Sunday, June 14/2020

The Health Ministry in the South has announced no new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day, which is encouraging in terms of hopes for border opening July 1, although not as reassuring as the North’s eight weeks. The Canadian honorary consulate would make an effort, they say, to assist Canadians needing to cross the border to take specific flights in advance of the official border opening. Well, actually they say “we will do our best to assist you secure a permission to cross”  to what they can’t resist referring to “the free part of the Republic of Cyprus”, a reminder that honorary consular staff  is local. This assistance, in the absence of an open border, is dependent on prior acquisition of airline tickets. However, it seems clear that should their best prove not quite good enough, the tickets would be a write off. Not so bad if they were one way tickets to London or Athens, say, but tickets out of Larnaca would have to be co-ordinated with tickets from a European centre to Canada, a much greater potential loss. So best to wait for a genuinely open border.

Tourism is not the only sector in economic difficulty in the South. The wine industry is also suffering. Lack of tourists and closing of restaurants, hotels, and tavernas has been a disaster, compounded somewhat by limited export possibilities and tighter family budgets.

Saturday, June 13/2020

The first covid-19 case in Cyprus was confirmed March 10, the day we arrived. It was a German tourist, one of 750. There were ultimately 108 cases including four deaths, two German tourists and two resident. The lockdown was very strict. Initially only possible to leave the house in order to go to the grocery store, pharmacy or bank, as well as petrol station or hospital. Furthermore the grocery store, pharmacy or bank were supposed to be the nearest. Anything else, e.g. delivering food to an elderly neighbour required specific police permission. There was a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am. Very exciting when that was relaxed enough to allow going for a walk. But now it is over eight weeks since the last new case and the last patient has been released. Yes, it’s a very small country, but the country is essentially covid-19 free. Tourism will, cautiously, reopen next month amid arrangements for testing, possible quarantine and restrictions on countries of origin. Nobody supposes there will never be another case, but the whole test, trace and isolate procedure is totally possible here.

Friday, June 12/2020

Final dental appointments. Only thirteen and a half weeks after we arrived in Cyprus. And arrived pleased that we had two weeks in the North. Long enough to get the dental work done. And it was, but....And we are pleased.

And, also in the health field, last covid-19 patient discharged in the North. We’ll be leaving one of the safest places in the world.

Thursday, June 11/2020

Jaworski - file photo

Market day. We go early, to avoid the heat. Well, early by our standards, as in 8:30. Think the market opens at 6:30 but gave no thought at all to going then. Fairly cool at the market itself, as there is a high roof but partially open sides so it’s both shaded and airy. It’s maybe a kilometre from our place so not a long walk, but better to bring home strawberries than watermelon. So we do. And fresh ground coffee as well as sesame bread, tiny tomatoes, long red peppers, and a half kilo of freshly ground coffee. Accidentally overpay the young man who grinds the coffee by 50 kuruş, half a Turkish lira (10 cents CAD, 7 Euro cents, 6p GBP). He immediately returns the extra coin, refusing J’s offer to let him keep it. And this is not unusual here. Run into Fehmi’s wife Filiz. Interesting to meet someone we know in a city in which we know so very few people.

Have bought also 4 cobs of corn. Turn out to be edible but disappointing. Well, wrong country. Just as anyone who has eaten oranges in Cyprus will never want to buy them in Canada, maybe anyone who has eaten corn in Alberta, or southern Ontario, or from my dad’s garden in Quebec decades ago should not bother buying it in Cyprus. Suspect it of not being fresh enough, but that is unlikely - or at least not at all typical of this market where all the fruit and veg are usually at peak. More likely it’s not really bred for corn on the cob, and in fact Canadian corn has, over time, been made both sweeter and longer lasting. I used to say that corn that had reached the supermarket was already too old - much the way people in Sioux Lookout would think pickerel in a supermarket too old (to say nothing of too expensive) to consider, but it does last a bit better than it did in my childhood. 

And there’s a family story, dating back to well before the war. Relatives who moved to Canada from Scotland encountered corn on the cob for the first time and were impressed enough to send some back to the family in Scotland - surface mail. Needless to say the Scots side of the family  were unimpressed. No better than the cattle maize they were familiar with.

Wednesday, June 10/2020

Does still look like the Cyprus N/S border will reopen July 1, though may require negative blood test to cross. Quite a lot of countries seem to be looking for blood tests, although it’s a less accurate determiner than they might like to think. Meanwhile the usual bits of posturing along with some perfectly genuine reservations. Workers who live in the North but work in the South have returned to work but are unable to recross the border to their Northern homes at night, leading to at least one man sleeping in his car. Ulus, always active in Cyprus bi-communal activities, posts on line that there are people prepared to find temporary accommodation for those who are unable to find a place to stay. It is in microcosm the world problem - how to rescue the economy while providing maximum protection to one’s citizens, but with the difficulties of Cypriot mistrust complicating it. 

Tuesday, June 9/2020

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿A new experience for us, directly down to the pandemic. We “attend” a streamed funeral. Obviously not a first for the funeral establishment in these days where real life attendance is limited to a very few people, the number varying with the jurisdiction. There are real people at this funeral, mostly Scots relatives, but fewer than a dozen of them. Can see why, despite complaints online, fewer people seem to be permitted to attend funerals than regular church services. Those attending church are less inclined to hug than those at funerals and this one is very restrained. Clearly those sitting together are those who live together and the chairs are placed in sets of two or three at an appropriate distance from each other. 
On the other hand, we would have been unlikely to have been able to attend this funeral at all in normal times - unlikely to have found ourselves in the right country. 

Some of the best bits missing, of course. The chats, the reminiscing (though there is some in the service), the hugs, the food and drink. Possible, though, at a streamed funeral, to have a wee dram as coffin is piped in to “Scots Wha Hae”. Can see that this might have been badly received at a traditional unstreamed funeral - though don’t think my late cousin would have objected. 🥃🥃

Looks like border shut until July 1. Possible to cross for medical treatment, but Aysel, who owns this place says that those who do have to quarantine when they come back. Her oncologist is in the South but she’s putting off seeing him until July so that she won’t have to be separated from her young daughter by quarantine again.

