Sunday, April 10/2016

Last Sunday lunch at Bill and Jane's. David and Susan give us a lift out. Bill's famous fish pies and Jane, ambitiously, makes blini as a starter. With smoked salmon and crème fraiche style topping. Very nice. Also apple pie, to which Bill adds a few raisins. Harry arrives on his Harley after we've eaten, having previously given warning that he'll be late. They've saved him some of the lunch, though, and he keeps us entertained as he eats, reminiscing about the days when he captained commercial ships. There are an endless supply of the stories; today's featuring a ship off the coast of Africa carrying five passengers as well as goods, two of them being then president Nkrumah of Ghana and his bodyguard. 

Home in the evening watch the swifts as they engage in aerial acrobatics. Swifts even mate and sleep on the wing. Their tiny legs are not well designed for perching but  the long wing span allows them to coast for extended periods.

Photo: Paweł Kuźniar

Friday, April 8/2016

Haircut. Could in theory leave it to tomorrow or Monday but last minute contingencies have a way of intervening. Incredibly busy (though Saturday would probably have been no better. They don't take appointments and there are ten people ahead of me. Possibly more, as women keep appearing in the doorway to ask questions or shuffle over to the owner, interrupting him as he finishes a haircut to hold brief but serious discussions. Naturally all conversation is in Greek, so there is no way of knowing whether these are entirely innocent requests for information or arrangements for queue jumping. There are actually five hairdressers at work, so ten customers waiting is not as bad as it might seem, and in fact I get taken quite quickly. In fact, I have a method. It seems that if I take an ipad and have either work to do our something serious to read the waiting time will be shorter than is required for the task.

Thursday, April 7/2016

Bill and Jane arrive at 9:30 with B's small bag of tools, specifically appropriately sized wrenches. J has already picked up the replacement wheels for his suitcase from the excellent DIY place conveniently located around the corner. Some discussion of why J's wheels have worn while my identical ones have not. They settle on the theory that his were less tightened, allowing more play, dismissing my (unserious) suggestion that I take more care. Now free to start initial packing.

Wednesday, April 6/2016

 Begin with dental appointments. Waiting room has the same four National Geographic magazines as always. Dated 2006, and not precisely the same as, increasingly bits are missing as English readers presumably take home articles to finish reading at leisure. Only here for teeth cleaning, although Xenia, our dentist finds bits of breakage which will need to be repaired eventually. Can see an obvious advantage for female dentists - their hands are smaller, which is better when your mouth is full of fist. 

Then Jane, on her way back from her painting group, picks us up and we head out to Potamoc Creek, collecting Bill who has set out walking to meet us. Temperature about 27 - hotter under the full sun, of course. The creek is actually a bit more than that, although water level and stream width vary a bit with tide and rainfall. It's a picturesque spot south of Agia Napa, where fishing (and the odd pleasure) boats are moored. Rustic docks, sheds, and a couple of restaurants. We eat lunch on the veranda of the larger. More upscale menu than we're expecting - this isn't a little fish and chips joint. It is a fish restaurant, though. Start with mussel and shrimp saganaki. New to us, but Greek dishes with the seafood in a spicy tomato sauce. Made with ouzo, though to be honest we wouldn't have identified it, and with feta cheese melted into it. Delicious. Then the fish: whitebait (Jane), swordfish (Bill), sea bream (J), and sea bass (me). All fresh caught and lovely. Beautiful day.

Tuesday, April 5/2016

Temperatures now in the high twenties, so after J's beach walk we head to George's Apollo Café. In mid-winter the shady location in a covered walkway is not an asset, but now it comes nto its own. George boasts an extensive collection of classic film posters, some of which he hangs outside in the passage where his tables are in the daytime. He's also both knowledgeable and philosophical, always good for a chat or a game of backgammon with a patron.

Cyprus mail refers to the prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, who has resigned, putting the title of prime minister in quotation marks, only slightly subtler than the state tv channel feeling compelled to call him the so-called prime minister. Difficult to see how this can lead to a happy reunification any time soon.

Monday, April 4/2016

Happy bit of Cyprus trivia: there are still more than 7,000 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines in the ground across Cyprus. Removal slowed mainly by cost, though occasionally someone is injured or killed by one.

Sunday, April 3/2016

Sunday April 3.  Cambanella's for lunch. Last time for this year, the first of a sequence of lasts. Into summer weather now, although the Cypriots don't think of it as summer weather - that belongs to the high temperature high humidity pressure cooker of June through August, the time when most of our friends try to take their holidays in the UK or elsewhere.

