty of kites in evidence. Some advantage to the wind. Showers in the afternoon, though.

Sunday, February 26/2012

By bus to Pyla for lunch with Jane and Bill. More difficult than it sounds, as the online bus maps don't mtch Bill's impression of which buses go there. flag down a 429, which had shown no signs of stopping. It's more than full, standing room only, and, apart from us, all the passengers are African students. One girl (though they're mostly young men) gives me her seat and perches on the knee of another young lady. They all alight in Pyla, as do we. The access road wasn't the one past Bill and Jane's so we're unsure of which road to take and Jane picks us up.

Lovely lunch outside in the Cyprus sun - roast chicken with stuffing and potatoes as well as a large dish of mixed vegetables. And good company. Jane has a couple of lovely tagines that she brought back from Morocco, which we admire. Afterward we use their secure computer to book the hotel in Victoria for July. Then ane walks out with us to the Dhekelia Road, where there's a bus about to leave for Larnaca. Conveniently, but rather by chance, it seems, as the schedule had said it should just be leaving its base point down the road. There's a map online that shows every stop as a nice little blue ring - but it's obviously useless.

Saturday, February 25/2012

Stunning day, so coffee at Harry's Café by St. Lazarus. About as good as it gets.

New source of amusement: Kobo sends me regular email in which it makes rather inefficient efforts to suggest books that may be to my taste, based on past purchases. So, as I have recently bought two of Chris Mullin's political diaries as ebooks, today's suggestion list is headed by an offering called So You Want to be a Politician.

Friday, February 24/2012

Finally booked return flights to London, for April 2. Not simple - HSBC card required verifying, involving phone call to London, three different employees, and a call back which never happened. Finally used Mastercard.

Thursday, February 24/2012

Coffee at George's with Margaret, Sharon, Leslie, Tina - and Lorraine, mother of six week old Lewis, whom everyone takes a turn holding. Tina's brought millionaire's cake with her as promised, as well as her husband's pork pies - some made with pickle and cheese. Lovely.

We've booked our last chunk - three weeks in London at the Baron, where we stayed in November.  My favourite city in the world - and at a remarkably good price.

Wednesday, February 22/2012

J reading a thick juicy looking book on Anthony Blunt's life and career. I'm reading a memoir called A Girl from Schindler's List, written by a survivor. And jointly (aloud) we're reading Ian Rankin's Exit Music. And, as if that weren't enough, we have two unread current goodies (as well as many classics) on the Kobo. Lovely knowing that one can't run out of good reads.

Tuesday, February 21/2012

Jane's birthday and she and Bill have kindly invited us to a birthday dinner at the Shanghai, a (needless to say) Chinese restaurant less than ten minutes walk from us.  There are eight of us - including Maggi, Harry and Aylsa, and Stuart, a friend from the hash runs. Jane has brought some great photos from her Morocco trip - camels, colourful tagines, etc., and we all starat thinking of desert treks. It's certainly agreed with Jane - she's looking radiant. The round table works well for conversation too - much better than two square ones pushed together. Good food, with very nice spring rolls. Lovely evening.

Monday, February 20/2012

Flirting with the possibility of a train/ferry trip to Ireland. The fares are amazingly good - £38 or €45 ($60 CAD) from any city in Great Britain to Dublin - or the same in reverse. Obviously the starting spot would be London, but what about the return? The temptation is to go as far as possible. Penzance? Inverness? Until reality sets in. The real difficulty is the timing of Easter as we compete anywhere we go then for high holiday prices.

Sunday, February 19/2012

The prediction was for sunny with a high of 13, but the actuality is, happily, better than that. Nice walk along the promenade. On the way home we spot the small jeweller's (sales and repairs) recommended to us by the Ukrainian girl who makes her own jewellery. She proonounced it ZEFS and spelled it ZEVS, and we were mystified until we saw the sign - ZEUS. Blame Anglo pronunciation.

Saturday, February 18/2012

Maggi over to dinner in the evening. Stuffed mushrooms, sautéed artichoke hearts and chicken wings for the starter. Then chicken, rice, leeks, red and yellow sautéed peppers, carrots and Christmas cake with brandy sauce.  Lovely to be able to have the artichokes. In Sioux Lookout they're seldom to be had and one long dead one costs the earth. Here we sometimes mix them with pasta or put them on a pizza.

Friday, February 17/2012

J out on his morning constitutional, putting in miles along the beach and I with Maggi and her young friend Andrée who lives in Oroklini, along with year old daughter, Ioanna, to the charity shop at the British forces base at Dhekelia. It's open only Friday mornings and only until 11. It's jam packed with clothes as well as some dishes, electronics, handbags, paintings and odds and ends.  Andrée does well with baby clothes and I pick up quite a nice multicoloured Italian scarf. Coffee at Andrée's, as Ioanna, with the sweetest of smiles, plays happily in her playpen.

Over to Prinos, where artichokes are now on sale. Also get leeks, tomatoes, oranges, onions, carrots, Cypriot bananas, fresh spinach, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, and a lime. The lime from far away, but most of the rest local and fresh. One of the nicest things about Cyprus in the winter.

Thursday, February 16/2012

Coffee at George's. Tina, who made the millionaire's cake that Margaret gave us, is there as well as Leslie and Sharon. Len appears with Bobbie, his girlfriend, and is wished happy birthday by everyone. An easy guess as he's wearing a huge medallion saying "birthday boy." A man called Peter comes to sit next to J - quite an interesting chap from a family that seems to be half Irish and half Cypriot. An avid reader, especially of history.

Wednesday, February 15/2012

G&T in Maggi's flat. Hers completely renovated and ours not, but the changes do raise questions re next year. A real estate agent told us that some Scandinavians have begun signing year leases. Sometimes cheaper than 5-6 months hotel apartment, and their relatives can use the flat at other times.