Monday, June 8/2020

Playing with the permutations on a trip home. A little like playing chess by mail and finding one’s opponent has made changes to the board before making their move, but no one really to hold accountable. Look, one wishes to say, that flight from Athens to Montreal (or wherever) existed yesterday. Did you change your mind about offering it or only about listing it? 

Admittedly this kind of behaviour is not entirely new on the part of Air Canada. Can remember a telephone conversation with them several years ago. It was necessary for some reason - probably points related - to book our two reservations separately, and therefore consecutively. The final leg of the round trip was Toronto to Winnipeg, and it was showing only one seat available. In the unlikely event that this was accurate it would be impossible to make the second booking for the same flights as the first. The price was available only to those booking online, not by telephone. 

Eventually I phoned the tech help line to say that I simply did not believe that a scheduled domestic flight eight months away had only one seat remaining. There was a mistake. It is possible, he said. Yes, I know it’s theoretically possible, but I don’t believe it. Well, he suggested, I could always book the first flight, and if my assumption was right a seat would appear for the second booking, if I felt comfortable doing it that way. I didn’t. In the end the techie (and I love techies - they’re usually so much nicer to deal with than customer disservice) connected me to an agent who booked the seats I knew must be there.

Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours there were 44 tests in the North with 0 new cases (the last new case in the North was in April) and 799 tests in the South with 6 new cases. And the border did not open. But, sooner or later....

Sunday, June 7/2020

Hot weather back. High of 33 today, although with the usual low humidity it doesn’t have that skin can’t breathe feeling. Still eating the lovely strawberries and they’ve kept beautifully. You catch their scent in the next room when the fridge door is opened. And there are a number of fruits on the passion fruit vine. Still green, but the size of plums. Yes, not all plums are the same size - but then neither are all of these.

Photo not mine - can’t remember source

Take a walk through the old city around six. Almost no breeze at all. The swifts are out in numbers, though, doing their usual pre-dusk swooping above the square. Astonishing birds. They spend almost the whole of their lives in the air - not nesting, but eating, sleeping, and sometimes mating. Can spend months without roosting.



Very quiet. Only a couple of restaurants open, probably because it’s Sunday. It’s not a Christian country, but as with many other countries in the near and far east Sunday is definitely the closing day. But we have a meal ready at home.

Saturday,

Finishing breakfast when there’s a knock on the door. The lovely lady from across the road with a container holding three beautiful fruit turnovers, oven hot. So we split one immediately to enjoy the still warm goodness.


In the early evening take a walk down to the harbour. Much of the area immediately outside the city walls is fenced off military, with the usual sign warning one not to take photographs as well as the sign forbidding entry. Then there is an area where small fishing boats are moored. Quite a few individual fishermen knee deep in rocky shallows, and we remember the boy who passed us on his bicycle as we were leaving home, fishing rods in his backpack. It’s a very warm night even down by the shore and lots of people out, predominantly young people and Cypriots not expats. A restaurant and a coffee shop have tables along the seaside walk and we stop for a beer. Ignore the peanuts down to my (possibly quite unjustified) suspicion that they don’t actually throw out those that previous patrons have failed to eat - but beer safe enough. Leave as the sun goes down - full darkness falls quickly here.

Friday, June 5/2020

Email from cousin Kathleen in Scotland giving us a link for Charlie’s funeral Tuesday.  That will be a first. For us, at least. Live streaming funerals must now be common, given the strict limits on numbers at any gathering and the social distancing required. Odd, though. No reason not to have a wee dram during, but none of the hugs and chatter of being there. Have had fairly happy thoughts about Charlie’s  death ever since Kathleen wrote that he had been found sitting in his armchair with a newspaper, a piece of cake on a plate by his side. That has to be as good as it gets.

Thursday, June 4/2020

Thursday is market day in Famagusta. This is the third weekly market since their closure ended. We decided to give it a bit of time to establish procedures. Also, word had been that that there would be only food and none of the other bits and pieces. J keen to go and not bothered about needing to be early for the old people’s time. I less keen, thinking food delivered nearby anyway, heavy to carry home if we buy much, would like another Tshirt, etc. But we go.

ALL fake news. Clothing vendors, those with handbags, brass locks, jewellery, potato peelers, many etceteras all there. Almost everyone masked, sort of. No need to go one direction and not reverse. TONS of fruit and veg, halloumi, olives, fresh bread, nuts, dried fruit, eggs. Three fish wagons outside, each with huge sheltering umbrellas for shade and several species in large basins of ice. An ice cream truck, with most of the flavours more or less decipherable.

So, we get cherry tomatoes on the vine, full size tomatoes, sesame studded bread - really giant simit - two kilos of strawberries for 25 TRY (€3.28, £2.95, $5.00 CAD). Also five large halloumi (helim in Turkish) and a flat of eggs. The flat is really not necessary, as well as being somewhat fragile. It contains 30 medium eggs! But it costs  14 TRY, or twice what a half dozen would be at the shop. We’ve had the market eggs before and they were nice - and we don’t have to eat them all at once.

J looking for shoe laces. Fortunately easy to ask for without knowing the word as he need only point to the ones in his shoes. This results in a vendor nodding and returning with a large boot box full of laces. Various colours and all intertwined like a container of worms. Obviously no length labels. Vendor carries on with other business and eventually J comes up with a pair that may do. Five Turkish lira - a buck Canadian. And I get a sleeveless shirt. Not bad for people who didn’t need anything.

Strawberries, when we get them home, absolutely perfect. Not a single underripe or damaged one in the whole lot. Weak vinegar solution, rinse, dry, and into the fridge. Plenty of tasting along the way.

Wednesday, June 3/2020

At the dentist and hear shouting in the street. Doesn’t sound angry, but obviously in Turkish so don’t understand. Turns out it’s gypsies selling potatoes. Now aware, as I write, that I should say Roma, not gypsies. And it seems perfectly reasonable that people should be able to decide what terms are acceptable in reference to themselves. But I’m going to miss the word gypsy, because it always had for me a freedom of the road romantic sound that is missing from the replacement.

