Sunday, July 19/2020

Sunday morning and one more reason to regret the loss of our corner shop. The organic eggs we bought at the weekly market are visibly less fresh than the ones we used to buy from the shop owner’s chicken raising friend. Well, you can see if fruit and veg are fresh but can’t look inside an egg until you crack it. Taste fine though.

Pick up a small pizza from the shop at the corner of the supermarket. Vegetarian sounds pretty well the same in Turkish as English, which presumably means it’s a word the Turkish borrowed. The shiraz we bought yesterday turns out to be quite decent - although, regrettably, it was the last bottle. Oddly, no Turkish wine or vodka, which is a pity because Turkey makes both in inexpensive and quite drinkable brands.

Flat very comfortable and pretty quiet considering the building is full of families. Occasionally hear the very small child who lives across the hall. In the air conditioning it’s easy to forget how hot it is outside. Nice on the balcony in the early morning and after sunset though. Reading some of the posts for the holiday commemorating the Turkish intervention July 20, 1974. Fehmi was in his early twenties then. Ulus not quite seventeen. And Famagusta essentially battleground where people they knew died. And reading a post of Ulus’s brings home a factor which we should have known but had never really considered.  The fighting and the fleeing took place in brutal July heat. The heat that has us waiting until evening to go for a leisurely walk.

Saturday, July 18/2020

Jane on her 80th birthday, February 2019

May have wished for full size supermarket when we only had corner shop, but already missing corner shop. Supermarket so much less personal even if some things a little cheaper. And only some things - 5 litre containers of water twice the price! So we buy the much better priced 15 litre container and J asks if he can take it in the grocery trolley (cart) as our building is only metres away. He doesn’t try to explain this given the language difficulties but must have an honest face as they agree. As we’re leaving the parking lot we pass a sign telling dear customers that they are not to remove carts from the parking lot. Sign, oddly, only in English, which is a definite minority language around here. Are only the English tempted to take the carts home with them or is it only the English who are inclined to follow posted instructions?

In the evening receive an email from Kevin, Bill’s younger son, saying that Jane died yesterday. We knew that she had been ill and in and out of hospital over the last few months, but a week ago Bill had still been hoping that she would be coming home soon. Jane herself always so cheerful that talking to her was a sure way to underestimate any medical problems she might have - one of the most positive and even tempered people I’ve known. Glad that she and Bill were able to visit Sioux Lookout last summer. Who knew it was the last possible summer for a number of reasons?

Friday, July 17/2020

Moving into a long weekend, as July 20 is a public holiday, Peace and Freedom Day. Cheerfully named as what it celebrates is the landing of Turkish troops to protect Turkish Cypriots from Enosis - the Greek Cypriot plan for political union with Greece. Extremely long, though interesting, story. Excellent summary in multi-party, bi-cameral report to UK parliament, should any reader of this blog wish to read it: https://web.itu.edu.tr/~altilar/tobi/Kibris/TheCyprusQuestion.html.

And in further political vein, the following via one of the expats. Have not yet verified the source, but difficult to imagine that extremely formal polite nastiness as anything other than the genuine diplomatic article. Clearly the South’s tourism industry is hurting - as whose isn’t - and there is some pressure on their government to stop business bleeding north over the border. The antipathy does come from deep and unpleasant historic wells. 

No particular panic from our point of view. If accurate it means we exit via Ercan in the North, which has some logistical advantages anyway.

Thursday, July 16/2020

Wake up in our new penthouse. Actually, it’s not - there’s another floor above us, but the view over the city is super. Very busy outside as this is Thursday, market day, and our flat overlooks the market and its extensive parking area. It was already busy last night as people began setting up and it’s humming this morning. Think it actually opens at 6:30. We’re awake not much later than that and they’re clearly busy. The parking lot isn’t full yet but it will be. We remember how far away Bill had to park and how few available parking spots there were when we used to drive up from Pyla. 

We go over after nine. Still early and we now have the luxury of knowing we can make a second trip a little later - no need to juggle the watermelon with the bag of organic eggs. Do start by locating a frying pan. The flat doesn’t have a microwave - and we miss it - but two decent pots doesn’t make up for no frying pan. Then the fruit and veg. Peppers, onions, courgettes, aubergines, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, plums, bananas, cherries. The colours alone are wonderful. 

Surprisingly we run into the grandmother and one of the other women from our old residence. Lots of smiles, but not enough language in common for conversation. Then meet Filiz and do chat. A fairly high proportion of the Famagustans that we know. 

