Wednesday, July 1/2020 🇨🇦

J is training the passionflower vine to cover the enclosed garden sky openings. The vine co-operates, its tiny light green tendril fingers grasping any surface rougher than window glass. And next to the window J has given it a rope to cling to as it heads to the opposite wall - its progress almost fast enough to watch the movement. The overhead canopy in the making is more difficult as the vine needs a little help in spanning the large openings without its own weight bringing it down in between the crosspieces. It’s unreachable, because the building is about twenty-five feet high, but J can just manage to prod it into place by means of standing on a chair and prodding it with a pole, the difficulty being that the eager vine attempts to cling to the pole rather than the crosspiece. By the end of the summer there may be a complete roof of shady vine.

Tuesday, June 30/2020

Well, drama continues. A Syrian man was arrested after arriving in the North on a jet ski  from Turkey on Saturday. He appears to have paid €5000 - not, precisely for the unusual transport but to be taken across the border to the Republic of Cyprus. But that, of course, didn’t happen. Meanwhile the story yesterday about the ferry passenger who was said to have tested positive, then said to have tested negative seems to have disappeared, presumably just inaccurate rumour.

Not in the rumour category is the Turkish Medical Association demanding via a lawsuit that the Council of Ministers‘ decision to open the borders without quarantine in some cases be cancelled, and that the health system be made more robust before anybody - particularly read Turkish residents - be allowed to enter without going into quarantine. Have no idea how much clout the Association has, but we may find out.

Drop round to the dental surgery and have a visit with Fehmi, Always a pleasure. We’re in the house he was born in and his memories of childhood and the later conflicts are interesting, but so equally are his intelligent and humanistic philosophical reflections.

Monday, June 29/2020

Ferry arrived today from Turkey and apparently a two year old child on it tested negative but the parent tested positive. Story not easy to untangle. Not even clear whether the adult was the child’s mother or father. This, actually, a common problem with texts translated from Turkish to English because the possessive pronoun in Turkish isn’t gender specific, so can be translated correctly as either his or her. Much anger online as people ask how the person could have boarded without a negative certificate, have the other passengers been quarantined, many etceteras. However by evening there are reports that the first rumours were wrong and the person in question tested negative on arrival.  Presumably more clarity by tomorrow.

In the evening we go round the corner to our local restaurant and find that they do, finally, have sheftalia sausages. So our running joke, like Alice in Wonderland’s jam yesterday and jam tomorrow but never jam today is over. Sheftalia today.

*Sheftalia, are a Cypriot sausage. Name sounds the same in both North and South, although the spelling is, obviously, quite different in Turkish. They’re made from ground pork or lamb, or possibly beef, mixed with finely chopped onion and parsley, salt, and pepper. The filling is formed into small balls which are then placed on spread out caul, which is transparent and naturally fatty. Squares of caul (thin lacy membrane surrounding internal organs) are cut around them and wrapped, making little sausages which are put on skewers and then grilled, preferably on charcoal, until golden brown. In the process of cooking the caul fat melts and drips off, leaving just the  browned sausages. sounds rather off-putting, but completely delicious.  [Taken from my blog of March 9/2019]

Photo: Cyprusisland.net

Sunday, June 28/2020

And in the list of daily changes are the flights out of Ercan Airport (Nicosia, North Cyprus). Airlines, which basically means Turkish Airlines and Pegasus, have been told that they will each be limited to one flight a day in. And, obviously, one flight in means one return flight. The reason is that the TRNC has decided to require PCR tests of passengers before they board flights to North Cyprus AND after they arrive, and can see that the need for testing on arrival is going to overwhelm their test and lab facilities. The good thing from our point of view, should we decide to burn our bridges with the South and leave from Ercan, is that flights leaving are much less likely to be full. And presumably tests aren’t required to leave the country, although that would depend on requirements at the destination point - which could be subject to change. The pandemic has created as much administrative chaos in sophisticated countries as in the tiny outliers, and as many decisions made in response to ego, personal profit and confusion.

Saturday, June 27/2020

“The UK is looking to include Cyprus on a list of countries to be announced next week from where travellers will have unrestricted access to the country, while head of the hotels association Pasyxe said the UK’s decision to lift quarantine restrictions is “important” for Cyprus”. This from the Cyprus Mail Saturday afternoon. It’s understandable, as the UK is a primary source of tourists for the Cyprus Republic, probably followed by Russia and Scandinavia. 

The reciprocal aspect would obviously benefit us. Once air traffic is well established all planes from the UK that land will clearly return. At the moment Wizz Air is probably the only airline regularly flying between Larnaca and London, and they fly to Luton not Heathrow. 