Stop on the way back from the dentist at Petek bakery near the waterfront. We’re in search of better bread than the little shop provides, preferably wholemeal. Not overly optimistic, since the bakery specialises in fancy pastries. Either eat in or take out, and not underpriced. There is a huge variety of pastries, but also a few loaves of bread, one kind probably at least partly wholegrain, judging by colour. Not remotely interesting looking, but we buy it anyway. However, they do have simits, sesame studded bagels, known in the South and in Greece as koulouri. Not true bagels, though bagel shaped. These have been baked, whereas a Montreal or New York style bagel would have been boiled first and then baked and would have a denser chewier consistency. But very nice if eaten within hours of being baked. So we choose a large one to try it out and split it when we get home. Very nice - we’ll be back. Bread OK.

Around supper time we hear a very jangly version of Yankee Doodle outside and investigate. An ice cream truck! Really only familiar to both of us from books. Feels like we’re living in an urban area from a previous era, which of course in another sense we are. Earlier we heard a beep and a watermelon truck was passing. Didn’t buy watermelon or ice cream, but fascinated.

Tuesday, June 2/2020

Dental appointments again. I have an extraction this time, but not bad considering.  A rather unwestern thought, which J and I discuss later. Fehmi is a lovely person and a good dentist. Both are important, and clearly one would not want an incompetent dentist no matter how nice a person he was and might also avoid an unpleasant dentist even if he were technically very good. But the two are not unrelated, and Fehmi’s concern about not causing pain and his consideration over our feelings are both personal and professional. The country is emerging from lockdown and he had been worrying about the fact that his usual delivery service had been suspended along with public transportation. And so he had decided that if necessary he would drive to Nicosia with the impressions the lab would need to make our partial plates.

And it occurs to us that this quality of relationship and loyalty is, at its best, what tribalism is based on. Tribalism that is decried in the west - not least by us - because at its worst it becomes nepotism, protection of incompetence and discrimination against outsiders. But tribalism at its best is familial and protection against a purely utilitarian society in which technical and monetary criteria are all that matter.

Yes, we have complained about Cypriot tribalism, about people promoted beyond their abilities, particularly in the South where we have spent the most time. But it’s complicated.

Monday, June 1/2020

We both reading - as usual - when there is -  very unusually - a knock on the door. Where are the masks? OK. It’s a girl, who hands us two plastic bags, the colour of bin bags but a quarter the size. No explanation, but seems to be food. There was a distribution of food packages at an earlier point and Aysel asked at the time if we needed any but we said no, both because we didn’t need help and because we didn’t feel entitled to benefits meant for residents. Is this related? No way to ask, and in any case she’s gone instantly. Open the bags and find that one contains two dozen oranges and the other about the same number of potatoes. Seems like a massive number of potatoes, although they’re nice, as Cyprus potatoes always are. Oranges will be local too. Interesting little windfall. Really, there are undoubtedly people in need, and we’re not, but not easy to redirect.

Over to the mobile phone place just outside the walled city. Can we buy a local sim? Do we want an international sim? Well, not especially. But international seems to be what they’re ready to sell us. And for a month’s worth rather than a permanent arrangement it’s fine. Trigger having been that we have twice had phone calls on the iPhone that I didn’t answer because there’s almost no money left on its UK sim and I wasn’t about to run it down to zero as someone cleared their throat. Also there is some safety factor in possessing a usable phone. So now we do, for 30 days anyway. Turkish phone number and all.

Sunday, May 31/2020

Speculation - and talks - continue on reopening the Cyprus border between North and South. It has now been over six weeks since there was a new case of covid-19 in the North. The North, understandably, considers itself more at risk from the South than vice versa. It has been suggested that the border might be open when the South has gone two weeks with no new cases. However this keeps not quite happening, and there was another new case today, this time of a high school student. The South does have statistics that many places might envy, but many Turkish Cypriot and expats living here feel that they have made sacrifices during a very strict lockdown to achieve a degree of safety that could easily be lost if others are allowed in. On the other hand, the economies of both sides are dependent on borders that are not sealed, and particularly on tourism. It’s the problem the whole world faces but in microcosm. And, as with the rest of the world, there is no totally satisfactory solution.

Saturday, May 30/2020

A cousin emails to tell us of the death of Charlie, a Scottish cousin - technically first cousin once removed. He was my mother’s first cousin, but quite a bit younger as their parents came from a large family (two girls followed by seven boys and a final two girls) and my grandfather was one of the older children while Charlie’s mother came from the tail end of the family. He never married but was a family man in the most inclusive sense, a good correspondent,  a patriot, and a passionate Scots Nationalist decades before the founding of the SNP. We visited him more than once in Gartocharn near Loch Lomond but three years ago he re-retired to Peebles in the Scottish Borders region. That visit will never happen now. But a wee dram now for Charlie. 🥃🥃 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Friday, May 29/2020

Out earlyish in the morning - well, it’s before ten - to check out the pharmacy we used to stop at on the way into Famagusta with Bill and Jane. Suspect the prices no different from the one in the old city, but the chemist in the one I went to with Jane spoke fluent English. There are seven pharmacies within a less than a mile on the same road, but we do identify the one Jane used to go to. However the young man no longer working there, or not today anyway. A woman and an older man. Actually probably not older than us but older than the man I remember. No problem with what we want. Have a prescription from Fehmi but actually far more meds available over the counter here (and in the South) and think people more inclined to consult pharmacist rather than make doctor’s appointments. Everything in blister packs, simply called film. Three prescriptions today cost about the equivalent of a single dispensing fee in Ontario. No problem in either part of Cyprus with quality of medication but suspect that Turkish speakers get no more than the virtually non-existant advice that non Turkish speakers get. Not a problem in this case and often pretty minimal in English speaking countries for that matter.

Stop in the park on the way back. Lovely cool place to sit and good time for a photo op with the giant crow, the crow apparently being a symbol of Famagusta.

Eating lunch when we hear the produce truck arrive. So load up for the next four days. The kind woman across the road who does the baking is there and J lets her know how appreciative we are - at which she disappears into her house and returns with two large portions of pudding, plastic spoons included!