Most of the produce is pretty inexpensive. The problem is never paying for it but sometimes knowing what to pay. Neither of us very good at catching the amount quoted after the weighing. My usual method is to overpay. Assume it will be a little more than five lira, say, and hand over ten. Makes for quite a lot of heavy change by the end of the day. In most countries it has the additional benefit of  disguising, I hope, the fact that I don’t actually know what I’m being charged. Really scarcely necessary here. Several times over the last few months I’ve overpaid for something by a coin or two and had the extra handed back to me immediately.

And the treat. J has been looking over the fish wagons outside and we choose some Norwegian salmon. Not giveaway prices on this, but beautiful. Proves to be beautiful when J cooks it for dinner too over the gas burner in the new frying pan. 

Wednesday, July 15/2020

Tuesday, July 14/2020

Last day in our home for the last four months and a bit. We’ll miss it. The neighbourhood - and the neighbours - the village feeling, the  compelling ruins, the corner shop, the restaurant round the corner, the watermelon truck. Are looking forward to the new place, though, even knowing it will be for a shorter time. Apart from its being right next to the weekly market, it’s in a different Famagusta. Not the old walled town but the modern city, where most Famagustans actually live. Some 55000+ inhabitants, although published numbers always lag behind the reality.

Can’t remember when it last rained. Weeks (months?) ago, so it’s dry. Cyprus as a whole is at risk of becoming a desert island (not deserted, just desert) down to decreasing rainfall, increasing urbanisation and increasing water consumption. In the North there has been an underwater pipeline from Turkey but it’s now in need of repairs so there are shortages. Not especially here, but people near Kyrenia are reporting having water only three days a week, and some of them say it’s normal at this time of year. Someone posted a photo of the reservoir in the west of the country, which prompted me to look for one I took in December 2017. Only an extremely wide angle lens would encompass the whole reservoir, but the difference is clear.

We have been careful. Used water from hand washed clothes on plants, etc. Aware that we might not notice warnings in the Turkish press. For what it’s worth the man across the road is still washing his car.

Aysel had talked of our going out for a traditional Cypriot meal. She has a friend with a taverna who had said on a Monday or Tuesday he could seat us well away from others. And would presumably be outside - no one here wants to be inside on summer evenings. But she is round, apologetically, to say that she had heard of a restaurant singer who had tested positive and now was afraid to go out. Told her she was quite right not to. Don’t know if the story was right. Actually sounds not. There are now nine cases in the country and think they all came from abroad as the country opened for tourists. No one is supposed to get in without tests before leaving and after arriving. Some with additional quarantine after that. But there are bound to be some glitches. Aysel has had a bone marrow transplant and shouldn’t really be with unmasked people including us - and of course we would be if we were eating. All for the best anyway. We have packing to do and her partner doesn’t speak English so would have been a dull evening for him apart from the food. Nice thought on Aysel’s part though.

There’s an excellent bakery cum restaurant and confectioners in the old city and we have bought an extremely classy looking box of chocolates for the lovely grandmother across the road who has been bringing us baking and flowers. When she comes with our jasmine circlet of the day J gets the box and I press most of my Turkish vocabulary into service. Yarın (tomorrow) and wave goodbye. She points to the sky, simulating airplane flight. So the rest of my vocabulary is employed. Kıbrıs bir hafta (Cyprus one week). Then add Ercan (Nicosia airport), Istanbul, London, Canada. Which may well not be the route, or for that matter rhe time remaining in Cyprus, but she gets the idea.

The grandmother returns later with a small delegation of the people from across, all of whom we imagine are related. The man who owns the dogs speaks quite good English - and indeed, it turns out has an uncle in Kitchener - and so they get the story of how we came to be here. Give them our dentist’s name and two of the women nod. Famagusta is not a tiny city, but the old town is a very small world and Fehmi had said that he had had family connections on this road. And if we thought it was possible to give the last gift when exchanging with the grandmother, we were wrong. She’s brought a Cyprus delicacy: two jars of preserved fruit, one watermelon and one labelled bergamut. The latter presumably the bergamot oranges that Kiki used to give us in Larnaca, the ones I used to make marmalade - delicious but labour intensive using only a penknife. A small and lovely world. We will miss it.

Monday, July 13/2020

Go early in the morning to the cash point, hoping to take advantage of relative cool. And it isn’t too hot, although no breeze. However electronic message on screen saying to try later. Genuinely later, too, as immediate retry nets same result. Bank by now open, so inquire within. Not working? No, maybe half an hour. Could wait in nearby park or have coffee, but possible that maybe half an hour will become an hour and a quarter, so back home. Do pass a little white snail on the Venetian wall, though.