British Airways purports to be doing so as of July, but many complaints from expats in the North that every flight they have booked for July or August has then been cancelled. The purchasers have been given credit, of course, but are then locked in to British Airways or they lose their money. Some have had several BA flights cancelled. Despite what is hard not to regard as duplicitous greed, BA remains our first choice. A) They fly to Heathrow and not one of the less convenient airports, and B) Their flyer points scheme is more useful than most and we have made use of it.

Friday, June 26/2020

UK looking to build air bridges - reciprocal arrangements with a number of European countries whereby their residents will be allowed free access without quarantine. ITV reports:

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said air bridges would only be agreed with countries which have a coronavirus test and trace system of the same standard as that used in Britain.

Rather brave of him, considering that the UK test and trace efforts have been an utter fiasco - too little, too late, and contracts given to the wrong people. Not expected to be functional before September, and government announcements alternate between non-credible numbers and frank admissions that the government has no idea how many people have been tested. While the trace half of the equation is sheer fantasyland. 

One would have thought, under the circumstances, that Shapps might have wished to qualify his statement by saying that air bridges would only be agreed with countries that have a coronavirus test and trace system of the same standard OR BETTER than that used in Britain. In any case the difficulty is going to be finding countries desperate enough for tourists that they agree to pair with a country whose current rate of infection is far higher than any of the EU countries.

The real reason for the eagerness to pair is not that the UK sees itself as desirable holiday territory at the moment. Rather that UK (well, mostly English - but that’s another story) citizens are hoping to holiday in Mediterranean countries without having to go into quarantine when they return. Many of the sort who crowded Bournemouth Beach this weekend simply want the old life back at any price.

*Note: have been complaints that photo used compressed lens. Photo credit to the Telegraph. Not a tabloid and usually only guilty of right wing bias. 🤔

Thursday, June 25/2020

Ambitiously, for us, we leave for market at 7:30 and are rewarded with a light breeze that’s almost cool. Strawberries almost finished but lots of cherries, though they’re a bit uneven in ripeness. Cherry tomatoes, peaches, pears, aubergines and more sesame bread. We even remember to get triple A batteries for the little flashlights.

We’re planning to look at a studio flat a few blocks away for after the end of the month, and have booked to go look at it at four. A few minutes before we leave Aysel texts after her oncologist’s appointment to say that her doctor wants her to continue living at her mother’s place until September, so if we want to stay where we are longer we can. 

We go to the studio anyway, but explain to the lovely young woman there that we were definitely looking to book until a few minutes ago, but....She’s understanding and cheerful. Well, now you have options. People are not booking now? They are - but then they cancel. It’s understandable. So not totally settled. It’s less money, but smaller. Nice location, though what in the old city isn’t.

Wednesday, June 24/2020

Our lives only or is there a dark comedy aspect to everyone’s script? Phone call at breakfast from the nice lady with whom we have been corresponding at the Canadian Honorary Consulate in Nicosia. Clear from the beginning that as well as touching base she is eager to get off the phone. 

I, however, slowly waking up and asking questions re border crossing. NL points out that I can ask these questions in an email. True, and I am too polite to say that she has not been particularly good at reading previous emails, to the point at which I have wondered whether her written English is not as fluent as it might be. Though some of it may be down to excessive Greek politeness. So, more than one email from her has begun with “we are glad that you are well”. And indeed we are well, but it seems odd that she should comment when we have not expressly said that we were all right. But have observed that the Turkish are even more effusive. No doubt many in the eastern Mediterranean consider all Anglos blunt to the point of rudeness. 

I’m not reluctant to ask questions by email. They just never seem to  quite get answered. But we soon get to the point of NL’s wish to end the call as she says that she has to go as she is using her own personal mobile. What she doesn’t say is that she is making a long distance call to a Turkish number, which is expensive. And unnecessarily expensive as the actual distance between us is a little more than 30 miles - much less than the distance across London. The expense is not NL’s fault of course. But it is down to the Cypriot Republic’s refusal to make communication easy. So why on earth did she phone instead of emailing? Can only guess that she has end of month reports to fill out - emails sent, phone calls made, etc - and the phone call section looking a little thin. But surely they give her a budget?

And so I do email and ask my questions. If we cross the border with consular assistance do we require a PCR test? If we have a negative test can we stay in the South and make our flight reservations from there? And, somewhat wickedly, can resist adding that unfortunately the simplest solution for us would be to fly home from the North, though after twenty years of visiting the Republic we would not like to create difficulties. 

