Sunday, February 7/2014

From the Cyprus news:

▪️ Burglars have made off with 60 bridal gowns and other wedding-related accessories worth over€90,000 from a central Larnaca bridal shop. According to the police, the break-in took place between 8pm on Thursday and 8.30am on Friday. The shop’s owner listed 60 dresses by various designers as having been taken, as well as 100 tiaras, 15 dress overlays, five sets of ‘stefania’ wedding crowns used in Orthodox wedding ceremonies, and five pairs of shoes. Police officers investigating the scene believe the thieves entered the shop through its main glass door after removing the lock.They have collected fingerprints and other evidence from the scene and will be examining footage from CCTV cameras in the area. The shop did not have an alarm or its own security cameras but the goods were insured, the police said.▪️

No alarm, no security camera, removable lock. But they were insured. Hmmmm

Saturday, February 6/2016

Checking on the bus strike. Apparently they plan to "escalate" next week, although they don't seem to have much labour left to withdraw.  Think one of the letter writers to the Cyprus Mail had it right:

"The owners are paid by the taxpayer but it appears that a disproportionate amount of that money sticks to their fingers." 

Anyway, plan B as far as getting to the airport on Tuesday is concerned. Ditto, probably, on coming back. Cyprus taxis overpriced, in part because there are too many of them, so that survival depends on high fares from few customers. Much worse than the airport question is the fact that our social life is tied in to the bus service. Talk of strike funds and holding out for victory not highly reassuring, although we do think that the drivers are not the cause of the problem. Ran into Harry at the supermarket and talked long enough that, as Harry said, we might as well have stopped for coffee. He has a good friend who drove a local bus for a while and was disgusted with the inefficiencies and outright corruption in the system.

Friday, February 5/2016

We're never quite sure what items we're not supposed to bring over the border from North Cyprus when returning to the South. Forget about it until we're asked by the uniform if we've bought anything, which seems a poor time to ask what shouldn't we have. Have always assumed tobacco was top of the verboten list but nobody we know buys it and booze doesn't seem any cheaper in the North. Though medicine  certainly is. But now we know not to waste our time gathering snails:

"Ten kilos of snails were found in the car of a Turkish Cypriot when he tried to transport them from the occupied areas to the south, customs said. On Wednesday morning, police in Pyla stopped a vehicle which was driven by a Turkish Cypriot man from Vatili and discovered the snails. The driver was taken to the customs department where he was fined €100. The snails were seized in order to be destroyed."

Destroyed, or escargots for the customs blokes?

Thursday, February 4/2016

(Photo: Cyprus Mail)

Identify the bar that was the scene of the shots last week. Bizarre, really: no one injured, bar closed for the night, but about 20 shots. Obviously not one careless person thinking it was unloaded and finding otherwise. Busy square with semi upscale bars and cafés, diagonally opposite where used to stay several years ago - before the hotel and square began to move up in the world.

Bus strike continues. Meeting with the relevant minister, or his delegate, predictably useless. Public sympathies probably limited, in part because only 39% of Cypriots have ever set foot on public transport, nor has the quality of same encouraged them to do so. As with so much in Cyprus, corruption seems to have been commonplace. Stories of personal vehicles being fueled at company expense.

J has acquired a friend at the beach, a Cypriot man who speaks almost no English but is highly voluble in Greek. He has a number of medical problems, from what J can make out, including metal replacement bits in his legs, back problems, and need for some difficult heart surgery for which he is waiting. Some of this information gleaned from a friend who sometimes keeps an eye on the man as he swims. Last week Cypriot Friend went swimming on a chilly day and J, seeing him shivering on the beach, brought him a cup of hot coffee. Later in the week, to J's embarrassment, CF pressed on him a bag of gifts - wine, sweets, zivania (wine based spirit). Today there's a top up package with Commandaria (traditional heavy, sweet Cypriot wine), nuts and more sweets. And this from a man with little savings, as his friend explained earlier! Horribly out of proportion any kindness in J's bringing coffee. He's on the beach today when We meet up and J introduces me. 