Saturday, April 2/2016

Bus out to Pyla and we're off to the North, passports in hand to show at the border checkpoint. Our internet directions are a bit imprecise, but it seems that the camp that can be seen (sort of) is a little north of Famagusta - German Palestinian settlers, known as Templers, having been accommodated south of the city. Quite surprisingly we do find it, we think. Past the university, a large fenced area of fields and sand looking as if it is used for military exercises. On down to the sea. We're on a bay with soft sand and crystal clear water. Lovely! The camp will have been on the same beach, just the other side of the forbidding sign, but imprisonment pretty well negates any natural beauty. There's something about barbed wire. 

Carry on a little up the coast to Bogaz, a pretty spot on the sea where we stop for lunch, a very nice shrimp casserole. Super day.

Friday, April 1/2016

April 1 is Cyprus National Day, and by chance the second long weekend in a row. Not Cypriot Independence Day, but the anniversary of the day the terrorist/guerrilla/liberationist group EOKA began bombing and blowing up people, chiefly British military, as the island was British until 1960. Previous Friday was Greek Independence Day. Why? Good question.  So down to the waterfront in the afternoon. Lots of people out. Warm and sunny, so people swimming, eating ice cream, buying balloons for the kiddies. Stop at Harry's Café and celebrate by splitting a beer instead of getting our usual Greek coffees. 

Jane and I have imessage discussion on island exploration. Mention that J is interested in finding where the detention camp was that Jewish would-be immigrants to Palestine/Israel were kept in between 1946 and 1949. Jane immediately suggests we go tomorrow, spurring a couple of hours late night research on my part so that we don't drive round aimlessly wondering. Available info both sparse and vague, but collect what I can.

Thursday, March 31/2016

Ailsa to leave Monday for England to see her sister, whose condition may be terminal. By the time she gets back we will be gone, so A organises a meal at the kabob place oround the corner from Smart. We've been before, with Jane and Bill, but only at lunch. Very nice. Good food and, unusually for a Cypriot restaurant, it's possible to hear well enough to carry on a conversation. Usually the volume of talk at other tables precludes normal conversation. 

To our place for coffee after, or nearly so. We all get in the lift and it makes a buzzing sound and dies. Notice on wall says maximum 6 people, 475 kg. Mental maths follow. We're definitely under even if, as J says, we weigh more than we did two hours earlier. But the elevator is unimpressed by mathematics and we're forced to confess to Kiki, who calls a repairman. Jane unable to walk up four and a half flights, so Ailsa, J and I go and make coffee, and take it downstairs, along with glasses, mints and liqueurs. Kiki has kindly asked us to make ourselves at home in the lounge - probably depriving her of her regular evening television - so we end up with coffee in much pleasanter surroundings than our flat.

Wednesday, March 30/2016

More on the hijacker. The ex wife he wanted to see tells a somewhat different story, as exes are wont to do - one of neglect and lack of interest in the family. It appears that the separation received some police assistance, as he was deported - more than once for forging passports. Sympathy wanes.

Tuesday, March 29/2016

Listening to BBC forces radio early in the morning when there is brief breaking news mention of a hijacked plane heading toward Cyprus. Confirmed by googling on the ipad. M rings to ask if we're watching Euronews. We're not, but when we turn it on, there's only a brief line about it on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. J leaves for his morning walk on the beach and as soon as he goes the pace of reporting heats up. Euronews is now following with live broadcasting from the Larnaca airport. Check the Cypriot government channels, CYBC 1 and 2. Channel 1 has a cooking show and channel 2 cartoons. BBC World now onsite. Loses its signal briefly but CYBC1 has live coverage set up. There's a lot of speculation and conflicting info. It's an Egyptian domestic flight. No, it actually originated in Saudi Arabia and was due to finish in Cairo after its Alexandria touchdown. There are 82 people aboard or 60, the hijacker asked to go to Turkey or to Cyprus. Euronews has some painful periods of dead air (though probably less painful than the grating voice of their usual female announcer) while BBC fills the time with chat and bits of informed opinion. Do wonder about the quality of the opinion when one of the commentators says "This is a part of the world where they do know what they're doing." Hard not to think of the shambolic Cypriot aeronautical industry.

