Wednesday, December 29/2010

Along Ermou almost to the end for a haircut, with the usual trepidation - the hairdresser is very good but communication is limited. As I wait, a woman across from me, also waiting, begins to open her mail - two small parcels tightly taped together - each, it turns out, holding a pair of glasses. The tape is too tightly attached to remove, so she takes advantage of the hairdresser's preoccupation with a comb and leans in front of his customer to pick up the hairdressing scissors, and sets to work ruining the blades. Eventually the hairdresser takes note and retrieves them, kindly sending the boy in training over with a substitute pair as he cleans the blades.

In the end I get quite a decent haircut for ten euros.

Tuesday, December 28/2010

Continuing our habit of reading aloud. Currently towards the end of The Jewel in the Crown, first book of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet. Quite interesting from an historical point of view as well as being well written. We read Book II last year, so it's out of order, though not disastrously so, and we've since acquired the third and fourth books as well. In addition, we now have a buffer - downloaded work of Dickens,Strachey, Maugham and deMaupassant from the Gutenberg Project for times when we may find ourselves bookless.

Monday, December 27/2010

The Christmas sales continue at the supermarkets until New Year's Eve, with the biggest discounts being on liquor - an unusual phenomenon for Canadians considering that Canadian liquor stores regard five percent as a massive discount. Obviously the attitude is quite different here, as is the tax structure Clearly one should buy a three month supply at once, but it's a bit difficult to calculate.

The attitude to alcohol is different in other respects as well. No lingering Puritanism here. Liquor as well as beer and wine are available in small corner shops as well as supermarkets. Separate stores are uncommon and would only exist for specialty products such as higher end whiskies. Age of access doesn't seem to be a critical factor either - nor does this lead to much interest in the liquor section of the supermarket on the part of teenagers. Thus J, waiting outside the Smart discount store for me, spots a boy of about nine emerging carrying a bottle of vodka out to the car where his mother is waiting with the baby, with as little concern on all parts as if he had been sent in for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk.

Sunday, December 26/2010

Boxing Day. And very quiet here. Quieter in some ways than Christmas Day. The Cyprus Mail, the English language paper, published on Christmas Day - a lone copy remains at the newsstand as proof - but its Sunday edition which includes extra sections with the radio and television guides and the puzzles is not in evidence. Oh no, today is holiday - no paper today. And therefore no telly guide either.

So, lazy day, with random TV and warm sun and extremely good leftovers, including the chicken and wine sauce and J's cabbage rolls, the tastiest I've ever had, with brown rice, caramelised onions, mushrooms and smoked pork loin. Leaves most cabbage rolls miles behind. He's amazingly good with a two burner hotplate and no oven. Though we do have the magic ingredient - time.

Saturday, December 25/2010

Having been unwilling to get home at two after midnight mass, we go at 9:30 this orning - a rather thinner crowd than there will have been last night, but plenty of enthusiastic crol singing by the Filippino contingent, complete with some rather original pronunciation - as in the lines from Hark the Herald Angels Sing which are lustily rendered Filippino style as "Pleased as man with man to dwell/Jesus our E. Manuel.

In the afternoon we go down to the promenade along the beach. It's humming. Balloons and popcorn, ice cream, roast corn on the cob and hot chestunts. Some of the children have new Christmas toys with them, and there are dogs on leads, happy to be part of the scene. And ships in the bay, six of them this time, at anchor for the holiday.

Friday, December 24/2010

The supermarkets have opened at seven today. Cypriots aren't big consumers of frozen foods and everyone wants last minute fresh. We trek up past the English cemetery and the ruins of old Kition, which flourished here as far back as the 13th century BC. Some of it has been excavated and bits more, between home and the bakery, are in process, so that between existing buildings there are gaps where one can look down at ancient foundations. It's obvious that these must extend underneath a larger section of modern Larnaca, so we walk home with our chicken from Metro and a large loaf of sesame studded rye bread from the bakery thinking of the community going about its business here over 3000 years ago.

Lovely surprise email fro Jim and Leila and Arturo, whom we first met nine years ago when they were sailing round the world. Well, to be accurate Jim was sailing round the world after early retirement. On his trip he had met and married Leila in Colombia and Arturo was born in New Zealand, so they joined the trip en route. We met them when they were harboured in Cyprus for the winter but also spent a few weeks with them in Malta the following year - but hadn't heard in years. Now Leila has rediscovered our email address and sent pictures of a now teenaged Arturo.

For the first time since we started spending Christmas in Cyprus we go back to our old habit of having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Starts with the nine lessons and carols from Kings College Cambridge via BBC, the signal that Christmas has begun. Then chicken that J has made with wine sauce and vegetables. Finish with chocolate, almonds and shortbread. There are the Christmas decorations on the little table, the candles burning and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Quiet and lovely.