There's a young woman there sitting outside the concrete change room/toilet building who translates for us. His daughter? No, she works here but keeps an eye on him. She is Cypriot but Australian born and about to run out of any official assistance. The powers that be give her a number of days work and then cut her off. She says, philosophically, thar some people refuse to clean toilets but she needs the money. She has a ten year old daughter. She also used to have a good job, she says, working at the airport for €1000 ($1541 CAD, £771) a month. But with the economic crisis the salary was cut and then she was asked to work a split shift - which as a single parent she couldn't do. She shrugs. There are people who will work for four hundred euros - or five, or six - but you can't live. Later research shows that there are some minimum wage regulations, around €900 monthly, but only in a few occupations

Wednesday, February 3/2016

Jane has appointment with surgeon in the morning. The plan is that they will collect us afterward and we'll go for lunch. However usual chaos prevails at hospital, resulting in hour and a half of queuing (once more think of the ludicrous arrangement whereby those in wheelchairs go to the front of the line whilst those standing with difficulty do so interminably). This despite the fact that appointments are made in advance. Then J's files not delivered from registration counter to examining room, metres away, resulting in more delays. Would, in fact, be difficult to devise a more inefficient system. To add insult to injury, the surgeon then says they are expected to pay for the operation - which as Cyprus residents and EU citizens they're not. Odd that it would be the surgeon and not a clerk pursuing this anyway. But Bill, not in best humour by this point, obviously having none of it and enlightens surgeon. 

Lunch at Cessac at the British base, where we're metres away from a sunny sea and the fish and chips are excellent. Arrive home at B&J's just as the postman pulls up on his motorbike. Delivery is only weekly in Pyla, so there's a small bundle. Two letters in official brown envelopes are registered and require signatures. What are they? The postman is happy to share his expertise - it will be the title deeds for the house. 

And after lunch the treat: Bill shows us how to make terrine. Labour intensive but fun. Basically sausage meat and chestnut stuffing layered with chicken breast (or on some occasions rabbit) and wrapped in bacon. Plenty of herbs from the garden. To be baked, cooled and pressed. 

We leave for the bus after the terrine is in the oven. And wait a ridiculously long time even assuming the schedule may be a bit off. Until a car stops in the dusk and beeps. Woman inside informs us that the bus strike is still on. Certainly explains non-appearance. Obviously we should have read more than Sunday's paper. B&J kindly run us home.

Tuesday, February 2/2016

Hotel employees get the green light to strike, though apparently not immediately. Never thought of the staff here as belonging to a union, and perhaps they don't. In any case housekeeping of such an indifferent quality that we could easily manage without for a week or two. More if we had access to the linen and mops, etc.

Monday, February 1/2016

Reports say that the Cypriot unemployment rate for December 2015 is down by 8 percentage points to 15.7%, from 16.5% in the last month of 2014. Maths seem odd. But apart from that, this doesn't take into account young people leaving the country because there were no jobs for them.

Discussion - well no, actually we just listen - with the woman who runs the animal shelter charity shop. J asks her opinion on the UK exiting the EU: she's all in favour. Then comes the torrent - all the money and benefits that asylum seekers can get at the expense of the British poor. She quotes astonishing figures. They're wrong, of course. I'm disturbed enough to look them up when we get back. But if there were the sort of differential she imagines it would be pretty distressing. As it is, the most upsetting thing is the seemingly endless pitting of the poor against the poor. The why should they get it when.... Never seems to come round to any suggestion of sacrifice on the part of the one percent.

Sunday, January 31/2016

From today's Cyprus Mail, one more example of local Mafia style. Of particular interest as we stayed at a nearby hotel on Ermou St for several years. Not hat tourists are ever at much risk in these affairs. Normally tourists (other than yobs hitting on local girls in the bars) are at risk only from appaling Cypriot drivers:

▪️POLICE are investigating a shooting incident that occurred early Friday at a newly opened bar in Larnaca, after it had closed for the night.

▪️According to police reports, around 20 shots were fired with an automatic weapon at around 3.50am outside the bar which is located in Ermou Street, in the centre of Larnaca. The bar’s owner told police he does not suspect anyone.

▪️The bullets, smashed the bar’s front window panes, while several shells were found on site. The bar was closed when the shooting occurred.

Saturday, January 30/2016

Brief strikes, really more protests than serious work stoppages, are fairly common in Cyprus. Doctors employed by the state at hospitals and clinics have planned a six hour strike for Monday to protest the raising of their pensionable age from 65 to 68. Also on Monday is a strike of Larnaca bus drivers, slated for 24 hours beginning at 5 AM. Their problem is that they accepted wage cuts in September 2014 because the company had financial problems. The agreement, they say, was temporary - until December 31/2015 - and they should have reverted to their regular pay. 

Friday, January 29/2016

Lovely day, so reinstitute Plan A from Wednesday, sort of. Bus to Pyla, where Bill and Joe trim trees. Then evening buffet at Bambos, restaurant in next village over. Thursday and Friday evenings feature enormous buffet at impressively low price of €7.30 ($11.05 CAD, £5.55). Always noisily full of Cypriots with a few expats. Birthday parties, children under tables and great good humour. Family run.