Dental appointments this morning. Really the only place where we can say that going to the dentist is a pleasure, though admittedly this is down to the man himself and not the procedures. Amongst a bit of other work, we’ll be getting partial plates, J’s a replacement and mine new. And before that I need a panoramic x-ray. Fehmi describes the hospital location but this is not an on-the-grid city. I suggest that if I have the name I can call up a map and take a screen shot. Can see that each of us is appalled by the thought of having to use the other’s preferred methods of navigating. I understand his but can’t envisage it, so would memorise the directions - second right, left at the next roundabout, etc, hoping nothing was missing. He knows maps, but doesn’t really see a couple of enlargeable screen shots serving the purpose. J fortunately more versatile. However Fehmi announces that he has called his wife. She’s coming over to bring his lunch and will take us there. As she very kindly does. 

And we’re lucky, because not only do we get there quickly but Filiz comes in with us, which is very handy because she’s fluently bilingual, having been born and grown up in London. The procedure is incredibly fast. Five minute wait. Provide basic info. Say we want panoramic x-ray with both film (for Fehmi) and cd (for us). X-ray done. Wait in lobby. Get film and cd. Pay cashier. No paper work - cashier can see what I have. Eighty-five Turkish lira. That’s $17.16 CAD, €11.26, £10.11. As with most of the world, tax, if any, is included. 

Out for a meal for the first time since the lockdown. Fa Kebob around the corner, a place we’ve eaten in the past. There’s a prominent hand cleaner dispenser and the tables a bit farther apart. When we arrive people are seated outside, although by the time we leave a couple of tables inside are in use. Relaxed, though. Particularly in the case of eleven men enjoying themselves on the deck on the other side of the restaurant. No women, and they occasionally break into song. Their table is so close to the south wall of the city that a man moving his chair back from the table would probably hit the fourteenth century wall behind him. 

Close to nine when we come home and still a warm breeze. And as we approach our place we’re met by the man across the road, with a small container of pastries, still warm. “My mother,” he smiles.

Wednesday, May 27/2020

Things we might have done differently had we expected the world to shut down. Well, surprisingly few. We’re definitely not sorry we came; it’s been and continues to be a lovely interlude. We’re glad we saw friends in London as it may be a very long time before we get a chance again. Packing not bad considering the very short lead in time. Would shift the balance of heavy/light clothes slightly. We left in February and expected to be in Cyprus until about the end of April - not summer, although warm spring. In normal, i.e. non-pandemic, times it isn’t important to get the balance exactly right. If the weather were warmer than anticipated it’s easy enough to pick up a couple of inexpensive t-shirts. Here J’s packing is more varied than mine. I pack almost entirely black because usually for my purposes it is the most versatile. Black jeans with no rivets can almost pass for dress and plain black t-shirts can go to the theatre without looking too casual. Not formal dress, but ok. We didn’t anticipate spending May (by which time we’re usually back in Canada) in Cyprus under lockdown. Unprepared - unsurprisingly - for a situation where for several weeks no stores were permitted to open. 

So today we head out of the walled city in search of a couple of unblack lightweight t-shirts. There are a few shops in the old city that sell clothes, but almost entirely high end brand names - fake or otherwise. And I’m opposed to paying to advertise famous brands. Research online leads me to China Bazaar. A bit of everything, none of it particularly good quality. I describe it to J - think Zellers. And sure enough there’s not a lot there, but enough. Not crowded at all. A girl at the door does the temperature check with wand bit and gives us each a squirt of hand cleaner.  Find a couple of shirts in light colours. Added bonus: the ones that are thin material and don’t advertise big name brands are dead cheap. Perfect. 

Stop on way home at genuine, if smallish, supermarket. Map not always helpful re supermarkets due to tendency of shops to inflate their importance by using the term despite minimal square footage and offerings. In Spain the clue was to search for a hypermart. A supermarket was merely a corner shop, periptero, dépanneur renamed. This supermarket does  have a little more than our regular shops back in the old city, but probably nothing worth going for. J scores a packet of coffee on sale and I pick up a pair of socks. Gives us our smile of the day though. In the fruit department a bin of unprepossessing smallish grapefruit are labelled greyfurt. 

On the way home pass the market, a large roofed structure where men have started unloading oranges and melons for tomorrow’s weekly municipal market. Also pass Minder, our favourite village style restaurant, still closed despite the loosening regulations.

Tuesday, May 26/2020

Temperature back into the more seasonal highish twenties, with humidity still pleasantly low and nice breeze. Interesting the benefits of a very high ceiling. Probably 25 feet. Of course heat rises and hangs out along the distant ceiling. Less useful in winter. But also good during lockdown for making the place feel larger than it is in usable square area. A phenomenon we’ve noticed before. The flat we stayed at in St Petersburg (Leningrad) Russia was not large but was in a building with old fashioned high ceilings - though lower than here - and the effect was similar.

Third day of the three day holiday. Aysel messages to say that her mum has made bulgur koftesi and she is bringing us over some for dinner, which she does. They’re a sausage shaped bulgur and potato casing stuffed with a ground meat, onion and ground nut filling. Then fried - or can be deep fried. Delicious. And Aysel knew we love them.

Monday, May 25/2020

Well, the deed is done. Arrival of email in inbox saying we can now check in online for tomorrow’s flight signals that this is indeed the last moment. So proceed to cancel tomorrow’s flight. Terms have improved. Customer complaints have had their effect, or more likely they have been threatened with the possibility of cuts in government assistance. At any rate they are now offering a choice between a cash refund of the return portion of our tickets, despite the fact that we and not they cancelled the flight, or a credit for almost the entire amount that we paid for the Winnipeg to London round trips, despite the fact that we have already flown on the outward bound portions. Not bad. 

Sunday, May 24/2020

Ramazan Bayramı today. And very quiet. Families must be inside celebrating and the shops are almost all shut, sort of like Christmas Day at home. We go for a walk around six. Restaurants closed. One café open as well as the pastry place down near the port wall. They have a café inside where you can have coffee as well as their pastries and a shop attached that sells pastries and sweets. We don’t  go in but they seem to have a number of customers including some on their upstairs balcony. Social distancing really does discourage browsing. If you’re mostly window shopping without expecting to be all that tempted you’re using a serious customer’s time and space.