Tuesday, February 14/2012

Gabriel and Adrienne over for a drink before dinner. They leave at midnight Thursday. This is a rebooking, as their Hungarian airline went bankrupt, so they're now rebooked on a Czech airline. Out of pocket, but they're philosophical - it's warmer here than it is in Hungary. Most of Europe has been experiencing unusually cold and snowy weather. Quite a few deaths.

Monday, February 13/2012

Looking for a spot to go to after Cyprus. We're here on a one-way ticket so need to co-ordinate return ticket with stay wherever. The difficulty this year is that Easter is early April and fares and warm holiday prices rise accordingly. As the search heats up the quality of the wifi deteriorates. The connection always purports to be excellent, but is SLOW.

Sunday, February 12/2012

Down to the promenade after brunch and it's in sunny, festive mode with the balloon sellers and the nut sellers out again, and girls carrying stuffed toys won aat games of chance. There's a brisk breeze off the sea but the sun is warm.

Home along Makarios, past the shop that the Red Canaries pet shop is about to move into. It's adorned with a huge sign with two red birds and, in giant letters, "Red Canneries Pet Shop."

Saturday, February 11/2012

Another lovely day. We meet Maggi down at Harry's Café near St Lazarus Church for coffee. Beautiful sunny spot with good Cyprus coffee and a magical view of the church with its Venetian tower.

Begin the online search for our next stop this winter/spring, hindered a bit by the timing of Easter as we're competing with those taking Easter holidays. The wifi connection is infuriatingly slow and the Congolese banker has stopped using it, opting for a paid wifi connection fro his room. So we're no longer treated to the details of international finance.

Friday, February 10/2012

A lovely day for walking. Coffee down on the waterfront and a wander around the streets. Sit on the pier with the wind blowing through our hair and the sun warm on our backs.

Thursday, February 9/2012

Coffee with Margaret and Leslie, Leslie cheerful as ever while telling a horrific story about her plumbing repairs. Plumbing becomes horrific quite easily in Cyprus because, like Greece and nowhere else, the main sewage pipes are about two and a half inches in diameter. So despite directives re not putting toilet paper down the flush, the pipes get clogged very easily. As Leslie says, she knows what she puts down 0 but the main pipe is shared with the next door neighbours....

Maggi invites us, along with Gabriel and Adrienne, over for strawberries. A and G don't eat after 6 p.m., but we do. Strawberries a little on the early side still, but nice evening. Gabriel voluble on his experiences in Africa and some of the stories are pretty good.

Wednesday, February 8/2012

Wet again today. Good thing we've been here for the past eleven years - otherwise we might think this was the norm. Quick run out to Carrefour and Prinos. Lovely having such an excellent greengrocer five minutes away - and buying tomatoes and cucumbers and courgettes in mid-winter.

Tuesday, February 7/2012

Wash day - everything from Cairo filthy, and easy to wash but too wet for outdoor drying.

Monday, February 6/2012

View from Maggi's Room

We've arranged for a transfer to the airport about 12:30 for 50 Egyptian pounds ($8.20 CAD, £5.20 GBP, €6.20). The original plan was to go in the morning to see the Nilometer on Roda Island but conflict has escalated in the night so we decide to keep a lower profile and stick closer to home. The shopping district around Tala'at Harb Square is peaceful enough. Rather too peaceful actually as the shops seem only to begin opening after 10 o'clock and then one or two at a time, reluctantly as it were. Near home we stop for a cup of coffee and a pastry. Pastries delicious. Maggi's coffee comes but not ours - which in the end is just as well as we're out of time and it takes some effort to elicit a bill.


On the way to the airport the driver gestures and tells us that Mubarek lived "back there" in a big place. We think of the big jail his sons are living in now There are so many beautiful buildings in Cairo, such lovely colonial architecture, mostly now grimy and crumbling.


Terminal 3 is large and very new. We change back the little Egyptian currency left - in our case into sterling with $3 US as top up. Duty free shops not terribly interesting, and snacks available in Egyptian pounds a shocking price. The small bottle of water that is 1.50 in Egyptian pounds on the street is 26 Egyptian pounds here ($4.27 CAD, €3.23, £2.71), much worse than Larnaca airport at €1.10. Announcements for departures are interesting - in Arabic, English and the language of the destination country, and preceded by a few bars of music appropriate to the destination. Ours is from Zorba the Greek!


Flight home about an hour and twenty minutes. The illuminated sign next to the fasten your seat belt sign now advises against using electronic equipment during take off and landing - which doesn't prevent at least two men from talking on their mobiles as the stewardess is presenting the safety demo. They're asked to put them away but don't seem to grasp the point of turning them off as well. But we land safely in Larnaca. We're home.

Sunday, February 5/2012

Qaitbey Fort, Alexandria

We're up at six for breakfast at 6:30 and our planned trip to Alexandria (€65 for a car and driver for the day). Breakfast the same as yesterday - except that Maggi has been at work in the kitchen and the cups are visibly cleaner and the breakfast tray not only washed but dried. Mohamed does give everything a quick rinse, but that seems to be more or less the extent of it. Not that things are necessarily different in posher accommodation. We remember watching a waiter in our hotel in Giza cleaning a handful of cutlery on the corner of a less than pristine tablecloth. We eat the white buns, foil-wrapped soft cheese triangles and jam but give the hardboiled eggs a miss. By the time they're done, and too hot to hold, it's time to go.