Probably the hottest day, although to be fair 38 on my app may well have been higher than our garden reality. Didn’t run out to check the thermometer. Besides, 100 used to sound so much more impressive. We’re the caught in the middle generation. People who can actually say we’re 250 miles from Winnipeg, so if you drive 100 km/hour you’ll be there by lunch. Or even it’s been over 30 degrees all week. I think it must be 95 today.

Wait until dusk to go back to the cash point. AOK this time. Walk through the old city coming back. Small and not so small groups gathered outside little cafés. Guitars in some groups, and singing. The last call to prayer comes as the last afterglow leaves the sky. We are so going to miss this place.

Reports online from expats being refused consular assistance to cross to the South. The demand from the South was sheer bloody mindedness to begin with. Demanding a test was one thing but the consular assistance was simply obstructionist. However it seems now that those with EU and Commonwealth passports are having their embassies and high commissions tell them that they are not being allowed to give them “permission” to pass. In the case of EU citizens, this is a violation of EU law, so eventually knuckles will be rapped and changes made. Commonwealth somewhat different, but at minimum their high commissions could be expressing unhappiness at the retrograde step. The Republic of Cyprus more than most countries, is eager to cultivate support and good will and to attract tourists. There is no need for countries to act as if holding their citizens hostage and forcing them to leave through what the RoC regards as an illegal port is no inconvenience. 

Having said which, we are not, of course, genuinely hostages nor unable to leave by other means, but the consular stance should be a little less supine.

Sunday, July 12/2020

Scrambled eggs for breakfast. Should have known that buying 30 eggs would mean an immediate move! Although less expensive than when re-roofing with long term shingles resulted in an immediate job offer in another province. Not much downside to leaving the extras behind. 

Looking at the clothes that have to be packed. Not a lot of them - there never are - but disproportionately warmer than we can imagine wearing in the foreseeable future. Although we do remember returning from Vietnam in August 1993 and looking forward to cool lake breezes after endless heat. The plane landed in Toronto and we looked out the window and saw, to our horror, the ground crew wearing parkas. Summer was over.

Saturday, July 11/2020

Aysel, our host, needs the place back for mildly complex family reasons. We told her no need to be upset. She’s been very good to us and we’ve been here much longer than anyone anticipated - four months yesterday. So our first plan was to try to book the little studio near the mosque that we looked at two weeks ago. We do book it, but manage to do so immediately after the owner had rented it to family members and before he had taken it off the airbnb listing. So plan B. More searching for inexpensive enough and central enough. The studio had ticked both boxes. It was very small, but only needed to do the two of us short term at this point. We’ve definitely lived in smaller, though we’ve rather become used to our little enclosed garden. Not quite the same going a block over to sit under the fig tree by the mosque. As enchanting, but more clothes required.

But we’re pretty lucky in the new search. Not quaint and not in the walled city, but not far away. An apartment in a building next to the market. So about as convenient as it could be really. Small supermarket close by, Thursday market on the doorstep, and an easy walk to the walled city. Bit of mixed happy sad irony. The apartment is in a building that we actually know. It’s the same building that has Minder, our favourite Famagusta restaurant on the ground floor. The sad part is that it’s closed for the summer.

And a final token of good luck. J finds a passion fruit on the floor just inside our open door. It was one we didn’t know existed. The four we do know are still hanging in place. They’re easy/to miss when unripe because the green fruit is camouflaged by the abundant leaves. And sadly it is unripe and they don’t ripen much after picking. It was a windy day and the fruit evidently fell from the vine above the door and landed just inside, a gift from the gods. 

Friday, July 10/2020

Noticed, not especially happily, advertisements on various iPad apps and internet sites calling the attention of British expats to the importance of funeral planning, with the sponsor’s assistance, obviously. I’m not a UK expat but can see that I do use a number of sites that they do, so fair enough. But the ads are becoming more frequent, and worse than that, more urgent - now often beginning with “Warning”. And a new phenomenon. After completing a little puzzle on one of my few game apps an AUDIO advert insisting on my pre-planning my funeral - with the sponsor’s kind help. What do they know?

Supper a plate the neighbours brought over from their barbecue last night. We’d already eaten so saved it for today. Skewered pieces of lamb and chicken, humus, salad and pita. They are such lovely people.