Saturday, May 23/2020

We finally meet our host, Aysel, and her partner and young daughter. Aysel has been in Ankara having a bone marrow transplant and has completed her quarantine on returning to the TRNC. She has a Canadian connection as well. She’s an architect and spent two years studying in Winnipeg. We’ve corresponded over the last three months but not met.

We go for a walk in the evening. Nice to see the restaurants beginning to open up. It’s warm with a light breeze and people seem to be eating at outside tables only, a bit more widely spaced than before the lockdown. The old city always fairly quiet at night anyway. Busy with coach tours during the daytime in the pre-pandemic days but empties out at night. But those who are out are cheerful, happy to be able to go to cafés and bars restaurants.

Friday, May 22/2020

About to go into a long weekend of the odd sort that comes from religious holidays on a lunar calendar. It’s three days, but beginning on Saturday evening and running through Tuesday. Ramadan ends at sunset tomorrow and is followed by a feast day, Ramadan Bayram, also called Eid al-Fıtr. Bayram simply means feast, so literally the Ramadan feast. And Eid means celebration, so the celebration of breaking the fast. Usually celebrated with feasting, sweets, and much visiting amongst family and friends. The visiting bit will be somewhat curtailed this year but presumably the feasting will start take place and the restaurants are now open, though with more spacing than previously. 

The three day holiday is national as well as religious, so presumably most things will be closed. Our guess is that our little shop won’t shut three days in a row, but we would be ok if it did.

Talks between North and South on reopening the border. South saying that they intend to ask those crossing for a certificate saying they have tested covid-19 negative. Not problematic in one sense, in that there are no known active cases in the North. Nuisance and expense factor. Also, what sort of tests - molecular? serological? - and certified by whom. Rumour has it that they will start by allowing students and workers with schools and employment in the South cross first. If they are asking for a certificate provided in the last 72 hours, do they expect these people to be retested every three days? Process may need some tweaking.

In this case the South is not looking at measures that would affect only the North. The short version is that as the airports open they expect, with some exceptions, to accept only passengers  from relatively lightly affected countries and to ask for negative certificates. Unsurprisingly, the UK is not on their list. The difficulty with this from our point of view is that few flights coming in from the UK means few going from Cyprus to the UK. 

And the UK, not to be left out, has decided, nearly three months after the rest of the world, to quarantine those flying into the country. Probably not applicable to connecting flights. Not too late to be any use at all, but....And just as they are, probably prematurely, relaxing other regulations and sending children back to school. Online comment: 

“Look, it’s very simple, the people coming into the country who definitely weren’t a significant risk before are now a very significant risk, whilst the millions of school children who definitely were a significant risk before are now not a significant risk at all, and this is all part of a very clever strategy and definitely isn’t a load of hastily cobbled together bollocks at all”.

Thursday, May 21/2020

Thursday weekly municipal market reopens today. Seniors and vulnerable people to go early, think before nine. It’s not that far, but there’s nothing we urgently need. Think the fruit and veg are as fresh on the truck. Fairly obvious that one couldn’t go back and forth comparing produce before deciding which tomatoes to buy - one direction only and keep moving, don’t squeeze the fruit. Fair enough, but not much incentive to leave the house on a hot morning when most of what we want is delivered more or less to the door. The market also used to carry things like inexpensive clothing, gadgets, minor hardware, etc. but will now be limited to food. Partly because it’s a necessity and partly because the stalls will need to be spaced farther  apart and there will, therefore, have to be fewer of them. Be interesting to see the comments of those who do go, though. There may be glitches to sort out for next week.

Have words with ungrateful small black cat who has been sleeping in the shade of the courtyard plants. Cat happy to ask for more food but very fussy about exactly what. J has bought it cat food which hasn’t proved much more satisfactory than the dog food. Tell it that when we buy human food that turns out to be less delicious than anticipated we do not throw it out. We eat it and hope for better luck next time. Small black cat does not seem impressed.

Wednesday, May 20/2020

“Coronavirus: Cabinet to decide on reopening of airports on Friday” reads the headline in the Cyprus Mail. It’s not what they mean, of course. There’s no question of reopening airports on Friday, and Larnaca airport has not, in fact, been closed. Cargo flights have been entering and leaving, just not scheduled passenger flights. Does mean that the Cabinet will meet on Friday to look at resuming regular passenger flights, possibly establishing an actual starting date as well as conditions.

Fall asleep in the afternoon and wake when J asks if I heard the truck beep. I hadn’t but he, fortunately had. So the fruit and veg truck that usually comes on Tuesday had stayed away on the holiday but is here today instead. And may well have explained this to everyone last Friday. More oranges. They’re so good, with each section like a mini cup of juice. Apricots for the first time, small but fully ripe. Though always slightly disappointing because both tinned and dried have so much more intense flavour. 

Someone has been eating the flowers on our passion flower vine. Originally thought it was a bird but now wonder about bats, in part because there are bats swooping around in the evening and in part because the consumption always happens at night. There are eighteen types of insect eating bat in Cyprus as well as one fruit eating type. Although the flowers are rather a long way from becoming fruit. 

Tuesday, May 19/2020

Our road, Coming Back from Corner Shop - Our Place on Right

Just as we’ve comfortably established the rhythm of the fruit and veg truck, it fails to show. Not much we need desperately, but we’re down to one orange 🍊and we usually have one each at breakfast 🍊 🍊. Is this because the municipal market will be starting up this week? Is the truck finished for good? If I go to the shop and buy an orange will that cause the truck to appear in my absence? Eventually I do go to the shop and buy three oranges and two bottles of Efes beer. And no, this does not make the truck appear. And somewhat later we realise that today is a national holiday, officially Youth and Sports Day. Clearly there will have been no youth gatherings and no sports events. And, it seems, no truck. 