It's a very foggy start. The usual smog with a much higher fog component, so we leave hoping that there will be decent visibility for our day in Alexandria. As we hit the motorway, though, this rapidly becomes the least of our concerns. We pass, in the initial stages more incredibly ugly accidents than I have seen in the whole rest of my life put together, including a car crushed beneath an enormous semi (artic). The balancing wheels from the front of the trailer section have actually gone through the roof of the car. But this is only the beginning. For over half an hour we drive past accidents so numerous that we give up counting - cars crushed, folded almost in two, and torn apaart, and bodies by the side of the road, some of them not moving - faces covered. There is the occasional ambulance, but many of the vehicles look like survival would have been impossible. Occasionally a small fire has been started by the side of the road as a makeshift flare, but there is hardly any need to warn us - the road is one huge accident scene. The fog, of course, is the most obvious cause, but excessive speed for the conditions has clearly played a major part; the vehicular damage we see cannot have been inflicted at low speeds. Ashkok, our driver, is good - but he too is going fast enough that any exception on the road (which is a new one and good) could be problematic.

Alexandria is entered through a large portal with white columns and the city name engraved in Greek as well as Arabic. It's sunny and we snake through narrow, crooked lanes that hardly look as if vehicle traffic were possible Our first stop is at the catacombs. They were rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey fell into a hole which continued into three levels of catacombs with many little passages and a honeycomb of burial spots. The carvings are Egyptian but the catacombs obviously have mixed Egyptian, Graeco-Roman and Christian antecedents. About second century.

Then a stop at Qaitbey Fort on the sea. A fairy tale castle of a fort. It's an Islamic fort built in 1480, originally on the Island of Pharos, built on the remains of the lighthouse, but now part of the mainland, as silt long ago filled in the gap.

A quick snack at Gad, one of a chain of Egyptian fast food restaurants. Very busy, and so it should be as the local style food is good and very cheap. You decide whaat you want and then pay for it. The cashier gives you a receipt with your choice printed on it in Arabic, which you hand over at the counter in exchange for the food. Very clean as those preparing food don't touch the money. Two counters and a man at the entryway cutting meat from two large doner spits. Meat in a bun about $1.40 or spiced bean paste and tomato slices in a small pita for about 15 cents. Delicious too.

Then to the new Alexandria Library. the original livrary, of course, one of the highlights of the ancient world, but its successor is pretty impressive too. It opened in 2002, the work of a Norwegian architect who won a UNESCO competition. Strikingly modern and with room for 8 million books, as well as museums and a planetarium. M and I have drinks at a café nextto the library, the magnificent building in front of us and the corniche with the Mediterranean blue harbour behind.

Then J and I spend an hour at the museu, admiring sculptures recently retrieved from the Mediterranean as well as tiny tanaga statuettes showing period style and dress, and coptic paintings and fabrics. M goes instead with Ashkok for a coffee.  And back to Cairo, the road now more or less fog and accident free. Askok points out the large jail where Mubarekès two sons are being held.

We enjoy a second night at Felfela. this time itès not the anniversary of Mohammed's birth and we're allowed beer. Also sample the mixed grill and a delicious aubergine dish with a dash of (balsamic?) vinegar. Tala'at Harb Square is humming as are the streets around. Shops open and open air vendors busy even at ten p.m. on a Sunday evening. The protestors are busy later too. it must be aaround midnight when a huge cohort pass noisily under our window on their way, presumably, to Tahrir Square. And the net (wifi in the rooms here) has news of escalating protest southeast of us at the Immigration Ministry - barriers breached and stone throwing answered with gun pellets.

Saturday, February 4/2012

Breakfast at 8:30, by which time Maggi's been out for a recce and found soap. The first priority is decent maps and info. So, often my first unhassled source of information, a five star hotel We head out along our street, now  happily humming. A man has cycled along with two large trays of puffed up pitas on his head, and further down a donkey stands patiently with a cartload of oranges across from the Franciscan school. Under the flyover accesses to the October 6 Bridge. Crossing streets in Cairo has been compared to a real life game of frogger, and yo do need your wits about you. Times have changed in Egypt and there is now airport style security at the Hilton, as well as a German Shepherd on guard. So we pass  our bags through the x-ray and ourselves through the metal detector and head for the bookstore and a nice laminated map of Cairo, suitable for wiping coffee off if necessary. I also take advantage of a moment to check out the Lonely Planet guide book and see where the tourist info office is. When you ask a local - even one with good English about the tourist office, it's obvious that it's a foreign concept and you'll probably be pointed to the nearest travel agent. So we enjoy the five star lounge, and later the loo, and plot our route.

It's down past shops, and at one point a car, made into a market barrow with clothing for sale  hung from roof, doors, and open trunk. The girl at the tourist info is quite helpful with handouts and advice on where to go, and, probably more  important, on where not to go. There's a park nearby,but we discover that the well kept parks are well kept in part by virtue of charging admission and keeping most people out. We sit on the wall and eat our sandwiches, watching the world pass, almost literally over our feet, as we're stationed between vendors. Cairo sellers spread out their wares on the sidewalks - handbags, shirts, watches, whatever.  Then back to the Nile. On the pavement we meet a shop owner - a doctor whose family land was taken when the Aswan Dam was built. We're very near Tahrir Square and he tells us his sons were part of last year's revolution - and he was very proud of them. His brother is now in parliament - not an Islamist but, like all, working for change.

Across the bridge to Zamalek. Well, that's the intent, but it involves circling Tahrir Square, clearly set up for protest and abuzz but not hostile at midday. The square does have open gates, but it's well ringed with concrete and metal barriers. There are flags waving, and at one entrance an effigy hanging. We pass a few tents on the pavement. Continued occupation? There are boys and young men milling about but the real action is saved for evening. We do pass yellow ambulances, though. Dozens of them lined up and waiting. I give up any thought of counting. And a nearby street has concrete barriers.

