Monday, February 27/2012

This is clean Monday, also known as Green Monday. Follows carnivals on the Sunday and precedes Lent, which in the Eastern Church begins on Wednesday, February 29 - this year a week later than in the Western Church. In Cyprus, as in Greece, it's celebrated with picnics emphasising seafood and green vegetables and by flying kites.

The sky is threatening, though, and it's extremely windy. J, out for his morning walk along the beach, reports that it's holiday busy and there are plenty of kites in evidence. Some advantage to the wind. Showers in the afternoon, though.

Sunday, February 26/2012

By bus to Pyla for lunch with Jane and Bill. More difficult than it sounds, as the online bus maps don't mtch Bill's impression of which buses go there. flag down a 429, which had shown no signs of stopping. It's more than full, standing room only, and, apart from us, all the passengers are African students. One girl (though they're mostly young men) gives me her seat and perches on the knee of another young lady. They all alight in Pyla, as do we. The access road wasn't the one past Bill and Jane's so we're unsure of which road to take and Jane picks us up.

Lovely lunch outside in the Cyprus sun - roast chicken with stuffing and potatoes as well as a large dish of mixed vegetables. And good company. Jane has a couple of lovely tagines that she brought back from Morocco, which we admire. Afterward we use their secure computer to book the hotel in Victoria for July. Then ane walks out with us to the Dhekelia Road, where there's a bus about to leave for Larnaca. Conveniently, but rather by chance, it seems, as the schedule had said it should just be leaving its base point down the road. There's a map online that shows every stop as a nice little blue ring - but it's obviously useless.

Saturday, February 25/2012

Stunning day, so coffee at Harry's Café by St. Lazarus. About as good as it gets.

New source of amusement: Kobo sends me regular email in which it makes rather inefficient efforts to suggest books that may be to my taste, based on past purchases. So, as I have recently bought two of Chris Mullin's political diaries as ebooks, today's suggestion list is headed by an offering called So You Want to be a Politician.

Friday, February 24/2012

Finally booked return flights to London, for April 2. Not simple - HSBC card required verifying, involving phone call to London, three different employees, and a call back which never happened. Finally used Mastercard.

Thursday, February 24/2012

Coffee at George's with Margaret, Sharon, Leslie, Tina - and Lorraine, mother of six week old Lewis, whom everyone takes a turn holding. Tina's brought millionaire's cake with her as promised, as well as her husband's pork pies - some made with pickle and cheese. Lovely.

We've booked our last chunk - three weeks in London at the Baron, where we stayed in November.  My favourite city in the world - and at a remarkably good price.

Wednesday, February 22/2012

J reading a thick juicy looking book on Anthony Blunt's life and career. I'm reading a memoir called A Girl from Schindler's List, written by a survivor. And jointly (aloud) we're reading Ian Rankin's Exit Music. And, as if that weren't enough, we have two unread current goodies (as well as many classics) on the Kobo. Lovely knowing that one can't run out of good reads.

Tuesday, February 21/2012

Jane's birthday and she and Bill have kindly invited us to a birthday dinner at the Shanghai, a (needless to say) Chinese restaurant less than ten minutes walk from us.  There are eight of us - including Maggi, Harry and Aylsa, and Stuart, a friend from the hash runs. Jane has brought some great photos from her Morocco trip - camels, colourful tagines, etc., and we all starat thinking of desert treks. It's certainly agreed with Jane - she's looking radiant. The round table works well for conversation too - much better than two square ones pushed together. Good food, with very nice spring rolls. Lovely evening.

Monday, February 20/2012

Flirting with the possibility of a train/ferry trip to Ireland. The fares are amazingly good - £38 or €45 ($60 CAD) from any city in Great Britain to Dublin - or the same in reverse. Obviously the starting spot would be London, but what about the return? The temptation is to go as far as possible. Penzance? Inverness? Until reality sets in. The real difficulty is the timing of Easter as we compete anywhere we go then for high holiday prices.

Sunday, February 19/2012

The prediction was for sunny with a high of 13, but the actuality is, happily, better than that. Nice walk along the promenade. On the way home we spot the small jeweller's (sales and repairs) recommended to us by the Ukrainian girl who makes her own jewellery. She proonounced it ZEFS and spelled it ZEVS, and we were mystified until we saw the sign - ZEUS. Blame Anglo pronunciation.