Thursday, January 28/2016

At Prinos greengrocer's. They always ask at the till whether we have a bonus card. We don't, but have shopped there for so many winters that it occurs to us that maybe we should. So inquire, and are duly given an application form. First boc for surname and second for first name. Third is for ID or passport number!! Can think of no conceivable legitimate reason for asking. Sheer nosiness? Bureaucratic habit? Same phenomenon at airport, where girls doing tourism surveys invariably ask so many intrusive questions that visitors refuse to complete the questionnaire. Shall not bother with bonus card application.

Maggi and I have late lunch special at Marzano's. Classier than most traditional Cypriot restaurants, but without their familial warmth and rough hospitality.

Wednesday, January 27/2016

Wednesday. Plan A was that we would go to Jane and Bill's in the AM, and Bill and Joe would trim the trees adjacent to the house that were beyond B's reach and heading for the power lines. Weather still fairly bitter in the wind, so Plan B devised. Jane goes to her painting group at the Flamingo Hotel for the first time since she broke her femur and B and J collect us on the way back to Pyla. Homemade soup and terrine (totally spoiled we are) and film watching. Actually men watch WW II airplane videos. Jane has nap. I take out ipad. Always familial comfortable there when we each do our own thing, though. Then evening meal at To Kazani, in part down to Christmas present voucher from B&J's grandson. Lamb chops and chicken souvlaki, following meze that would have been sufficient in itself.

Tuesday, January 26/2016

Northern Cyprus press after their president's return from Davos yesterday: 

"President Mustafa Akıncı stated that they had an opportunity to express the peaceful, modern and rational messages of the Turkish Cypriots in Davos, adding that the few days in Davos were very beneficial for the Turkish Cypriot people and the future of Cyprus. In his press meeting at Ercan Airport after his return from Davos, Akıncı said that it was a great experience for them to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. Furthermore, Akıncı expressed that the Turkish Cypriot people are one of the two equal partners of the Federal United Cyprus to be established."

And therein lies the seeds of reunification failure. Greek Cypriots recoil in horror at any thought of equality of any kind. Game over.

Monday, January 25/2016

Thought winter was over and thought wrong. Freezing. Very nearly literally as overnight temperature dips to about 1 degree. Water jar (our dechlorinator) on the balcony doesn't form ice, of course, but cold enough that the thought occurs. Cypriots can't remember colder temperatures, though we Canadians can, of course. Follows on what has been in general the warmest winter we can remember here. And since this is our sixteenth year we're developing a fair memory bank. But expected to warm up later in the week.

Sunday, January 24/2016

Chilly. Well, for Cyprus downright cold. Sunday lunch at Cambanella's with Bill and Jane. The place is packed and an Englishwoman asks us on our way in whether we know of any special occasion, as there isn't an unreserved table to be had.  Seems it's just chance, though. As usual the lady of the house, presiding over the carvery, is disappointed if one takes only a week's worth of meat from the roasts on offer.

Saturday, January 23/2016

 CTO, the Cyprus Tourist Organisation, is claiming credit for an increase in tourists to the island last year in typically turgid Cypriot bureaucratic jargon, citing "hard and methodical work, achieved through a multi-level and complex effort." Well, yes, although terrorism in Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt did give Cyprus an edge over competing markets. The strength of the pound against the euro was another factor, and many avoided Greece because of bailout uncertainty. An editorial in the Cyprus Mail comments wryly: "If this were the case what had the CTO been doing the previous years? Why had it taken so many years for it to engage in the hard and methodical work and the multi-level and complex effort that achieved the impressive results of 2015? Why was there no intense and targeted action in 2013 and 2014?"

Friday, January 22/2016

Think more of the Norwegians must be back in the hotel. There's a fairly exuberant gathering in the studio next to us, laughter until after midnight so we joke about taking a bottle and knocking on the door. But much more typical of Cypriots than Norwegians. Think it sounds like Norwegian being spoken, though. Time will tell. Last year the wifi was enough worse that we spent more time in reception in search of a stronger signal. Meant we saw more of the neighbours and knew more of what was going on.

Thursday, January 21/2016

Jane has physio in the morning so she and Bill stop for lunch. Raw veg, dips (tzatziki from scratch, others from Prinos), beef fillet and then fruit. Strawberries now local, from a bit north of here. 

Wednesday, January 20/2016

800 gram cauliflower

Coffee at Harry's about 11:30. Four older men (don't know older than what - not necessarily older than us, but not young) at the next table. They have coffee but also a bottle of something colourless labelled in Greek. Probably zivania, a grape based spirit. Much laughter, and when they're finished the bottle returned to the café shelves. Cheerful lifestyle, though as J points out the women don't seem to have nearly such a relaxed life. 