Our objective on the island at the other end of the bridge is the Cairo Tower - 187 m high, with views out over the surrounding countryside. The entry fee is 70 Egyptian pounds though, and given the heavy smog J and I opt out. M goes up but is underwhelmed. Then back across the bridge. Lots of pedestrian traffic, including one daring boy walking on the railing - though death by pollution seems more likely than death by drowning. There are boats in the Nile below, including one being rowed by a woman, which appears to contain not only her husband and child but most of their possessions.

This tie we circle back the other way - along the corniche behind Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Museum, past a burnt out building and several burned cars, seemingly dating back to last year's revolution.

Early dinner at a restaurant just off Tala'at Harb Square, a five minute walk away. The restaurant is Felfela and we're not the first westerners to discover it. Jimmy Carter ate here - and signed a menu. Our meal is pretty good - the stuffed artichokes less exciting than they should be, but the kushari and Egyptian meatballs are comfort food nice. The space itself, though, is wonderful. We're in a raised alcove that holds two tables and is surrounded by carved wood and an aquarium  at one end. At the other, birds peep out through little birdsnest holes and emerge to preen and play on branches just behind the glass that's almost touching Joe's chair. The tables are all thick slabs of wood, soe ofthe smaller ones cross-sections of large trees, with stone pedestals.  Then home past the busy shops - and the odd begging child.

Friday, February 3/2012

We take the bus to the airport in the late afternoon. Actually almost past the airport as, despite Maggi's having said "airport" as we got on, and despite the airport's being a main stop, the driver continues on past as we belatedly realise that he's not going to stop. Not a long walk back, fortunately.

Jane and her friend Jan are there, on their way to Morocco - a two week holiday involving a six hour camel trek and overnight in a tent in the desert. They have a connection in Cairo - after a thirteen hour wait. The waiting bit begins here, as the plane leaves nearly two hours late, having first arrived late from Cairo and then been obliged to change a wheel. We're given vouchers for €3.50 (£2.90, $4.60 CAD) for a snack as we wait, which runs to a small bottle of water and an extremely small packet of crisps each at airport prices - but there is a small meal on the hour and a half flight. Cold, but quite nice.


We're not optimistic about the promised airport pick up by the hostel/hotel (often a borderline call in Egypt). But no, the poor man has indeed waited for us - for about 3 hours by the time we've purchased our colourful visas ($15 US each) and cleared customs. So we're outinto the warm Egyptian air, and driven back throuogh Cairo's amazing traffic, past the city of the dead, through Tala'at Harb Square, and - another block - to Vienna Hostel. It's on the third floor of the building, reached by an antique cage of a lift. The rooms are basic, but they're clean and there is a shower in the loo with extremely hot water and plenty of water pressure, though no soap. Mohammed, the teenage student son, offers to go out to buy some, baksheesh no doubt in mind, but we decide to wait until morning. A quick look out the doors to the tiny balcony at the once classic building opposite and a quick check of the internet (wifi in the rooms!) and it's midnight.

Thursday, February 2/2012

Meet Margaret for coffee at George's. Leslie is there as well, cheerful as ever. M has brought little packets of sweets for each of us - so lovely that I phone her later to say I fear J is going to leave me for her. She's pleased - there's still a lot of the flirt left in her at 80!

Protests, of course, growing in Egypt, and bodies arriving back at the train station in Cairo from the Port Said stadium riot. We'll reassess in the morning.

Wednesday, February 1/2012

Out for a haircut, prudently taking an umbrella, which turns out not to be needed. The book to read while waiting isn't needed either, as it's a slow day at the hairdresser's and the maestro is taking an unaccustomed break when I arrive, so straight to the chair.

Adrienne and Gabriel over for a drink and a chat after supper. They live, for two weeks at least, at the far end of the corridor. The rest of their life, though, is divided between Mississauga, Canada, their primary home, and Hungary, their country of origin. He's eighty now and looks back on a very interesting life. A freedom fighter in the Hungarian Revolution and a civil engineer by training, he fled Hungary and ended up designing highways in Saskatchewan in the late 50's. This was followed by jobs in various third world countries, from Bangladesh to Malawi, and finally, via Hungary (where he married Adrienne) back to Canada where he ended up teaching at Seneca College. And has he slowed down in retirement, J asks. Not a bit of it He's written fifteen novels, several of them published as ebooks. He offers to give us some reading for the Kobo. What aout a novel and a science fiction?

And late in the evening comes the news that a riot has broken out following a football game in Port Said, leaving, at first reports, over fifty dead and many more injured. The best case scenario, of course, is that this is only a sporting conflict and there will be no political repercussions, but it doesn't seem likely.

Tuesday, January 31/2012

Last night's pyrotechnical display exacts its price: once more Joe's bed is wet. The cleaners arrive and I show the damage to Venera whose English vocabulary seems to be more or less the equivalent of my Greek one. Nero (water) I say, pointing to the ceiling, lest she suppose the damp mattress had another cause. she asseses the situation and says "change" - the usual preliminary to the regular (or, rather, irregular) linen change. I agree, though I don't follow the stream of Greek that comes after. Meanwhile, the other cleaner, who always has a little of the deer in the headlights about her, begins cleaning the balcony - a first in our experience at this hotel. Venera disappears, presumably for fresh sheets, but comes back with a whole new mattress, a Norwegian guest obligingly holding up the other end.

In the midst of all this activity, now taking place around cleaner number two, who has moved from the balcony to the kitchen, more or less blocking the door from the corridor, the Brother arrives to adjust the television (which doesn't receive Capital, a channel with evening films).  Maggi says that the Brother's name is actually Mr Fetus, in accordance with the Cypriot custom of using the title Mr, or Mrs or Miss, before a person's first name. But I can hardly bring myself to address such an ineffectual person, or anyone else for that matter, as Mr Fetus, and continue to think of him as the Brother. So, as the Brother makes repeated efforts to reprogram the telly, cleaner number two, apparently unwilling to be seen doing nothing, continues rewashing the kitchen floor. I'm interested in the fact that our television seems to have some games, conveniently identified in English  (unlike all the other programming information), including Tetris. J points out that the Brother is trying repeatedly to get  out of Tetris. And, as suddenly as it began, it's all over.  New bed, television programmed and floor rewashed, and we're on our own.