Saturday, February 18/2012

Maggi over to dinner in the evening. Stuffed mushrooms, sautéed artichoke hearts and chicken wings for the starter. Then chicken, rice, leeks, red and yellow sautéed peppers, carrots and Christmas cake with brandy sauce.  Lovely to be able to have the artichokes. In Sioux Lookout they're seldom to be had and one long dead one costs the earth. Here we sometimes mix them with pasta or put them on a pizza.

Friday, February 17/2012

J out on his morning constitutional, putting in miles along the beach and I with Maggi and her young friend Andrée who lives in Oroklini, along with year old daughter, Ioanna, to the charity shop at the British forces base at Dhekelia. It's open only Friday mornings and only until 11. It's jam packed with clothes as well as some dishes, electronics, handbags, paintings and odds and ends.  Andrée does well with baby clothes and I pick up quite a nice multicoloured Italian scarf. Coffee at Andrée's, as Ioanna, with the sweetest of smiles, plays happily in her playpen.

Over to Prinos, where artichokes are now on sale. Also get leeks, tomatoes, oranges, onions, carrots, Cypriot bananas, fresh spinach, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, and a lime. The lime from far away, but most of the rest local and fresh. One of the nicest things about Cyprus in the winter.

Thursday, February 16/2012

Coffee at George's. Tina, who made the millionaire's cake that Margaret gave us, is there as well as Leslie and Sharon. Len appears with Bobbie, his girlfriend, and is wished happy birthday by everyone. An easy guess as he's wearing a huge medallion saying "birthday boy." A man called Peter comes to sit next to J - quite an interesting chap from a family that seems to be half Irish and half Cypriot. An avid reader, especially of history.

Wednesday, February 15/2012

G&T in Maggi's flat. Hers completely renovated and ours not, but the changes do raise questions re next year. A real estate agent told us that some Scandinavians have begun signing year leases. Sometimes cheaper than 5-6 months hotel apartment, and their relatives can use the flat at other times.

Tuesday, February 14/2012

Gabriel and Adrienne over for a drink before dinner. They leave at midnight Thursday. This is a rebooking, as their Hungarian airline went bankrupt, so they're now rebooked on a Czech airline. Out of pocket, but they're philosophical - it's warmer here than it is in Hungary. Most of Europe has been experiencing unusually cold and snowy weather. Quite a few deaths.

Monday, February 13/2012

Looking for a spot to go to after Cyprus. We're here on a one-way ticket so need to co-ordinate return ticket with stay wherever. The difficulty this year is that Easter is early April and fares and warm holiday prices rise accordingly. As the search heats up the quality of the wifi deteriorates. The connection always purports to be excellent, but is SLOW.

Sunday, February 12/2012

Down to the promenade after brunch and it's in sunny, festive mode with the balloon sellers and the nut sellers out again, and girls carrying stuffed toys won aat games of chance. There's a brisk breeze off the sea but the sun is warm.

Home along Makarios, past the shop that the Red Canaries pet shop is about to move into. It's adorned with a huge sign with two red birds and, in giant letters, "Red Canneries Pet Shop."

Saturday, February 11/2012

Another lovely day. We meet Maggi down at Harry's Café near St Lazarus Church for coffee. Beautiful sunny spot with good Cyprus coffee and a magical view of the church with its Venetian tower.

Begin the online search for our next stop this winter/spring, hindered a bit by the timing of Easter as we're competing with those taking Easter holidays. The wifi connection is infuriatingly slow and the Congolese banker has stopped using it, opting for a paid wifi connection fro his room. So we're no longer treated to the details of international finance.

Friday, February 10/2012

A lovely day for walking. Coffee down on the waterfront and a wander around the streets. Sit on the pier with the wind blowing through our hair and the sun warm on our backs.

Thursday, February 9/2012

Coffee with Margaret and Leslie, Leslie cheerful as ever while telling a horrific story about her plumbing repairs. Plumbing becomes horrific quite easily in Cyprus because, like Greece and nowhere else, the main sewage pipes are about two and a half inches in diameter. So despite directives re not putting toilet paper down the flush, the pipes get clogged very easily. As Leslie says, she knows what she puts down 0 but the main pipe is shared with the next door neighbours....

Maggi invites us, along with Gabriel and Adrienne, over for strawberries. A and G don't eat after 6 p.m., but we do. Strawberries a little on the early side still, but nice evening. Gabriel voluble on his experiences in Africa and some of the stories are pretty good.

Wednesday, February 8/2012

Wet again today. Good thing we've been here for the past eleven years - otherwise we might think this was the norm. Quick run out to Carrefour and Prinos. Lovely having such an excellent greengrocer five minutes away - and buying tomatoes and cucumbers and courgettes in mid-winter.