Monday, February 27/2017

Kite flying, Agia Anna

Green Monday. Jane's plan is to go on our second annual outing to Harry's cabin, to help him out and have a picnic. So take hamburgers, beer and a large salad and drive to Agia Anna, a village a few miles outside the city. Jane and I paint boards, Joe sprays weed killer and the guys make part of a complicated addition to the back of the cabin, which is supposed to become a pergola with both shade and a means of locking up the outside things safely.

 This last of some importance, as Harry has had problems with theft, both premeditated (an expensive stove) and casual (locally based soldiers "borrowing" chairs and leaving them down the road). Also unbelievable claims of having believed the cabin to be abandoned! Lovely day. Can see the improvements in the cabin since last year. Neighbours also in holiday mode, with kids flying a kite and families eating outside. Bells sound in the late afternoon as the goatherd bringing his charges down from the hills behind the cabin.

Sunday, February 26/2017

Cambanella's for lunch and then a walk along the beach. One or two people with kites, which are traditional for Green Monday. We've recently seen some fairly cool stone art online and the beach has an abundance of suitable stones so we try out a little kid version. Has possibilities, but can see that, as with most of life, making anything good would take time as well as talent. Could be fun, though. But clearly not a project for those travelling light.

Saturday, February 25/2017

This time it really is the Saturday before Green Monday, and the supermarkets and greengrocers are busy. Traditional food for the day includes vegetables and seafood, and according to one survey Cypriot prices are up. General rise or taking advantage of the season? Though the comparison is with the same time last year:

"The price of cucumbers has doubled year-on-year, according to a price survey carried out by the consumer protection service ahead of Green Monday.  Compared with prices at this time of year in 2016, cucumbers recorded the highest increase at 101.16 per cent – from €1.60 per kilo to €3.22...The price of tomatoes was also high in large supermarkets, recording an 85.7 per cent rise to €1.80 per kilo compared with €0.58 last year...and [bunches of] leafy vegetables between €0.21 and €0.50...Shrimp, squid, and cuttlefish were more expensive in larger supermarkets compared with last year. Halvah was cheaper with prices in small and larger supermarkets ranging between €1.45 per 400 grammes and €5.69 per 400 grammes." 

Does lead me to think that  some people are shopping in the wrong places, because we generally do quite a bit better than they suggest, though no doubt, as in Canada, the villages have higher prices than the cities.  We do stock up on fruit and veg, though not seafood. Not true traditionalists. If we were Green Monday would be salads and seafood and Lent would mean no meat and no dairy.

Friday, February 24/2017

Another dispute with Cyprus taxi drivers, loved by no one. They've met with the transport minister. "At the meeting, the two sides discussed long-standing problems faced by urban taxi drivers; taxi licences, piracy, and not enough taxi ranks. Taxi drivers have been striking or threatening to strike over the last few years over these issues." [Cyprus Mail] A bit difficult to sort out. Too many taxi licences but not enough taxi ranks? Taxi rates here are extremely high, given local cost of living, petrol prices, etc. They work very hard at maintaining a monopoly - preventimg shared taxi services, threatening violence to unofficial taxi drivers, etc. Doesn't seem to register that if taxi drivers were more pleasant and taxis were cheaper, more people would take them, and more frequently.

Thursday, February 23/2017

"Our" team lost last night's football game. No, we don't actually follow local soccer. Wouldn't know any of the players, etc. The winning team was originally from Famagusta, but relocated after 1974. Which brings us to reunification talks, which appear to have broken down again, in part down to the new legislation re commemorating Enosis in the schools. Well, that was highly predictable.

Wednesday, February 22/2017

Last Wednesday of the month is always book sale in the courtyard at St Helena's Anglican. Hundreds of books, almost all in English and most previously owned by people of our age, which often makes good pickings. Not overwhelming today, although that may in part be because we're not very early, having passed the convent on the way, dropped in on their charity shop and got involved in conversation with a nun and two volunteers, all very friendly. We're far from desperate for more books, with three ebooks alternating on our read aloud plan as well as books we're reading separately. But, like true addicts, we can't simply walk away either. So: 1) How to be Good- light novel by Nick Hornby. 2) Home to Roost - light reminiscences by Deborah Devonshire, youngest of the Mitford sisters. Intro by Alan Bennett is recommendation enough. 3) Caedmon's Song - mystery set in Yorkshire, by Peter Robinson, UK cum Canadian detective fiction writer. If he turns out to be good there's plenty more in his publication list. 4) Finding Poland - a search for family history across Poland, Kazakhstan, Iran, India, and England. 5) Jams, Pickles & Chutneys - recipes, obviously. Had thought to copy a couple of the best and then pass the book on to Bill and Jane, who might want to do the same, but so many of them look good that I'm wavering....

Football is huge here, and the pub down the road seems to be a gathering spot for fans, often audible through closed balcony doors. Tonight there's a pre-game rally complete with songs, chants, firecrackers and flares. The road completely blocked off, which seems to offend nobody. This goes on for about an hour before the assembled fans head off for the game. 