In the evening to Vlachos taverna with Maggi, Jand and Bill, and Harry and Aylsa. Jane, who is off to Morocco on Friday for a two week holiday, unfortunately suffering stiffness and pain from the side effects kof a hepatitis A injection. Always a good spread, though the moussaka this time is unduly heavy on the béchamel sauce - enough so that I wouldn't order it again, which is a pity as we liked the old recipe.  As usual, the side dishes would have made a meal on their own, and Harry and Aylsa's many animals get a bag of leftovers.

Monday, January 30/2012

This is another day in this year's January pattern. Starts out dry but by late morning there's rain. we take umbrellas down to Lidl, run innto Maggi there and drive back. Lunch of cheese and dips and coffee. In the evening the rain gets serious, with dramatic lightning and a good view of same from the glass doors to the balcony.

Sunday, January 29/2012

Several people using the lobby this morning, including a woman with an East European accent who is interested in going to Choiokitia, a village near Larnaca that boasts the remains of a neolithic village. Very interesting and quite moving as the outlines of the little dwellings huddle together for comfort and safety. Turns out the woman and her husband are Canadians, originally from Hungary but now living in Mississauga. They've been visiting relatives in Hungary and are now in Cyprus for two weeks.

The Congolese merchant banker is ensconced in the far corner, voluble as ever but unhappy with the speed and quality of his connection. "There are too many people in the lobby using the wifi," he tells his unseen telephone partner. "The signal isn't good." But he stops short of asking the rest of us to shut down our computers.

Saturday, January 8/2012

This has been the coolest (no Canadian could call it cold) and wettest winter we've experienced in Cyprus. Having said which, iti's rarely rained for a whole day and the temperature has always climbed at least to the midteens, so all things are relative. Today's forecast is for fine weather and when we plan our walk for coffee the temperature is 20 in a shaded but sheltered spot on the balcony and the skies mostly clear with a little light cirrho-stratus cloud inland. Then it takes no more than three blocks walking before the clouds darken and the sun disappears, accompanied by a drop in temperature. But down at Harry's Café, opposite St Lazarus church, the sun comes back as J, M and I sip our Cyprus coffees and all is bright again.

Email from Alex in Cairo to say that he has booked us in at the Vienna, subject to our confirming with them by email, which we promptly do. So now accommodation booked and also a promise for pick up at the airport.

There's a merchant banker from the Congo staying at the hotel. we know the occupation - and quite a bit more - because he uses the lobby, equipped with the same hesitating wifi the rest of us put up with, as an office for lengthy discussions and internet phone calls. Maggi points out that her suspicions may be unkind but as soon as Kiki turned on the television tonight the man left. Was he feeling deprived of an admiring audience she wants to know.

Friday, January 27/2012

Tickets booked online, so now we turn to accommodation. Alex and Lynette email that their first choice had proved unsatisfactory and the hotel next door which they went to notworth the price, but they're now in an inexpensive and central place that is convenient and OK - should they book us in as well. Yes please.

The fewer online transactions the better. I've used the debit card for the UK account, which has finite funds, but at the end of the transaction they want to know if I wish to register the card - if I don't I may have difficulty making future online purchases. However, when I say yes. I'm asked for my UK postal code. A click on "help" elicits the information that those not resident in the UK can telephone the following number....So we'll hopethe problem doesn't arrive until we're back in the UK. though there is quite a bit of money left on the Cypriot mobile - it's just the combo of mobile, long distance, and sometimes non-English accent at the other end.

Thursday, January 26/2012

Maggi and I meet Margaret for coffee at George's. M not keen on George's - smoked glass overhead makes the open court darker and chillier, the prices aren't good, etc. - but it's Margaret's local, so to speak. She can go there for elevenses any time and meet someone she knows and share a laugh. There's just the three of us this time, though, so Margaret takes advantage of Maggi's having the car along to ask us over to see her flat. It's in Drosia, a part of Larnaca up past the Salt Lake. A nice, large, secure flat fill of the mementos of a lifetime - a large cabinet full of crystal, some of it a lovely pink, china figures, a cheerful stone Scottie dog. And several framed photographs of Margaret and Charlie, her husband who died three years ago of prostate cancer, including a wonderful one of Margaret (aged 60 at the time she says) clinging to her husband's arm and wearing a miniskirt which shows off a great pair of legs. Maggi and I check with Martina as well as at a randomly chosen other travel agency on the price of airfare only to Egypt. Martina quotes us €180 and the other place €190. The price online from Egyptair is €156.25, and there's no credit card fee, so that settles that.

156.25 return, and there's no credit card fee, so that settles that.

Wednesday, January 25/2012

Interesting minor drama. I'm reading to J, who is facing the glass doors to the balcony, when he sees a woman on the top floor of a nearby apartment building come out onto her balcony and find herself unable to get back in. We watch her efforts for about five minutes and then I leave to see what I can do. As soon as I reach the ground it becomes obvious that the problem is somewhat different than it appeared from the fourth floor. You have to get quite close to the apartment to see the balcony as it's screened by another tallish building and it's high enough that shouting up (or down) isn't really possible, even apart from language difficulties. However there is a lobby with a man on duty in a grubby, smoky room in front of pigeon hole mailboxes full of keys. He's talking on the pone but I explain the proble and he says he will check it out. I'm off to Carrefour, reluctant even to look up at the disconsolate figure in the pink cardigan, but when I get back the balcony is empty and J says that the woman was let in shortly after I left. It had looked funny for a minute or two, but she could have spent quite a while out there with nobody close enough to shout to.