Thursday, December 23/2010

Interesting how respect for a queue varies culturally. So much so that when someone worms their way in ahead of us J or I will often say "Funny, he didn't look Taiwanese." But this moroning J experiences a particularly blatant version. We go early to Lidl, mindful of the crowded supermarkets that accompany the days before Christmas. J is near the front of a line and has reached the checkout counter when a woman phshes in from the side, shoving her shopping art ahead of him. J says that there is a queue and points to its end, but she continues to push, while talking to him loudly in Greek. Eventually J removes her trolley and the people behind, a mixed English/Greek Cypriot couple take up the argument with her in Greek, showing her where the queue forms. She then has an unsuccessful go at crashing the line-up at the next counter before resigning herself to the rear.

Well, perhaps not entirely cultural variation. After all most Cypriots would not have done it and those behind J were less than impressed - but in the UK, land of the sacred queue, only the mentally ill could be imagined trying it on.

There are Christmas films on TV - fortunately Cypriots use subtitles instead of dubbing - but they're ostly things like modern take offs on A Christmas Carol and we're old enough to feel nostalgic about Jimmy Stewart. Tonight's film, The Christmas Choir, is about a man who takes men from a homeless shelter and forms them into a choir. We're thinking that it's a good story line but that in real life the problems would be insurmountable Turns out that it was based on a true story.

Wednesday, December 22/2010

Down to the post office and past a shipping establishment. The sign outside proclaims it to be a bonded warehouse for repatriates retired. Guess repatriates covers people both coming and going. They offer packing and moving services, including "stuffing-distuffing goods." Distuffing - there's a keeper word.

Tuesday, December 21/2010

Sounds like a bit of a party late at night in the room next door. We're pretty good sleepers and anyway justpleased for every apartment that is filled. It's nice having a fairly inexpensive place to stay but it doesn't seem busy enough to keep going. Feels like too much responsibility supporting the Sunflower and its employees - not that there are a lot of them. kAt first it seemed very nice having the lounge-like lobby quiet and to ourselves. And it is nice - but maybe too quiet for long term survival.

Monday, December 20/2010

Meet Berndt down at the beach. He's a Swede who has previously lived at the Eleonora and the Athene when we did - as well as having a similarly disastrous short stay at the Nautilus. Last year he and his wife were happily ensconced at the Eleonora at €700 a month. This year when they went back to the Eleonora in October they were told the price was now €900. Then electricity and water became extras to be paid separately. So now they, and other Swedes have rented two bedroom apartments on the waterfront (Finoukides). They do their own cleaning but it's €800 and no buildings between them and the sea. An interesting light on J's having been quoted €1300 at the Eleonora. Berndt says "they're crazy."

Sunday, December 19/2010

Over to St. Helena's Anglican for the service of the nine lessons and carols. They always do it very nicely and the little church is pretty full. Small bits of politically correct editiing to the carols which one tends to sing by heart, being caught out by "good Christians all rejoice." There's mulled wine and goodies afterward, including half of a large fruit cake remaining from yesterday's installation of the new priest, the Rev John Holdsworth. We chat with Jeannie and Chris recently moved from New York, she a New Yorker and he a Cypriot who oved there in 1974 - now back at the family restaurant. Also with Liz Taylor (surname acquired by marriage) who lives in a traditional Cypriot house in Oroklini, just north of us, and is very informative on the diocese (Cyprus and the Gulf) which includes places like Iraq and Yemen, all of which she has visited as a Church council representative.

Saturday, December 18/2010

Coffee outside the market entrance at Jimmy's Café. A mixture of Cypriot and non-Cypriot customers at the little outdoor tables. Not Cypriot and tourist as many non-Cypriots are not tourists either - a mixture of ex-pats, foreign workers (mostly Asian or East European), students on visas, and others, with English being the most common language after Greek. Today at tables near us two young women chat with a man sitting next to them. Heès bald but has a bushy white beard reaching to mid-chest, a gilt-decorated stole round his shoulders and a large bright turban, which he places on his head as he leaves, nodding to us and striding off with his long hand-carved walking stick, a small red plastic bag of market produce hooked to its end and hanging over his shoulder.

Doesn't feel like a week before Christmas, and it's not just the mild temperatures. There's been a real lack of Christmas films and music, even the corny repeat films with quasi-Christmassy themes. And, as J points out, almost the only carols we have heard have been in the supermarkets. Thus we edge past other shirtsleeved customers by the shelves in an overly warm Smart store hearing a voice singing "oh the weather outside is frightful." Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

That's not the only Christmas contribution the supermarkets have to make. They're pretty good at this time of year at providing fairly generous free samples in the aisles. Thus a quiet trip to Metro this afternoon yields - as well as the staples we camae for - a couple of ounces each of red and then white Cypriot wines (palate cleanser in between cubes of Cypriot cheese), a not-all-that small piece of chocolate honey cake, and (pièce de résistance) a small sample of Bailey's liqueur to be drunk from a tiny dark chocolate cup which is then itself consumed. Does mellow one a little in the face of the Christmas supermarket rush.

Friday, December 17/2010

Wake to sun but then it looks as if fog has rolled in, obscuring the sea and making the buildings hazy. Soon realise it's not fog but dust, presumably from the Sahara, its usual source. Continues all day, though the temperature remains warm. Still shirt sleeve.