I make spaghetti for dinner. Spaghetti and sauce are fine, but I succeed in burning a pristine stainless steel frying pan before I begin and smash a dinner plate into more tiny fragments than I would have thought possible (and of course am not equipped with broom, let alone dustpan). Don't dare pour wine until everything else finished. 

Tuesday, February 21/2017

Jane's birthday and we're invited to Cambanella's in the evening. Harry and Ailsa too. It's our usual spot for Sunday lunch, but classier in the evening, with piano music playing in the background. Not crowded, and the table is oval, so it's easy to converse. Their specialty is steak but J goes for the lamb kleftiko anyway and says it has the same butter melting goodness of Sunday's. I have a chicken dish. My best, though, was the starter, with bruschetta topped with cheese and avocado and a little sweet hot chilli sauce. Delicious. Intend to replicate it, although Sioux Lookout avocados in comparatively short supply, less appealing, and more expensive than those here. Lovely evening and Harry and Ailsa kindly give us a lift home.

Monday, February 20/2017

Seems to be spring, although perhaps unwise to say so aloud. J and I meet at St Helena's charity shop and pick up short sleeved shirts that can always be redonated later. Conversation with Liz who runs the shop about what we all perceive as the unlikelihood of Cyprus reunification, given (among other things) that the government has recently passed legislation requiring schools to commemorate Enosis (with a holiday?) considering the number of Turkish Cypriot deaths associated with the Enosis movement (an attempt to force political union with Greece), this has naturally triggered huge Turkish protest. Liz says that she lived in Cyprus during the sixties, when her husband was in the British forces. This, of course being well before the Turkish invasion (or intervention, depending on which side is providing the narrative). She remembers when the British provided convoy escorts to take people from Nicosia to Kyrenia because Turks were likely to throw stones at the vehicles on the road. On the other hand, she also remembers General Grivas [Greek] entering a village with soldiers and killing women, children, and the old.

Sunday, February 20/2017

To Kofinou with Jane and Bill. It's a village a bit south of Larnaca, known for its several restaurants serving lamb kleftiko, traditionally cooked in clay pots in the beehive shaped outdoor ovens. Our place is busy - in fact a bus load of people arrive just as we do. Bill parks next to an almond tree in full flower (though next to a flowerless one still bearing a few of last year's nuts). Nice windowside table overlooking the garden. We all order rhe kleftiko and it's perfect - like butter melting in the mouth.

Saturday, February 18/2017

Under the impression that this is a long weekend, with Monday being Green (or clean) Monday in the Orthodox calendar. So three grocery stops. First at Saris, probably the most local of the supermarkets and usually the best prices. Not especially bilingual, and sometimes the translations are not so much inaccurate as unfortunate. Thus the food freezer includes meat labelled "rabbit carcass frozen". No doubt. 

First suspicion that this is not Green Monday weekend dawns at Prinos Greengrocer, which is not, as one would have expected, unusually busy. Humus, onions, potatoes, oranges, tomatoes, bananas, carrots, and a very small cauliflower for a grand total of €3.50 ($4.88 CAD, £3). All local and fresh. Google Green Monday (a moveable feast as it signals the beginning of Orthodox Lent) when we get home and find it's next week. Well, we won't go hungry.

Friday, February 17/2017

Stop at Micro, the little offshoot of Alpha Mega Supermarkets. Large display of Valentine cards as we walk in. Don't seem to have been reduced in price. J asks (me) if they know the day has past. Worse, in the refrigerated display case there are Valentine cakes with cream piping. Must be at least three days old. Also unreduced, although that's not their least appealing quality. 

Also stop at Maris Studio, newly opened in December. Owner artist Maria Aristidou is engaging and the shop funky and fun. Images not exactly original - Mona Lisa, Ellen Degeneris, Peter Rabbit, etc - but work in coffee, and occasionally tea, intriguing. Would it last well?

Thursday, February 16/2017

Meet J for coffee, this time taking the alternate route, parallel to Makarios Avenue, the main street. It follows the sea, with the port area fenced off between the sea and the road, and more than fenced - barricaded with rolls of razor wire on top of the wire fencing. It should be nasty and depressing but, oddly, it isn't. For one thing, it's quiet, unlike Makarios, which is noisy and polluted. A block away the street feels almost village like. A few business establishments but many homes - small apartments and houses. Gardens and flowers. The feel is village, despite its running beside a commercial port. This ends with a large dirt-surfaced parking lot adjacent to the marina and then the municipal bus depot, newly paved. And then the promenade. Pleasant walk, and about five minutes shorter than our usual route.

Wednesday, February 15/2017

Meet J for coffee, this time taking the alternate route, parallel to Makarios Avenue, the main street. It follows the sea, with the port area fenced off between the sea and the road, and more than fenced - barricaded with rolls of razor wire on top of the wire fencing. It should be nasty and depressing but, oddly, it isn't. For one thing, it's quiet, unlike Makarios, which is noisy and polluted. A block away the street feels almost village like. A few business establishments but many homes - small apartments and houses. Gardens and flowers. The feel is village, despite its running beside a commercial port. This ends with a large dirt-surfaced parking lot adjacent to the marina and then the municipal bus depot, newly paved. And then the promenade. Pleasant walk, and about five minutes shorter than our usual route.