Takes only a matter of hours to receive an answer. Blood test required. All booking must be done and registered before consular assistance in crossing (and within 72 hours of negative test results, which may not be provided on the day of testing and can only be obtained from a hospital 30 miles away). After crossing required to go straight to airport. NL does sound slightly sympathetic, though. Says she can understand if we prefer to wait as border crossing requirements change daily. 

Not surprisingly, no reference to implied threat re flying from North. And none expected. But barely possible that some hint may filter through to those in power in the Republic that difficulties at the border discourage tourists as well as attempting to intimidate officialdom in the North.

Tuesday, June 23/2020

Looking for information on the ever changing border requirements. Published info is never, of course, directed at Canadians, but much of that aimed at British expats is of interest. Not so much the helpful advertisements. “Here’s a warning for UK expats. Smart Brits Abroad Are Saving Thousands On Funeral Costs Using This Funeral Plan”. Something they know that I don’t, or is it just the demographic?

Meanwhile the border situation still lacks clarity. Read online that the crossing to the South will be open only to Turkish Cypriot citizens and permanent residents. That’s obviously not us, but is it accurate, and if so will it change without notice? 

Sometimes categories that aren’t covered are simply omitted inadvertently as regulations are drawn up in haste. So, for example, our dentist has been open for five weeks now. But the dentists never got official notice that they could reopen. They simply observed that everyone in similar categories had been given the green light and followed suit. This is a small enough country that it worked. 

On the other hand rumour has it tonight that some of the residents who have just arrived on flights home here are apparently being sent back to the UK because their residence permits had expired when they were not here to renew them. General understanding had been that they would be permitted to renew late as they had no way of returning to do so on time. And that may yet prove to be the case. It may all be a misunderstanding that gets sorted, but not without tears.

Monday, June 22/2019

Reading aloud to J an article in which the words “my husband” appear. Interruption from Siri on other iPad, currently charging nearby: “What’s your husband’s name?” Taken aback I ask “Why do you want to know?” But Siri is not about to be drawn: “You have to unlock your iPad.” But I don’t, and that ends it.

Wait until evening when there’s a cool breeze to go for a walk. Cafés and small restaurants spring up from nowhere and spill into the streets as people enjoy coffee or beer. One popular spot always has music as well, though J points out how young the patrons are. And they are - much closer to the age of our grandchildren than our children. Just after the longest day of the year but not nearly as long here as at higher latitudes. Sun rose at 5:30 this morning and set at 20:01 - fourteen hours and thirty-one minutes of daylight. So darkness comes quite early.

Sunday, June 21/2020

Reliable reports that the tourism minister has lost his job over the scandal of the private plane arriving from Turkey bearing Turkish men and Russian women bound for gambling rather than technical consulting. The sin being not the gambling but the fact that they didn’t go through the normal two week quarantine. As of July1 the TRNC will be admitting tourists with negative coronavirus tests although those from all but a select few countries will be required to quarantine for fourteen days which will keep away most casual holiday makers.

Saturday, June 20/2020

As well as low humidity - so far, knock on wood, etc - Famagusta usually has a breeze, so sitting out on our front steps is often very pleasant. It’s also as close to the road as many old Scottish houses, that is no distance at all. Handy when the fruit and veg truck comes twice a week. And, separate from that there’s a watermelon truck. Haven’t figured out its schedule, if there is one. 

Plenty of foot traffic as well, and most people say hello, either in Turkish or in English. And cars. Over the nearly twenty years we’ve been coming here the number and quality of cars has increased enormously. Japanese cars seem to predominate, especially Toyota, though there are a fair number of Hondas. Also quite a lot of German cars - Fords, but also a surprising number of Mercedes and BMW. And in the public parking lot around the corner yesterday there was even, most surprisingly, a Hummer, though goodness only knows what the need for it would be. It’s not a rich country and no doubt there are people who can’t afford cars at all but if vehicles are any indication, and they must be, things have improved for residents over the last twenty years. And this despite the fact that the Turkish lira is a pretty weak currency and constantly dropping. When we arrived on March 10 it took 6.97 Turkish lira to buy a euro. It’s now 7.66. It’s a complaint somewhat familiar to Canadians but here the additional problem is that large purchases like cars or houses have to be paid for in euros or pounds whereas salaries and payments from locals are normally in lira. 

Friday,, June 19/2020

Start the morning with coffee in our little walled courtyard garden. As long as the doors are shut it’s not necessary to wear more than night attire. The passion flower vine is beginning to grow across the open non-roof and will eventually cover it, making shade whether the doors are open or shut. Can hear the pigeons cooing and also, a little more distantly, a rooster - possibly related to the source of the local eggs sold by the shop owner round the corner. More distantly than that - although not half a mile away - the deep tone of a ship in the harbour.