Over to the cinema at Dhekelia with Maggi and Turid, her Norwegian friend, to watch War Horse. Beautiful filming and some Spielburg mgic. Though those who have seen the stage play say it has more magic than the film.

Tuesday, January 24/2012

Enjoying reading A View from the Foothills, Chris Mullin's political diary, written as a British junior minister and covering the first half of the last decade. It's astonishingly indiscreet. One can't actually imagine its being published in Canada. The publishers would be afraid to touch it, and those who considered themselves to have been embarrassed would know no better than to sue and thereby prolong the embarrassmen. There are some people who come off better than one might have expected (Tony Blair, John Prescott), people who come off worse (Gordon Brown) and lots of insight into how the system works - sometimes like Canada and sometimes not.

Monday, January 23/2012

Alec and Lynette, Australians, have been staying here for a couple of days and are now off to Egypt. I leave to go on errands, find them drinking coffee outside in the sun, and end up talking for three-quarters of an hour. Theyève rented out their house in Australia and are seeing the world for twelve months. Interesting couple. We talked to them yesterday and found a fair bit in the way of overlapping interests, reading, etc. Theyève booked an inexpensive but central place to stay in Cairo, online. The pictures look fine but they'll email with their recommendations.

Finally on with the errands. Stop in at George's where Margaret and Leslie are having coffee with a friend, and join them. Then off to the Slovakian travel agency - well, the one where Martina, the Slovakian girl, works - to check on trips to Egypt or Syria. Tell her we want something cheap and wonderful, and she duly photocopies some options.

Sunday, January 22/2012

Terrific rainstorm in the night with high winds. Before I open my eyes it seems that there is a bright light. Feels like the sun has come out, but this turns out to be J's bedside lamp. He's stripping the bed, so I inquire. The bed is wet. Takes me a minute, as I'm thinking oh no - it's come to this, but it turns out that the ceiling is leaking in the rainstorm. So basin under the leak and move the bed. By now we're awake enough to open the curtains and admire the storm.

M's moving day and she treks up and down with drawers of cutlery, clothing, etc. She's got permission to take the sofa from 202 with her. It's old and worn, but the one supplied in 302 is vinyl and armless - looks like it belongs in a dentist's waiting room. But, Mr. Andreas says, don't think of doing it yourself. The men can do it tomorrow, or maybe if my friends come by for coffee today....Meanwhile random furnishings are being dumped in 202 as M removes her belongings and we can see that her sofa may turn up anywhere at all. there's a workman who points to his heart as he refuses to help so - spur of the moment - M and I take it up the flight of stairs ourselves. Not quite ready to hire ourselves out, but fairly proud of ourselves nontheless.

Out to the cinema at the Dhekelia base to meet up with Jane and Bill to see The Iron Lady. Meryl Streep brilliant as always. M's a Thatcheer fan - we of course not. Don't know about Bill and Jane.

Saturday, January 21/2012

The plan was to go down to DaVinci Café, opposite St Lazarus Church (traditionally believed to be the second burial place of the Biblical Lazarus) for a coffee in the sun. But sun in short supply, so M suggests driving out past the airport for a village coffee wherever takes our fancy. This turns out to be a local café in the village of Pervolia. A tiny adult of indeterminate gender points to the door and we're out of the wind and into a local. Three Cyprus coffees and local men at the next table looking like a permanent fixture of the backgammon and coffee sort. there must be live music here on occasion as there is a mike with a sculptured head and hands attached to  sax. M takes a photo.

Friday, January 20/2012

Air traffic controllers, in protest over civil service pay freezes. Public sympathy - and  ours as well - pretty limited, as the lowest paid earned €120,000 last year as well as over €50,000 overtime.


Exciting first. I download Chris Mullin's political diary, A View from the Foothills onto the Kobo. Have only downloaded freebies from Project Gutenberg, etc before. I've wanted to buy the book for some time, so this is a great pleasure.

Thursday, January 19/2012

Going to meet Margaret for coffee at George's and run into Jane having coffee on her own She's in for blood tests. So George, who doesn't have to be asked, arrives with a pot of tea and I drink the first half with Jane and the second at Margaret's very busy table. I've brought her a jar of lemon curd, made this morning, and, with the enthusiasm that must have been much the same seventy years ago, she's busy sampling it and giving a little taste to the man sitting next to her.

Much media analysis of the character of the captain of the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that ran aground. So that one psychologist talks of the panic fuelled personality disintegration of an alpha male who finds that everything has gone wrong and feels compelled to deny that there is a problem. Another commentator adds that he is not afraid of the Captain Schettinos in the world - only of the Captain Schettino inside himself.

Wednesday, January 18/2012

Explore the new (to us) charity shop up behind Carrefour. Quite a good selection of books - though this year we're far from desperate, with the Kobo. J picks up a copy of William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain. It's a travelogue with depth, a trip through the area of the Byzantine world as experienced by John Moschos, a wandering monk in the 6th century, just before the whole of the Middle East became Moslem. A fascinating look at that part of the world then and now, and a focus on the remnants of Byzantine Christianity still remaining in these countries.

Tuesday, January 17/2012

Dinner with Jane, Bill, Harry, Aylsa, and Maggi at Xylotymbou, a neighbouring village just up the motorway from Pyla. Very nice meal. The village tavernas seem to keep the old country tradition of extras - Greek salad and tahinni dip, pickles and olives, warm pita, etc. - that come gratis with the meal - even token desserts like fruit or deep fried nibbles and brandy. The restaurant's own sauce, available on chicken or pork fillet, is rich and oniony. It's a cool evenng and the fireplace - which is gas - is lovely as well as warm. Home with the car smelling of fresh basil from Jane and Bill's garden.