Tuesday, February 14/2017

Wake up about half past seven. Listen to the radio while picking up the morning news, editorials, etc online. No hurry - J always gets up first and makes coffee. Engrossed surfing but eventually realise it's ten o'clock. Can't actually remember J having slept this late before. Occurs to me that I haven't really looked to see if he's breathing (in the other bed). He is. Can imagine having to explain that I have no idea when my husband stopped breathing as I was busy surfing the net. Yes, could have been any time after midnight. Obviously not the worst aspect of the situation, but possibly the least explicable. J wakes up about 10:15. No drama.

Maggi stops in the afternoon. First time in ages so lots of filling in. You did expect me to do most of the talking, she says cheerfully. Cypriot brandy time.

Monday, February 13/2017

Meet J at the beach for coffee. Huge oil rig (or liquid natural gas?) anchored in the bay. Harry says they have large crews and this one doesn't seem to be doing much at the moment - which still requires a basic crew. Harry, in his pre-retirement incarnation, captained commercial ships, a job which always seems to involve massive consequence of error - my view from having been a job analyst in previous incarnation).

Sunday, February 12/2017

Have just finished a not insubstantial breakfast when Jane phones and invites us to lunch. And do we have any cooking apples. No, but we do have one pink lady left and we can bring it. We do, and take advantage of the sun to have sherry and starters (pastries with cheese made by the Bulgarian next door neighbour) outside. Then move in for the main event - saganaki. Sounds Japanese, but is actually Greek - shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce, usually with feta. Very nice. And baked apples for dessert, with some of the last of the mincemeat. The microwave does these much better than one might have thought. Then watch Scotland vs France in Six Nations rugby. What a brutal sport!

Saturday, February 11/2017

The hotel is being renovated, almost entirely except for our room, which may well be added to the upgrade once we're no longer in it. So we have virtually the last of the solid old wooden furniture. Admittedly desperately in need of recovering but comfortable and indestructible. Unfortunately, the replacements won't last forever - and maybe they don't have to - but the ones we've seen aren't comfortable either. Armless fake leather sofas and chairs whose charms are distinctly superficial. The carpet will be scrapped, and should have been years ago, but the tile floor replacement will be cleaner but colder in winter. Probably the floor is a good thing, but we're wary. When they proudly replaced our horn shaped bed lamps with disk shaped ones aimed at the ceiling we lost the ability to read in bed, except for ebooks. It will look better in the carefully angled website shots but it won't be more liveable. 

Friday, February 10/2017

Radisson is building a huge hotel just past the roundabout on the way to Lidl's, and has been for as long as I can remember. Well, maybe not, but it didn't just start this year. Most days, it seems, there's no one working on it. But it hasn't been abandoned. There's a large crane permanently on top and occasionally it's seen moving. Also occasionally a half dozen or so workmen visible. Other days no action. Seems like a terribly inefficient way of going about it even if funds are scarce or unreliable. And the crane must be costing a lot of money sitting idle. Also, for my money they've built in the wrong spot. It's not near the beaches - and there are several good hotels a couple of miles north that are right on the beach. Nor is it in the city centre, and, while it's within a couple of miles of the centre, parking is dreadful in that direction so staying in a downtown hotel and not bothering with a car would be handier. Reasonably well located for Lidl and Carrefour, but supermarkets can't be much of a drawing card for tourists.

Thursday, February 9/2017

Haze and pollution looking somewhat similar, it's hard to tell visually. We do, periodically, get dust blown in from the Sahara. Obviously not much can be done about that, although it's not benign. Inhaling the small particulate matter is damaging and warnings get issued accordingly. It does turn the sky a brownish colour, though, and is easy to spot. This morning is pretty overcast, so I check out the live air quality site. Surprisingly, it shows pollution below average. Yesterday it was above, with appropriate (minor) cautions on outside activity. And, sadly, Larnaca is, on a yearly basis, above average. So, no doubt, for all its charms, is London. So nice that the other half of the year is Sioux Lookout. (https://air.plumelabs.com/en/live/larnaca - plumelabs also does similar reports for other world cities)

To the Blacksmith restaurant near St Lazarus for dinner with J&B. We all choose meze and there is an overabundance of it. One of the better mezes we've had. And far too much of it, no matter how hard we try. Fourteen dishes? Leftovers for Harry and Elsa's animals. Fairly warm breeze at night.

Wednesday, February 8/2017

Have added Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English to our reading aloud list. Despite being well aware of some of the crisis points coming - such as the Norman invasion - there's still some suspense, as well as a lot of fascinating detail and examples. And still words that are different in the north and south (UK) for reasons of historical occupation. Bragg himself grew up speaking a Cumbrian dialect at home and a significantly different "received pronunciation" (BBC English) at school.