J makes a beautiful spaghetti carbonara for dinner with the streaky bacon from Metro. Why is bacon here well over half lean, whereas in Canada they might almost as well sell it as lard? Is this a question of cuts of meat or the nature of the pig? Also, it doesn't have that horrid stick-your-finger-through-it texture that must come from injecting Canadian bacon, like Canadian chickens, with salt water.

Thursday, December 16/2010

Why do computers have to supply last minute instructions such as: Please do not power off or unplug your machine - Installing update 1 of 12? This warning could have been provided any time in the last two hours, instead of which it waits until I have begun to power off, as it knows full well. In order to guarantee inconvenience or run the battery to zilch? And please do not - or what? There won't be any ice updates until tomorrow? there will be no second chance for updates ever? My computer will immediately cease to function?

The budget debates are broadcast live on the government television chanel, and have been for days, postponing the ten minute English language news and weather. It's obviously of some importance - even to us, as there's a 5% tax slated for food in 2011 - but looks like it would be painfully tedious watching even if one understood Greek. Toonight it runs more than four hours over its scheduled three hour allocation and members of the legislature are obviously drifting elsewhere, as the benches are pretty thinly filled. One woman with long blonde hair has the misfortune to be sitting - and no doubt to have been sitting for a numbing length of time - behiind the microphone used by the member with the floor and in full view of the camera. She looks indescribably bored and is clearly texting as the speeches continue. Put the wine on ice - I'll need it?

Wednesday, December 15/2010

BBC radio announces that the French have found and intend to give formal burial to, the head of King Henry IV. Well, that's Henry IV Part I - part II anywhere?

Tuesday, December 14/2010

We take a walk to Lidl, not very far really to the north of us. It's overcast and windy but the wind is a warm one, though strong enough we can see the umbrellas would be useless. Lidl will be a useful addition to the food sources, with pretty good prices on many things - e.g. young but drinkable Italian wine on offer at one and a half litres for a euro, and prices for chocolate much better than average local ones. Though some other things are not especially cheap. On the whole there is less variety than in the other supermarkets, though there are odd additions, like quilted vests and hubcaps.

Down in the lobby with the netbook - grateful for the wifi - and note the current temperature in Sioux Lookout. It's -29!

Monday, December 13/2010

Walk down to the post office and tourist office - for maps and new bus timetables. The post office is opposite the Kition, our home for the last two winters. It looks deserted, other than the little convenience shop on the ground floor. Then we spot the handlettered sign advertising furniture for sale, and in the covered walkway through the building are bits and pieces of furniture from the hotel, most of it looking a little worn and yellowed, exposed to the world in daylight like this - dressing tables with paint chipped at the corners, even our old drapes in a sad heap. Rather like a dignified lady forced to evacuate in her underclothes. Nothing is underpriced either - white plastic garden chairs for the balcony are €2 each.

J checks at the Eleonora, newly (well, last year) tarted up and relet. Long stay rate - €1300 a month. That's close to 50% more than last year's quote and I'm indignant. Did you ask if there's a single person in there actually paying that? It's the old Cypriot trick of negotiating a different price with each customer. Sometimes a manager will even ask one to remind him of the price agreed the previous spring.

As usual, the language of translation affords entertainment. So I am puzzled by an advertisement for tins of "pilled tomatoes" though I might have been a little quicker had I heard it aloud. Of course - peeled tomatoes. And the small fish labelled "smell" on the next page are pretty obvious, if a bit offputting. But the caveat on Lidl's special offers stating "all prices without decorations" continues to be a mystery.

Sunday, December 12/2010

Had intended to go to church, but it's raining so we settle for brunch and the Cypriot Sunday Mail. The paper brings the news that someone had left the reservoir gates open during the storm oon Friday night, so tonnes of water were lost to the sea instead of being captured in the reservoir.

Saturday, December 11/2010

Barely up at eight when two men arrive wiith a new television to replace the one that didn't get the satellite chanel LTV. They've also brought a brand new two burner hotplate, replacement for the single burner one we had before, as well as a stainless steel frying pan and a tin opener as we requested. Very nice.

Damp on the pavements and cloudy still, but we go to our favourite bakery for the large loaf of dense rye bread studded with sesame seeds. It's still hot. And we treaat ourselves to two koulouri, bagel shaped and similarly studded. Then Metro supermarket, now on Christmas hours so no early closing Saturday, and a quick stop at the market where we get a cauliflower and fresh figs, which I barely recognize, never having eaten them. Followed by a Greek coffee at Jimmy's corner café by the hairdresser's. Seems like we should be meeting Maggi and Magne here as we always used to.

Friday, December 10/2010

Unpacking and then a quick trip for more provisions. Not only Carrefour but also Smart and Elomas discount stores and Prinos greengrocers. All quite short walks, which will be handy. Unpacking always full of happy surprises as we find forgotten books or Christmas decorations - and in this case a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and three bottles of Cypriot brandy. J had wondered why the stored box was so heavy!

Terrific thunderstorm with much needed rain, but we are cosy inside with spaghetti sauce simmering. Discover that the rain has brought a ceiling link - downside to top floor living - but staff very concerned and we borrow a wash tub to catch the drips.

J comments on the appropriateness of the Greek name for bank - prominently posted on the many banks we pass - "trapeza."