Carrefour and Prinos for fruit and veg. Incredibly lucky to be here strawberries are fresh. In fact I never by fruit that has no scent. Same rule at home, but in SL that leaves us with a much narrower range - mostly bananas and grapes. Here even the carrots smell like carrots. Tiny tomatoes, and cauliflower. The latter 69 euro cents per kilo today (52p, $1.06 CAD). That's 48 cents a pound in Canada. We've been reading stories about $8 heads of cauliflower in Canada. Of course that isn't a kilo price. Maybe they're enormous....Maybe aye and maybe hooch aye, my Scots grandmother would have said skeptically.

Tuesday, January 19/2016

Article from Davos, via Reuters, with commentary by B Jaworski in brackets:

Cyprus will make an unprecedented joint appeal to the world's political and business elite in Davos on Thursday to support their efforts to reach a settlement to their decades-old dispute.

Cyprus leaders to make joint Davos appeal for peace support   *[Wonderful! New captive audience - Brussels' patience long since exhausted]

U.N. and European officials say the prospects of finally reaching a peace deal to resolve one of the oldest frozen conflicts on the planet are better than at any time since Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. peace plan in 2004.  *[Not that they were good then].

There's an interest among the leaders involved. Both Turkey and Greece see advantages to moving on,"  [special UN envoy] Eide told Reuters.  *[Well, optimism is his job].

The east Mediterranean island has been divided since Turkey invaded the north in 1974 in response to a short-lived coup in Nicosia inspired by Greece's then military rulers.

Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 despite the Greek Cypriot vote against reunification. *[Major error on the part of a weary EU - when negotiating never assume the sensitive issues will sort themselves out later]

However, its relations with Turkey have remained frozen, efforts to reduce the economic isolation of Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus have stalled and Nicosia has blocked much of Ankara's EU accession negotiations over the continued dispute. *[All too predictably - what WERE they thinking in Brussels?]

Peace efforts gained a boost with the election of two leaders who are personally committed to a negotiated settlement, as well as the discovery of large offshore natural gas deposits off Cyprus which would be easier to exploit if there is a deal. *[Finally a little incentive, but don't hold your breath].

A reunited Cyprus would also need international investment to help the peace process work. Reconstructing one resort town abandoned in the conflict is estimated to cost billions of euros, and compensation may also be required for people unable to reclaim their properties. *[Dream on, Cyprus, do you have ANY idea where you fall in the list of EU priorities?].

The regional strategic environment is more favorable because Greece's leftist government is less nationalistic than its predecessors and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has tamed the military and is keen to improve relations with the EU.  *[And no serious problems in Greece or Turkey at the moment. They're free to concentrate on Cyprus].

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due to address the Davos audience right after the Cypriot leaders and is likely to reaffirm his country's commitment to support a settlement this year, which would also remove an obstacle to closer EU ties.  *[They'll be lucky to be allowed to stay in Nato. Forget the EU].

Some diplomats in Ankara hope for agreement on the text of a deal before Cypriot parliamentary elections in May, and a referendum soon after that.  *[These are the same realists who would rather destroy Kurds than ISIS and can't resist poking the Russian bear].

Anastasiades and Akinci  *[still referred to in southern Cypriot news broadcasts as the so-called president of the illegal regime - that's how friendly things are]. are not expected to announce any agreement on Thursday because much detailed work remains on sensitive issues such as territory, the return of property or compensation.  *[So far they've agreed on catering for the talks?]

An international reconstruction fund with EU and private money could be a vital component. *[Swamp land also on offer]

"We have gone from harvesting relatively low-hanging fruit into the hard core deepest areas. We're in tougher terrain now and both leaders will have to make concessions," Eide said.  *[Begin of preparation for disaster]

An agreement between the two leaders would have to be ratified in referendums in each of the communities and implemented over time with international support.  *[That was where it fell apart last time]. 

Anastasiades has not yet really begun to sell the benefits of a potential deal to a skeptical Greek Cypriot electorate.  *[Wisely. He's had cardiac problems. And said electorate already unhappy that both leaders went to Davos, just like equal human beings].

Asked why prospects for a settlement were better now than in 2004, Eide said: "The one major difference is that this time the process is led by the Cypriots and their leaders. My role is to facilitate but we (United Nations) are not putting down our own proposals. Every word is written and agreed to by the sides."  *[EU, at least, has learned not to beat its head against a wall].