Thursday, July 9/2020

Early morning outing on market day. Pass the park with the crow statue and note the young person with the pram who was there when we stopped a week ago. I say person because actually not sure of gender - and not particularly concerned - but now realise that my first assumption was female in large part because of the pram, a fairly inaccurate method of determining it. We first saw him or her - slim, perhaps thirtyish, jeans and t-shirt - on the steps outside Fehmi’s surgery. Stopped to peek inside the pram as one does and were startled to see not a baby but two small rabbits. There was a heavy jacket draped over the hood, which seemed slightly odd in the summer heat but we didn’t think a lot about it. Transferring pets from one home to another? Last week when we stopped to sit in the park there s/he was again - pram, bunnies, jacket and all. Took a photo from a respectful enough distance it had no pixel quality at all and then forgot about it. But here s/he is again in the same park.

On to the market. This time focused on cherries. Gives new meaning to cherrypicking. And not easy to do, either, with mask helping to fog my glasses so that judging ripe but not damaged difficult - and no easier of course without the specs, though less steamy. Cherry tomatoes and peppers, small jewel like 🍆 aubergines, halloumi (helim in Turkish), sesame bread, and a flat of thirty eggs. Thirty eggs seems like far too much, despite the man’s cheerful assurance they are farm eggs, but as well as the provenance they cost hardly any more than a half dozen at the shop. Nearly a catastrophe, as some eggs slide between the cardboard holder and its plastic cover. The whole works is inside One of our Cloth bags and impossible to sort out until we’re home so we’re reconciled to scrambled eggs for lunch - possibly a large bowlful. But we’re in luck. Only one broken egg. 

As we pass the park the rabbit owner is still there, now lying sleeping on a bench. Homeless? Does seem probable. Have no idea whether there are homeless shelters here but can see that the rabbits, cute as they are, would be a bit of a liability. They were awake when we looked at them before but made no effort to escape. Reminding me of perhaps apocryphal stories of Romany infants in London drugged into quiescence as their mothers beg on the streets.

Wednesday, July 8/2020

See J, who spends most time around here in nothing but shorts and sandals and guess correctly “Ah, you’re going to the dump”. Well, not the dump, but the skip half a block away, a public distance calling for a shirt.

We are on the front steps after supper, having just finished small bowls of exceedingly good vanilla ice cream from the corner shop (their lemon ice cream is lovely too, but unfortunately comes in a container with half lemon and half grape, the grape not as nice). The kind lady from across the road - she of the beautiful home baking - comes over with another small circlet of powerfully scented jasmine. Fills the whole house with its perfume. Sad that only visual and auditory memories can be saved or shared electronically.

Tuesday, July 7/2020

Well it seems like the days of the produce truck are over. Didn’t come at all last week or today for its usual Tuesday afternoon stop. And for that matter the previous week may not have been worth his while. Not as many or as nice fruit and veg and fewer of the neighbours out buying. The offerings at the market are both cheaper and much better, but the market is only once a week and the purchases do have to be carried a fair way.

The cats along our road gather in the late afternoon. This time six of them hoping for handouts, arriving rapidly one after the other. Are they all responding to some secret cue or do the others follow  as soon as the first one makes a move, afraid of missing out?

We ourselves over to the deck outside Fa Kebab for şeftali. Pick the corner table for a nice breeze as the sun goes down. And a stroll afterward past a number of small cafés. Mostly locals, sometimes only for beer or coffee and a pastry, but always pleasant and relaxed. And safe. Not only pandemic safe, although pretty good that way too, but personally safe. Never hear about robberies or muggings, and it’s always surprising the quality of furniture and equipment that is left overnight outside shops and restaurants in the centre of the old city in the justified expectation it will still be there in the morning. Yes, there are police. We pass two sitting chatting in a doorway with a local shop owner. But it’s more than that.

Monday, July 6/2020

Watermelon truck - or more accurately watermelon and cantaloupe truck - passes about five o’clock, but we’re not close to finished the last watermelon, despite having bought pretty well the smallest one on the truck. 

Lady across the road brings us a small circlet of jasmine blossoms which she has threaded together. Within minutes the whole place is filled with lovely - and powerful - jasmine scent. Cats profoundly disappointed when she emerges from her house with flowers rather than scraps of food. But they’re in luck as she’s soon back with a container of food.

Sunday, July 5/2020

As usual, when it looks like things have stabilised they change:

So fortunately no air bookings to cancel, PCR tests to unarrange (or worse PCR test results to collect and allow to languish as their 72 hour validity expires, no taxis and hotels to unbook. In fact nothing has changed - yet. And then:

Suspect this one loses a little in translation. It suggests that the ministers have only just noticed that covid-19 is an infectious disease. In all fairness it’s more likely that what they mean, and may well have said in Turkish, is that considering that covid-19 is an infectious disease, further decisions and announcements regarding it will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Health rather than the Council of Ministers. Probably a good thing. Just thinking that they are more likely to have the appropriate expertise - when, unfortunately, remember bizarre statements of a Minister of Health not a five hour flight from here. Well, we’ll hope for better. 