Keep an eye out for the neighbours as we wish to make a small contribution to the charitable offerings that are given at the end of Ramadan, particularly for feeding the poor. Ramadan will end at sunset on Saturday and be followed by days of feast and celebration, so it is customary to collect the offerings early enough that they will be available for food before the festivities start. There are various possible charities but we’re handicapped by lack of local knowledge as well as lack of language. However, we decide to put the money in an envelope and write the word fıtre, the term for the donation, on it. Takes a while to spot a neighbour we sort of know, as they all seem to have disappeared behind walls into their air conditioning, but when the man who drives the white truck emerges I don my mask and give him the envelope. “For fıtre”. He hesitates a moment, then smiles and says “I give”. Communication accomplished.

Monday, May 18/2020

Wake up and check weather forecast. Says unreasonably hot. Think well that’s honest, if a little blunt. Can’t compete with my all time favourite - a British presenter referring to an offshore low pressure area “lurking with intent” - but still one for the collection. Then realise eyes not quite awake yet. Forecast actually says unseasonably hot.

Sad news regarding yesterday’s fires. Students were evacuated from a University of the Eastern Mediterranean campus, and British expats appear to have rescued a number of dogs and cats, who may well have had no specific owners. But the worst news concerns the damage to olive trees, some of which were a thousand years old.

Fehmi, our dentist, messaged yesterday to ask if we could come to the clinic today. Yes! The appointment is for eleven and we leave early enough that we get to sit in the shade under the ancient fig tree outside the mosque for a few minutes. Shade appreciated, especially since masks, regardless of fabric, are hotter than not wearing them. While the theory is that masks are always required outside one’s own home the practice seems a little freer. Everyone carries a mask, usually visibly, but most people seem only to slide it up to cover both mouth and nose when entering a building or approaching people outside. In other words they don’t actually have them fully on when driving their cars or walking alone on a city block. Seems likely that the police take a similar view when enforcing the law. Every day the number of infractions are reported, and they do involve charges and fines, but the numbers aren’t enormous and probably apply to those who have entered businesses unmasked or ignored reminders in public areas.

The vines in our courtyard garden are producing flowers now. Have no idea what the vines are, though the flowers look distinctive. And make an interesting linguistic discovery. The English word paradise comes from the Persian meaning enclosed garden.

Sunday, May 17/2020

                        Photo courtesy of CypriumNews


Still hot, although our outdoor thermometer didn’t go beyond 34. Earlier today humidity was given as 11%. Does that make us a desert? Actually, the island of Cyprus is officially at risk of desertification, caused by decreasing rainfall, urbanisation, and increased water consumption. Interior temperatures as high as 42 today and forest fires have broken out in both South and North. While referred to as forest fires, they aren’t on a Canadian scale. Probably closer to being grass fires, though still closing roads and threatening buildings. Cyprus does have forests, but not where the fires are located.

Has resulted in the sad loss of olive trees though. (Photo by Ahmet Said Sayın, FB friend of friend).

Saturday, May 16/2020

Hot. Though how hot depends on which unreliable source you ask. Noon would have been high 30’s, possibly 40. Someone in the TRNC posts at 5 PM saying it is 43 at the time but not clear precise location or that they have avoided placing their thermometer in the sun. Ours, an hour later, registering 32. But the really good news, unexpected as we hadn’t researched it, is that the humidity is very low, probably 20% or a little more - averaging the sources. So, while it is hot there is none of the skin can’t breathe unpleasantness of Vietnam, say, or even Sioux Lookout in a heatwave.

Friday, May 15/2020

Heatwave. Temperatures in the mid-thirties today and predicted similar for the next week. There’s an advantage to being on the coast, though. Temperatures always moderated slightly compared with those inland and there’s usually a breeze here. Famagusta usually a little cooler than Larnaca as well, a difference we sometimes fail to appreciate when here in winter. 

Meanwhile in the South the government has issued a red alert for forest fires. Inland temperatures in places there are expected to reach the low forties over the next two or three days.

More bits of lockdown relaxation being introduced. Schools closed until the end of June but restaurant take aways allowed now and some restaurants will be allowed to open next week. Testing required and terms of opening not yet made public. Suspect they will be more lenient about outdoor dining, though obviously masks not a possibility for customers whilst eating. It has now been three and a half weeks since the last new case was reported, and there have been no active cases In the TRNC since May 11. Testing continues and this could change. The last citizens to come in are still completing quarantine - fourteen days in government facilities followed by seven of self-isolation at home. The weekly open air market is meant to resume on Thursday for the first time since March 12. All sellers being tested. Meanwhile the produce truck continues to stop a few metres from our door on Tuesdays and Fridays in the early afternoon. Could hardly be more convenient. Had expected the orange growing season to be over by now but very pleased that it isn’t.

Thursday, May 14/2020

Feed some tinned dog food to small black cat. Tin acquired by mistake of a sort familiar to many immigrants who don’t speak the language. Had wanted to buy evaporated milk and spotted some tins immediately next to the cartons of UHT milk. Tins about the right size. Picture of little girl hugging dog. Minute print and in any case glasses tending to fog as a result of breathing through mask. 

Discover at home that tin contains small pieces of meat in a sort of gravy. Much more meat than gravy. Assume that cat will be pleased, as we are soup makers and consequently our scraps thin to the point of non-existent. J feeds cat at a spot far enough from our front door that cat will not, presumably, think it is entitled to join us in the kitchen. Discover later that cat, who had followed J out to the feeding station with every sign of enthusiasm, has not been impressed. Most of the food remains for J to dispose of. Has cat, perchance, spotted tin and been offended by doggy picture?  🐾

Coal tits equally uninterested in breadcrumbs, although they seem to be fat and thriving without our assistance. Wonder whether crows at home have been annoyed by our absence. They were almost always pleased about the food.

Wednesday, May 13/2020

Occasional flights have left Larnaca for the UK and other European. Actually very few. The difficulty with the border remains, although there have been one time negotiated crossings, normally facilitated by the British High Commission. The worst part of these is that they usually give very little notice - sometimes hours - and can be cancelled with equally little notice. Indeed it is possible that seats are offered to passengers by airlines that hope not to genuinely have them available. Cargo is simpler and more lucrative and extra cargo possibilities at the last minute may lead to passenger spaces being cancelled. 