Horrific accounts of the behaviour of the captain of the cruise ship that hit bottom off the coast of Tuscany. We get to listen to recordings, with voice-over in English, of the coastguard demanding that the captain get back on the ship, which still has unrescued passengers. Harry and Bill, both of whom have extensive sailing backgrounds, Harry on ships, have quite a bit to say on the subject of safety measures aboard.

Monday, January 16/2012

Endless in-house drama as Norwegian couple in next flat seem to be angling for the same apartment, 302, that Maggi occupied last year and has booked for this year and next.  Iit's being renovated but the renovation is nearly finished. It is, of course, the fault of co-owner Mr. Andreas, who dislikes conflict and is therefore quite likely to promise the same flat to more than one prospective tenant, possibly hoping that the world will end before he has to deal with the resulting difficulty.

Sunday, January 15/2012

The Russian cyclists (obviously a national team of some sort) are moving out, with heaps of shopping bags and piles of luggage in the lobby. They train in Cyprus in the winter, taking advantage kof the varied terrain and relatively unbusy back roads as well as the climate. so we get usedto seeing them  in team uniforms in the lobby and sometimes biking through the city.

The Sunday edition of the Cyprus Mail deplores Standard and Poor's actions, its headline reading: Hidden Agenda of Downgrade.

Saturday, January 14/2012

Standard and Poor's has come out with major downgrades for most Euro countries. The most international attention is given to France's loss of AAA status, but Cyprus has, like Portugal, been downgraded to junk bond status - BB+.

Friday, January 13/2012

Dinner at Vlachos Taverna with Maggi, Bill and Jane. We were set for moussaka, but they apologise - one pan of it was burned and only one portion remains. So J and I split it, as well as splitting a mixed kebab plate. The usual enormous portions, and as the dog owners, Harry and Elsa, aren't here, the doggie bags come home instead of to the dogs. Fresh lemons and basil from Bill's tree and garden.

The Russian ship sent on its way by the Cypriots on condition that it go to Turkey and not Syria has arrived in Lattakia, Syria, somewhat predictably.

Thursday, January 12/2012

Final look at the icons on the dentist's wall. An article in The Cyprus Mail a week ago may shed some light. it refers to a surgeon whose walls contained not graduation certificates but icons given by grateful patients who considered that he had performed miracles.

Coffee with Margaret and a couple of expats. Len reminiscing about his early days: the doctor said move out of London or the run of the family won't survive - so we went to Southend.

Wednesday, January 11/2012

The Cypriots have detained a Russian ship that came into port at Limassol, suspecting it of carrying "dangerous goods." They have good reason to be wary, as last July there was a massive explosion due to seized munitions that had been stored for over two years in the sun at a naval base. Thirteen people were killed and the country's main power station wrecked. This time, despite suspicions, the ship has been allowed to continue on the understanding that it sail only to Turkey and not to its planned destiation of Lattakia, Syria. The captain's word, apparently, the guarantee.

Tuesday, January 10/2012

Maggi has reported the deficiencies of our fridge to the powers that be. Thus the cleaner and the brother arrive to investigate. We demonstrate - the door to the tiny freezer is missing - replaced by one of Jès construction, made of cardboard covered with plastic bags taped and tied with string that forms opening hndles. They profess astonishment at the missing door and leave, muttering "avrio" - tomorrow. The (feigned?) astonishment is interesting. The fridges obviously get defrosted and, one hopes, cleaned between guests. There's ample opportunity to observe damage and defects. And in any case, what do they presume has happened? This must be a regular occurrence with cheaply constructed fridges, and the freezer doors must be found periodically next to the afflicted fridges. It seems extremely unlikely that they can actually suppose that a maverick guest ripped off this particular door and disappeared with it in his suitcase.

Monday, January 9/2012

J rereading The Haj, by Leon Uris after many years - this time with a  sense of annoyance about the strong pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian bias. And more critical of the quality of the writing as well.

Sunday, January 8/2012

Thunderstorms at night and some rain in the moroning. Sophie, the cat, is not pleased and goes out to sit on the ledge under the little white patio table to survey the world from a dry perch. But the sun comes out in time for our 11:30 bus home, and the flag it down on the waterfront system works. The pavement is busy as we wait - a little street market, Philippino girls with a day off, and an old woman who can scarcely reach into the roadside skip but emerges with three handbags, two of which, after careful examination, she returns to the skip, walking off with the third over her shoulder.

Rain holds off until we're home again before beginning. We're about to have lunch - acquired a seeded rye still warm from the bakery - when Maggi calls up to say that lentil soup is on the boil. we can come down but she has to get bread in. So down we go with warm bread to join M for lentil soup. Perfectly timed.

Saturday, January 7/2012

Sam and Paddy suggest we stay another day, with more time to visit. So we head off with Sam to look at Curium Beach - just below an old Roman settlement - and do some errands. The beach has interesting stones and shells and an exhilarating wind, which has led some parakiters to bring out their colourful sails like giant kites. we speak to a young Portuguese man just before he heads into the surf, the wind catching him and taking him what seems like a half mile down the breakers before he tacks back and builds up speed again.

After collecting the bread, Sam asks if we would like to see Kolossi Castle. It's a couple of miles away in the next village, an early 13th century square Crusader castle with walls that must be close to ten feet thick. The first thing that we notice is what looks like decorative stone work at the top of the tower. Not merely decorative, it seems, but the spot where boiling oil could be poured down on the heads of invaders. Inside it's simple but very nicely proportioned, with stone arches and fireplaces and window seats, and stone floors that must have been cool in summer and frigid in winter.  J wonders about water supply and Sam points to a stone aquaduct outside. Beautiful views across the fields and villages and out to the sea from the top.