Supper On the deck at Fa Kebab round the corner. Would like to have şeftali, the grilled Cypriot sausages that seem to appear nowhere else (Greek sheftalia). My Turkish dictionary has never heard of it. It’s becoming a running joke at the restaurant as the few times we’ve eaten there we’ve tried to order it and always been told that it’s “finished“. So I tease the man a little. But if we came earlier we could have it? Oh yes. Can’t pin him down on how early. Suspect that they haven’t had any for weeks. Reminder of the Polish menu. In Poland it is quite common for a menu - printed, or even handwritten on the wall - to list everything that might ever be on offer, and we learned to ask at the outset what was available before wasting time and optimism on impossible choices.

Thursday, June 18/2020

Thursday is market day in Famagusta. The other centres have different days. Nicosia used to have a permanent covered market open daily. Well, still does but it’s changed. Some time between the time we went there with Darryl and Donna in 2017 and our previous visit, which could have been two or three years earlier, the market stopped being where you could buy carrots and potatoes and almonds from mostly open stalls and became small Mostly enclosed boutiques with jewellery and non-local clothing and such. More attractive in a way, but hard not to regret the loss of the old. And, of course, no longer full of old women in long skirts buying onions and fruit. 

The weekly market in Famagusta has everything - well, nearly. Couldn’t find the old man who sold batteries in with bits of minor hardware. But local fruit and veg, a bit of home baking, dried and fresh olives, eggs in flats of 30, still wet helim (halloumi) cheese, dried fruit, sacks of nuts (quite likely to be from California rather than Cyprus or Turkey), inexpensive clothing, handmade jewellery, towels and linen. And outside the trucks selling fish and the one with ice cream, as well as a garden area with plants and young trees. You probably couldn’t live by buying things only at the market, but you could come close.

Wednesday, June 17/2020

Pick up a copy of Cyprus Today, the TRNC English weekly newspaper. Or at least it used to be English language. Probably three years since we’ve bought it, and in the interim it has acquired a six page section of news in Russian. And am reminded that the local private hospital has information pamphlets in Turkish and Russian, but not English. Which is itself a reminder that one of the chief favours that Kemal Ataturk, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, did the Turkish people was to replace the old Arabic style Turkish script with a Latin-based Turkish alphabet. Which means that we are better off using a Turkish pamphlet where we can look up the words, unfamiliar though they all are, in a Turkish English dictionary, than we are using a Russian pamphlet where many of the words are probably similar to the Polish but the letters are Cyrillic. And the final reminder in this bit of free association is that one of the many famous guests of the Baron Hotel in Aleppo, Syria, where we stayed several years ago, was Ataturk, who is said to have mounted machine guns on the roof during the First World War to ward off attacks by the British or Arab Legions.

Tuesday, June 16/2020

Political scandal. It was reported a couple of days ago that a private plane with thirteen passengers arrived at Ercan airport here in the TRNC from Turkey and the passengers were not quarantined as others are required to be. Soothing official explanation: they were here to complete technical studies for the planned Lapta marina.They had separate accommodation and did not mix with local people. There was no danger of infection. Actually complainants were divided between those objecting to the risk of infection and those objecting to the unfairness of some being spared a quarantine period that everyone else is required to complete. 

Then comes the scandal as it is revealed that the technical studies story is untrue. The Turkish men were here to gamble at one of the casinos and, it is said, brought three Russian girls with them. They are also believed to have made a shopping expedition to Girne (Kyrenia). So much indignation, particularly as the consensus is that this could not have occurred without the connivance of one or more politicians.

The council of ministers has been meeting today but no apparent word regarding the border - of more concern to us than the scandal. Actually the council of ministers has an interesting way of developing policy. It meets and then releases information (normally the information is in fact released rather than leaked). However, the information released is almost always incomplete and flawed. People raise inquiries and complaints. Clarifications and modifications follow. These too may be incomplete and subject to revision. Presumably the way it goes when the focus is not on parliamentary debate, committee scrutiny, and a competent professional civil service. And not completely unknown with executive decision making in more established governments, especially during the pandemic.

Monday, June 15/2020

Can’t decide whether I will miss fresh oranges or Turkish yoghurt more. The oranges are beautiful. The yoghurt should be just as easy to acquire in Canada as here. Not short of dairy cows. You can buy sheep yoghurt here but our favourite is actually a strained yoghurt made from cow’s milk. Never sweetened and often eaten on the side of the plate along with meat, vegetables and salad. Only very slightly acidic - really more like sour cream than like most Canadian yoghurt, though lower in fat than full fat sour cream. Lovely subtle flavour - and thick enough to stand a spoon in it.

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.