This is likely to become much simpler once the Larnaca Airport is officially handling passenger traffic again and scheduled flights resume, albeit on a reduced timetable. The Cypriot Health Minister (South) said two weeks ago that phase three of exiting the lockdown would take place between June 9 and July 13 and would include gradual reopening of airports and airlines. Not necessarily the last word, as response to the pandemic has been a work in place and plans and procedures have changed over time.

Tuesday, May 12/2020

Weather here predicted to be hot over the next few days, probably in the 30’s, which is more typical of Famagusta in June and July than May. We have high ceilings and stone walls, and it’s nice outside in the early morning, late afternoon and evening, usually with a breeze. Meanwhile unenviable records being set in Northwest Ontario - for nighttime lows. Sioux Lookout recorded at -7.4. That’s the lowest since 1943, before either of us was born. Some averaging out wouldn’t go amiss.

“Our” black cat frequently to be found curled up on the doormat, although even if the door is standing open and nobody is paying attention it doesn’t cross the threshold. And across the road there is plenty of activity at the coal tit apartments. At least two are occupied but two more have been in use and we’re not positive whether they still are lived in or were abandoned. Can imagine the domestic disputes - yes it was a lot of work making the nest but the view is better from next door.

Monday, May 11/2020

The day everyone in North Cyprus has been waiting for. No active cases remaining. Zero. Not impossible of course that another will emerge. Tested and traced assiduously and the border shut, but there are still people in quarantine who came in with the last lot, so fingers crossed. But well done.

Nice meal to accompany the news. The neighbours delivered some lamb from their barbecue last night, along with pita and humus. We’d already eaten - not being affected by the Ramadan tradition of waiting until after sunset. But tonight filled the pita pockets with lamb and heated them in the oven. Lovely Cypriot supper along with salad.

Sunday, May 10/2020

We came to North Cyprus for two weeks. It’s been two months today. We have been incredibly lucky. No idea what’s next. Most guesses we might have made in the recent past would have been wrong. Lockdown relaxation began on Monday, but doesn’t include  late evenings and Sundays, explicitly because the authorities are aware that evenings and Sundays are the times when there would be the most temptation to break social distancing regulations and they would be the hardest to enforce. But there have been no new cases here since April 20.

Saturday, May 9/2020

Hard to draw a line between feral and non-feral cats here. The climate is such that living outdoors is easy year round and probably none of the cats around here sleep inside, even in winter. Not sure that the ones the neighbours feed are “their” cats or just ones with which they have a friendly relationship. And they know better than to feed them right on the doorstep. So now does J, after the black cat he fed curled up on the doormat. Still gets our scraps but not in our little garden

The city walls are about two miles in circumference. It’s not circular, so the diameter formula doesn’t work, but still nowhere you might want to go is likely to be as much as a mile away. The heart, although not the geographical centre, is the mosque, originally St Nicholas Cathedral, and the square in front of it. The fig tree in front is believed to be the oldest living thing in Cyprus, its plaque identifying it as dating from 1299. Ground breaking for the cathedral was in 1298 and it was finished about a century later.

It became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1571 - not ancient history as timelines in the Middle East go.

Friday, May 8/2020

More or less in the non-news department, the UN Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus is prepared to assist North and South in opening border crossing points “when the situation allows”. Headline reads:

UNFICYP ready to facilitate sides with efforts to ease restrictions at crossing points

This was not a grand announcement but a response to a question from a reporter. The surprise would have been if they had said they had no interest in North/South relations and would not help if asked. In no way informative re any actual plans or even discussions regarding reopening crossing points.

Thursday, May 7/2020

The call to prayer -  that long, haunting chant - draws in more than human interest. Yesterday on our walk we passed a dog just as the ezan began, and the dog joined in. Today at the noon call the dogs in the kennel next door added their voices in a howl.

J cuts his own hair most times anyway, settling for an annual professional cut, usually in Larnaca, so no enormous difference doing it here - and the weather is getting warm. Barbers and hairdresser not yet open for business so imperfect scissors pressed into service and excess locks hit the floor.

Wednesday, May 6/2020

Middle of the day not ideal for walking unless it’s overcast. Official shade temperature in the 20’s but moving J’s little magnetic thermometer into full sun yields a reading of 40. There’s a breeze, though, and an afternoon walk is really pleasant. Our road  curves north, and following it to the end brings us to St George the Greek Church, or at least ruins of same. It was built around 1300 in mixed  Byzantine and Gothic styles in what was then the Greek quarter of the city. Not that the city was short of churches. At one point the story was that there was one for every day of the year, though that can never have been more than joking exaggeration or pious wish. There are still remaining cannon balls from the Ottoman siege of 1571.

Pass later another St George Church - St George Xorinos. This one rather more intact, although inaccessible,  also 14th century. It is less ambitious, but St George Xorinos - St George the Exiler - comes with an interesting curse. And no, we didn’t collect any soil.

Tuesday, May 5/2020

Have determined (we think) that the produce truck comes on Tuesday and Friday mornings. So postpone mini trip out to grocery store in order not to miss it, despite also thinking that it is possible to trigger truck arrival by first buying groceries. Noon comes and no truck. Eat lunch. Go to shop to buy water, bread, cheese, eggs, olives, wine (their second last bottle) and minimal veg. Come back and begin cleaning purchases. Produce truck arrives. Questions: a) could truck have been triggered earlier by earlier shopping trip, and b) is there a minimum purchase  of unnecessary fruit and veg that must be acquired at the grocery store in order to have the truck arrive with duplicates? Truck’s offerings usually both cheaper and nicer.