Saturday, July 4/2020

Feels like the hottest day so far. And when we look at the Accuweather app it confirms our perception. Heat warning. Currently 40. Except that our wall thermometer outside the door only says 32, and am more inclined to trust it than Accuweather. The other day the shopkeeper round the corner was cheerfully warning us that the temperatures would be in the forties in July, but it sounded like the bragging cum threatening that Canadians from Northwest Ontario and the Prairies engage in when they say the local temperatures fall to minus 40. They do, but not for extended periods or even every year. 

Quick trip to the shop - about three minutes away - for water, ice cream and a couple of bottles of beer. Shop closed on Sunday and the water probably wouldn’t have lasted. Keep one four litre container in the fridge. 

Our street dead quiet. It’s village like anyway, with most of the business activity in the centre of the old city while we’re near the southern wall, but today there is a little bit of bird sound and a faint distant rooster crowing. Not a human in sight - they’re all inside with the air conditioning on. Even the street cats have disappeared, though none of them are house cats.

The cats do appear later, though, once the long shadows make more shade. And more importantly once they have sensed that the woman across the road is going to bring them some food, though goodness knows how they know that as she doesn’t do it daily and there’s no set time.

Friday, July 3/2020

Well, once more have postponed examining alternatives re returning to Canada in the laughable expectation that a short wait would bring clarity. Not. 

The UK has indeed released its new list of countries that will not be required to quarantine and its list includes Canada (largely irrelevant as the pertinent question is not passport but the country or countries one has been to in the last 14 days) as well as Cyprus and Turkey. Thus rendering our unanswered question regarding the possibility of effecting a landside transfer in London - i.e. an overnight in a hotel between connecting flights - obsolete. Whether the lengthy list of approved countries was wise On the part of the British government is another question. 

So in theory we are free, as of the end of next week, to fly to London, spend the night, and fly to Canada. However, there is still the difficulty of crossing the border to the South. Non Cypriots are being required to cross only with consular assistance, a negative covid test not more than 72 hours old, and proof of booked air to their own country. Lest this seem simply cautious on the part of the South, one has only to remember that Canadians, Brits, Germans, etc are free to fly into the Republic with negative tests - just not to walk across the border with them. 

Worse Greek Cypriot border guards have been preventing tourists who have entered the South by air from crossing into the North even though the North considered them acceptable. Effectively preventing them from leaving the South when their only legitimate concern is with those who enter their country. One distraught resident of the North said his parents travelling on Romanian passports, were prevented from crossing to stay on land they owned in the North, laughed at and told they should have bought land in the South. Imagine this will not continue indefinitely - and it is not truly in the interests of the Southern tourism sector - but it is an indication of political motivation trumping (shame that useful word is becoming almost unusable) practical concerns.

Thursday, July 2/2020

Market day again. About 8:30 when we leave, so well before midday heat, but not much breeze so it already feels pretty warm. But the shadows are long and the shady side of the street still is pretty shaded.

We’re really mostly interested in the food, and occasional small purchases like batteries or shoe laces, but indeed you can get anything you want -almost. Including machinery we can’t even identify.

Cherries are still good. Averaging about 20 TL a kilo (€2.58, £2.33, $3.96 CAD). Strawberries less, but they’re really past their prime, though I can smell them through my mask long after I’ve passed the stall. Plums and cucumbers at basically give away prices. Four small cucumbers for about 20 cents Canadian. J buys another half kilo of coffee, which has a wonderful scent as the man grinds it. And another sesame seed bread. Cherry tomatoes and full size ones, both on the vine. There are oranges, though it’s late In the season, but they’re heavy, as are the inexpensive but enormous watermelons. With luck the truck will be round again, though if it came Tuesday we missed it.

It can be noisy, especially as many of the men are good at hawking their wares at high volume, their voices sometimes blasting your eardrums Unexpectedly from a few inches away as they announce their bargain prices or superior products. Characters amongst them too, many who must have a permanent life marketing - one day a week at Famagusta, one at Kyrenia, one at Nicosia, and so on.  Note the coffee and cigarette in the man’s hands. It was a cigar stub earlier but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to pose, although he might have been delighted. Do I look like a spy for the healh inspection services? And anyway you can’t drink coffee or smoke with a mask on, can you?

We’re in luck. Sitting reading on the front steps when the watermelon truck comes by. J buys the smallest, but it really isn’t small. Think we’ll do our best by it though.

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.