Leave the coverage to join J for coffee jas the plane sits on the tarmac. Egyptian passengers allowed to leave but crew and some passengers still aboard and presumably negotiations taking place. There is mention of the hijacker having an ex wife living in Cyprus, and also of requests for female political prisoners to be released. When we return after coffee and a stop to pick up a few groceries - chicken, wine, mushrooms, garlic, raw peanuts - there doesn't seem to have been much progress. The ex wife has apparently been taken to the airport, but her identity is being protected. With good reason - she's probably dying of embarrassment. By mid-afternoon the last hostages have been released, the hijacker arrested and the "suicide belt" found to be fake. And We're free to be pleased that we fly out of Larnaca airport two weeks from today rather than today, when the airport was evacuated and all flights diverted, delayed or cancelled.

Monday, March 28/2016

One of the nicer things about Cyprus is the fresh fruit and vegetables available, some of which we rarely see in Canada, and others which we do see but only for a very short season or only as pathetic and expensive specimens. Maggi makes salads that are entirely coriander and rocket, both of which are always available inexpensively in large bunches. Kohlrabi are in all the greengrocers, complete with dark green leaves for the soup pot. Artichokes are somewhat seasonal, more abundant in late winter, but J, having observed one of the women at the market, slices the hearts and sautés them. It's highly labour intensive but makes lovely appetizers or pizza toppers.

Sunday, March 27/2016

Wake before alarm. Out by bus to Pyla, where we pack up enough food for half of Cyprus, plus beer and wine. Harry has forgotten the time change, so supplies us with the key. Depressingly, he's had problems with theft and minor vandalism, in part by the young soldiers doing their national service, who seem both  undisciplined and underoccupied. So grass trimming, weed killing, post painting and a pretty substantial picnic. A few drops of rain just as we finish up.

Saturday, March 26/2016

Errand day, with sorties out to Lidl, the Elephant store and Prinos. Jane's plan is that we will all go out and help Harry get some work done at his cabin, taking a picnic with us. As tomorrow is Sunday the buses run less frequently, so early start means the 8:20 bus. Worse, as Jane reminds me, tomorrow is the change to summer time, so it will feel like a 7:20 bus. Check with google re the ipads updating themselves when the time changes. Answer not entirely reassuring. Yes, probably, but only if allowed to adopt the local time. Which they're not, mainly because of UK sites that we synch with. So will rely on the mobile. Reset the mobile an hour ahead at bedtime. But will it reset itself again in the night?

Friday, March 25/2016

Would be Good Friday here, if the Orthodox Church didn't follow the Julian calendar. As it is, though, it's still a holiday: Greek Independence Day. Rather suggests lack of independence on the part of Cypriots that they celebrate it, but it does make a long weekend. Although not a very nice one - overcast with wind and dust in the air - warnings about high levels of particles. Good day for reading.

Thursday, March 24/2016

Rumblings about taxi drivers threatening to strike. Too many of them and rates too high, so they work hard at preventing shared taxis and even some buses going to the airports. Much less inconvenient for us than the bus strike anyway.

An unprecedented 19 people on the bus as we go out to Vlachos in the evening. Unsurprisingly, if the buses follow a predictable schedule more people are likely to take them. Also, as we go into Easter weekend (for the western Church) there are some (presumably) tourists getting off at the Dhekelia Road hotels. We meet up with Jane and Bill and Harry and Ailsa for a meal. Ailsa now trying to arrange a flight back to England, where her sister is not doing too well after a second brain tumour operation.

Wednesday, March 23/2016

Meet Maggi for coffee at Harry's Café. She's brought Maxi. What a contrast from when M first took her from the shelter as a rescue dog. She used to be so nervous, afraid of strangers, noises, everything. Now she's poised, confident, relaxed. Lovely for both of them.

Tuesday, March 22/2016

Accusations in the press of road transport officials issuing driving licences in return for bribes. Particular reference to the Paphos area but, unsurprisingly, this attracts would be bribers from as far away as Larnaca.

Monday, March 21/2016

Jane's art group has an exhibition opening. It's on all week, though only in the mornings. Cyprus often has cultural displays, museums, etc closing for the day about the time I'm ready to head out, although this could just be when the artists are able to take turns looking after things. Tonight's opening, though, is a respectable 7-9:30 pm. J and B stop at our place but have to be there early, so we walk down for 7. It's in an older building that has be recently restored for use as a cultural centre, and the space is lovely for the purpose - light and spacious with a large room and a smaller one as well as alcoves. Quite a lot of paintings, some of them very good though it's basically an amateur group, and an interesting variety. Only one obligatory opening speech, and (unlike other openings we've attended here) in English not Greek. Quite respectable glass of wine as well. Still warm out when we walk back an hour later.