Discussing our perception that the twilight period here seems shorter than it does at home, and decide it must be down to two factors. One is our assumption that when the temperatures are consistently in the twenties the days will be much longer. The other is that the more northern latitudes do, of course, have longer days as the solstice approaches. But how much more twilight? Fortunately, it’s easy to tell, as the second last Muslim prayers of the day are at sunset and the last ones when the last bit of light disappears from the sky. And it’s possible to look up prayer times for virtually any location in the world. So today the relevant times for Famagusta are 7:33 and 9:02 PM - an hour and 29 minutes. In Sioux Lookout the times are 8:34 and 10:29 - an hour and 55 minutes. So not only is the twilight period longer at higher latitudes, but it ends, of course, much later. Hence our frequent observation that we’ve barely finished eating and already it’s getting dark.

Current read aloud book (well, one of them) is Defying Hitler, a truly remarkable memoir of life in Germany between early childhood at the beginning of World War I and young adulthood in the 1930’s. It’s an insightful and compelling view of German society in a tumultuous period written entirely from a civilian point of view. 

Monday, May 4/2020

Liberation day. Now permitted, during the day time Monday to Saturday, to walk more or less where we wish. Some shops open. Masks to be worn everywhere, and social distancing unchanged. Banks and pharmacies to follow regular hours. First destination is the bank. Have not gone previously as the nearest not our preferred. However this has left us using euros to buy food and during our time here the exchange rate has gone from 7 Turkish lira to the euro to 7.7 TL to the euro. Corner shop still working on 7 and hard to blame them as they will have paid for their supplies at old rates. Our bank a short walk outside the walled city. We reach it and find a queue of several carefully spaced people waiting outside. But J points to the cash point, where there is no queue. And no problem.

Back via the main square. A number of shops open, some pretty optimistically, as they are meant for tourists and carry jewellery or designer clothes and handbags. There really are virtually no tourists here, and it’s not the kind of souvenir buying we go in for. Do stop at a store we went to when we first arrived. It’s aimed at tourists as well, but of a different sort. Shampoo, souvenirs, some food basics, soft drinks, and quite an impressive array of booze - floor to ceiling along one whole wall and spilling over into the next aisle. Whisky prices not bad. Wine prices not exactly bad but mostly what they think tourists might recognise and want, like standard South Cyprus wines at higher than South Cyprus prices. Turkish wine a much better buy but not much in evidence. 

J does buy ground coffee and - interesting find - peanut butter at a much better price than the corner shop. Check the contents and find 90% peanuts and 10% carob powder. Tastes quite good, and seems to be a Cypriot product, which accounts for the price. Overall our corner shop is a better place to buy food, which is nice as it’s also handy. 

Sunday, May 3/2020

Eight new cases of coronavirus in the South, bringing their total to 872, or 556 active. Doesn’t really bode particularly well for any re-opening of the border. North now at one active case and not likely to wish to open its only land border to a country with many more. And not as if the South is pushing for an opening. They acknowledge that there is little threat from Turkish Cypriots but point out, fairly enough, that Turkey has a large number of active cases, currently over 59,000 and there are many Turks in the TRNC. There are, but none are free to enter now and those few who entered after the middle of March have done fourteen days isolation. This should make it a non-issue, although that would depend on the actors on both sides genuinely wanting solutions.

Saturday, May 2/2020

Don’t really need food, but bottled water a constant on the list, so I go to the corner shop. Regardless of what other grocery sources we discover next week, we’ll always get water from the closest place because it’s heavy. Old lady passing the house as I leave. Well, I think of her as old, anyway. Could conceivably be my age, or possibly younger but walks so slowly I have to make an effort not to trip over her. Tempted to do an end run and be back home already by the time she reaches the shop, but instead trail along behind, leaving decently well over a metre as it’s an empty street. Made more embarrassing by the fact that she keeps stopping to look at me. No language in common - just keep moving, lady, or I’ll be walking on the spot. Store busier than usual, probably because it was closed yesterday for the holiday. Metre distance would require some choreography, though usually no problem here. Just grab the water container, pay and leave. Do, however, note out the corner of my eye that the wine shelf, well thinned out on the last trip, seems to have disappeared. Someone else must have been drinking our wine.

There is now only one remaining active Covid-19 case in the TRNC, but the government is being cautious in the relaxation of the lockdown. The deputy prime minister warns that the epidemic is not over, and specifically the current ban on going anywhere in the evening is extended and going anywhere except grocery stores, pharmacies and banks on a Sunday is still forbidden (in any case banks, most pharmacies and many grocery stores are closed on Sunday):

WE SHOULD NOT COME TOGETHER WITH FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND DO NOT HAVE FAMILY MEETINGS. We should know that if we do this, we will also endanger our loved ones, family, and friends beside ourselves.

The curfew in the evening has been EXTENDED for this reason. In other words, there is a curfew in the evening so that there are no family Gatherings, home visits and so on. 

There are also those who ask why there will be a partial curfew on Sundays but not Saturday. The reason is this: The traditionally BBQs, visiting Family and Friends, gathering together are very common. For this reason, although this is forbidden for every day, there is a partial curfew on Sundays to CONTROL this, since it is more frequent on Sundays.

Friday, May 1/2020

May Day. As quiet as one would expect in a locked down country. And today the little store must be closed, as we would normally see the occasional person walking past with a bag of groceries. We do have a delivery, though. The lovely lady across the road comes over with a gift - four of her beautiful pastries, still warm. 

Sent a message to Air Canada two weeks ago, pointing out that they had changed our return itinerary so that the flight from Toronto to Winnipeg left before the one from London to Toronto had arrived. Their online options not designed to fix it. They would allow a one time only free change, which shouldn’t be wasted rectifying an error they had made, and which I referred to politely as a glitch. So today a reply: “Unfortunately we are unable to assist you with this matter”. Thought this might be the end point, but hardly the start of our discussion. They do suggest the same unsuitable online possibilities that did not deal with the problem two weeks ago. Or telephoning, which is not impossible but easier said than done. Actually, AC has made a change, though not necessarily in response to the problem they created. On Wednesday they were pleased to send us confirmation of our bookings that listed the connecting flight as leaving two days after our arrival in Toronto, a rather loose connection. Should really pursue this except that 1) have no clear method yet of making the London to Toronto flight, and 2) probable quarantine in Toronto is likely to mean changes to or abandonment of the Toronto to Winnipeg flight anyway. So remains a work in progress.