Home to find that Paddy has not only fiished washing the crystal - having postponed all my offers of help - but taken down the Christmas tree and put away the decorations. The season is over. Chat, and nap, and dinner of prime leftovers. Then a game of Scrabble. Paddy, who has been working most of the time since dawn yesterday, is off to bed, but we linger and talk to Sam for a couple of hours. He has a lovely quiet style, a good memory and a wide range of interests. And, that greatest of charms, opinions and interests that overlap significantly with our own.

Friday, January 6/2012

Walk down to the beach to take the bus to Limassol, only to discover that the waterfront road is still blocked off after this morning's Epiphany parade. Rapid Plan B, as we remember that the second stop is opposite St Helena's Church. Where the bus duly arrives - unfortunately a small one that doesn't accommodate all the would-be passengers. J and I do get seats, but are at opposite ends until midway, when I move up and take a now empty seeat next to J, while the driver, who speaks no English, is at pains to let me know that I needn't sit next to this man as there is a single seat available across the aisle.

Sam, Jenny's father, picks us up as planned and we drive the 15 km to Erimi. The table is already beautifully set for twelve, but Paddy is ready with small bowls of soup to tide us over, as we won't be eating until 8:30.

And a lovely meal it is, with venison paté as a starter, followed by roast leg of lamb with mint sauce and currant jelly, roast potatoes and vegetables, and a choice of Paddy's homemade desserts - ginger trifle, chestnut log and mince tarts. Good conversation too, as we get to know the other three couples, all expats.

Thursday, January 5/2012

Weekly coffee with Margaret and assorted friends at George's café. The shop next to our outdoor table has a closing down sale ahalfnd women from our table make make forays in, emerging with bags of half-price gift items, including a tallish wooden giraffe. It seems everything really does have to go, as the shop owner emerges with a large shopping bag containing plastic boxes of potpourri, one for each of us

Wednesday, January 4/2012

Help Maggi move her things from the storage room - inconveniently located on the mezzzanine where the lift doesn't stop. She's two floors below us in 202 while they finish redoing the third floor - clearly not a day or two but now what? Three weeks?

Tuesday, January 3/2012

Rent due and so the annoying question of cash point withdrawals arises. Different banks have different maximum dispersal amounts, but on a long stay higher is better as there's a withdrawal charge each time. So it is irritating to find that no Larnaca bank appears to dispense more than €600 at a time (€540 of which will disappear instantly as the rent is paid) particularly as we were able to withdraw €1400 in Paphos. J suggests that our lack of info on cash point withdrawal possible is due to our reluctance to ask questions. Actually I think it's in large part due to the reluctance of Cypriots to provide answers, or at any rate accurate and useful ones, so that many inquiries take a lot of time without resulting in corresponding enlightenment. But, chastened, I head to the Marfin Laiki Bank round the corner to ask questions.

The first person tells me that the cash point allows withdrawals up to €€400. This is a little puzzling as I know from past experience that it will give €600. However, I put this down to possible, if improbable misunderstanding, as a woman with excellent English takes over. Perhaps it's a problem with my daily limit - what is my daily limit? Two thousand dollars, I say, deciding that the Canadian and US dollars are close enough for me not to bother complicating the issue with explanations. she takes my bank card, makes a phone call in Greek, and says yes, as she has said, the maximum on foreigh cards is €1000; there have been recent changes demanded by Visa. But my card isn't Visa, and the Paphos bank that gave us more in November was also a Marfin Laiki bank.  All the same, the maximum is €1000. So will the machine outside give me €1000? Yes. It doesn't, of course.  Just repeats its message that its maximum is €600. Which, as I say to J, is why I am reluctant to ask questions in Cyprus. After all the production, you're no further ahead.

Maggi arrives in the late afternoon. So hugs, and our first g&t of the season, with ice cubes made in the empty clear plastic six egg carton. Then supper with lentil soup and sandwiches - chicken salad, humus with cramelised onions, J's chicken liver paté, cheese. And a bottle of Smart Stores bubbly de maison to celebrate her return. 

Monday, January 2/2012

As New Year's Day is on a Sunday this year, Monday is also a holiday with more or less everything shut. J off to the beach, where he walks laps on the sand.I defrost the little bar-sized fridge. As its tiny freezer across the inside top  has no door - mush oonce have done, so what happens to these things - J has fitted it with one made of heaving cardboard covered with thin plastic bag taped in place. Frosts up faster than one with a real door, though. It will keep meat frozen or make ice cubes, but ice cream would turn (based on past experience) to milkshakes.

 

Sunday, January 1/2012

The rain is no longer what the television newsreader refers to as torrential, but it rains on and off all day. Finish reading the last book of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet.

Saturday, December 31/2011

Margaret phoned last night to say that the shops will be closed Monday as well as Sunday, so we're off early to pick up the few things we need. Will Prinos be open at eight? It will be a zoo later. Turns out it's been open since six - and 6:15 is its usual time. Who goes then? As usual, I go for two things - carrots and potatoes (the latter 40 euro cents a kilo - or 32p GB or 53 cents CAD - and still with the iron rich red earth clinging to them). But end up with extras - leeks, onions, garlic, courgettes, red and yellow peppers (€2.20 a kilo, £1.83 GB, $2.91 CAD) and lettuce (32 cents EU, 27p GB, 42 cents CAD) each.

We meet up at the beach later and go on to the New Year's Eve market. The sky is beginning to darken but the fruit and vegetables still gleam and we choose pink grapefruit, tomatoes, tiny cucumbers and green beans, all fresh.

New Year's Eve  is traditionally celebrated at the beach with fireworks, free wine and beer (and not a drunk in sight) and a concert. But suppertime brings a thunderstorm  with the lightning showing palm trees bending in the wind and sheets of water blowing up the street. We don't go out, and wonder if it's all been cancelled, but at midnight we can indeed see the fireworks, only partially obscured by a building on Makarios.