Wednesday, January 31/2018

Have no intention of watching Trump's State of the Union address. It comes on at 4 AM here and would prefer to boycott anyway but fall asleep listening to BBC 5 and wake up in the night to hear Trump's undulcet tones. Guess from tv poll point of view this is still boycott, although scarcely a peaceful night's sleep. Later in the morning someone online mentions that Trump kept applauding himself. Not obvious on radio, though J says it did sound like that was what the microphone was picking up. No reason that should be more bizarre than anything else he says or does, but somehow it is.

Google translations unbelievably awful. Two of my Facebook friends write primarily in Turkish. Fehmi, our dentist most often posts photographs, usually with short captions which the translator can just about manage, but Ulus often writes political or social commentary, which leads to translations so bad I'm not sure I have the gist. Reminds me of listening to J talking Polish with his late parents. I usually knew the topic and the attitude to it but missed all the detail - and sometimes was led in entirely the wrong direction by a couple of misconstrued words. 

Phone Fehmi in the morning as we're going to Famagusta tomorrow to visit the new market and J has, with nothing fortunate but the timing, broken a tooth. Fehmi not in and apparently not planning to be in today, so the girl who assists him and I do our best. Actually I hadn't known she spoke any English at all beyond hello and coffee, so we do not badly. She wants to make the appointment for Friday but eventually we settle on three tomorrow. Phoning North Cyprus is bizarre, the country being so thoroughly unrecognised by the South that calls must be placed long distance via Turkey.

J brings home more bougainvillea and some of the lovely yellow Silver Senna blossoms that he cheekily picks from the shrubs in front of the police station. Incredible scent.

Tuesday, January 30/2018

Meet J down at the beach where he has been walking. They've been collecting the seaweed, raking it up as they do periodically, into small mountains, on which children sometimes play King of the castle. Eventually they'll truck it away. Should make very good compost. 

Coffee at Harry's. Then to the cancer patients charity shop across from St Lazarus,mwhere we run into Natasha, our Ukrainian jeweller, whose own shop is just down the road. Not much of interest, although J does spot a hard cover book of photographs commemorating Portage La Prairie's flight training centre. We're wondering aloud how on earth it ended up here when the man working at the shop explains that the book's owner and his wife have died and the charity shop was asked to learn out their home. Makes us wonder how many back stories this little shop contains. Many years ago I came across a framed print of the historic village at King's Landing New Brunswick in this same shop.

Monday, January 29/2018

Apparently Cyprus has been excluded from the 2017 Euro Health Consumer Index because it is the only one of the 35 European countries surveyed that does not have a national health insurance scheme. Though legislation seems to be in the works. This is a bit surprising, as one way and another quite a lot of medical treatment seems to be covered by the state unless, as in the UK, you go private, which virtually everyone agrees results in better as well as faster treatment. And even then costs are not high by western standards. It seems Cyprus also has the lowest number of outpatient visits to doctors per year among the European countries. The suggested reason, though, is not all that surprising. Albania, with the second lowest ranking, suffers from a lack of doctors. The number of doctors in Cyprus is average for Europe, and the official guess is that doctors are evading taxes. Back to the international perceived corruption index.

Sunday, January 28/2018

A day in the North with Jane and Bill. We check out Famagusta's new (well, a year old but we haven't been there before) City Mall. [Side question: why do Brits pronounce mall to rhyme with shall, while North Americans pronounce it to rhyme with ball, call, fall, gall, hall, many etceteras?] Google first to find driving directions. There is a website, and a miniature Union Jack to press for English, but this amounts to English single word subheadings followed by Turkish text. (Now have Turkish English dictionary on the iPad mini that works offline).

But we find it. Spiffy shiny new looking, with four storeys round a central courtyard. Escalators and lift. Could have been anywhere in Europe except that the shops aren't the standard chains, due to the sanctions against the North. But electronics, baby clothes, kitchen things, shoe shops - all looking film set bright and neat. A bit short on customers when we attire, but it does get busier. Are they buying? There are three or four fast food spots but also a bar and restaurant on the ground floor with surprisingly good food. Our waitress, like many in North Cyprus, is a non-Cypriot university student. The TRNC has encouraged many foreign students to enrol. It's a win-win as the fees are welcome and the students get to do degrees in English. This girl is from Tajikistan, and speaks excellent English. Her third language - the second is Russian. Are there jobs in Tajikistan once you have the education (in her case business studies)? Well, her real hope is to emigrate. The dream would be London. 

Finish the day with a bowl of soup at our place.

Saturday, January 27/2018

The book we’ve been reading on living in/moving to Cyprus has made reference to a much earlier book called In an Enchanted Island, or A Winter’s Retreat in Cyprus, written by WH Mallock and published in 1892. Surprisingly, this book went to three editions. Unsurprisingly, it’s long since gone out of copyright and available for free download. Our current Cyprus book is heavily padded and underedited, but Cyprus as seen by an Englishman in the nineteenth century may have some historical interest - or at least curiosity value.

Friday, January 26/2018

Meet J down at the beach and opt for coffee at Harry's Café. There are now seven cafés within sight, a two block stretch, with more round the bends in the road in both directions. The nearest one to Harry's has only just opened, probably not to the delight of the others. However do they all survive? Typically, like Harry's, they have about five tables (do I count the one with the bird in its cage?), each with two or three chairs. And, while you can order a sandwich or salad, and beer or juice or even whisky, most regulars are only there for coffee. And as in virtually all Cypriot restaurants no one hurries you. 

Thursday, January 25/2018

To Jane and Bill’s in the afternoon, where we watch Churchill, the Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson film about the period leading up to D-Day. Engaging, and nicely filmed, but historically inaccurate in terms of Churchill’s objections to the invasion. J and Bill finish the last bit of cutting from Bill’s tree trimming and put the wood in the trunk for Harry. 

To Xylotympou, one town over from Pyla, for the buffet at Bambos, held every Thursday and Friday, where we meet up with Ailsa and Harry. Good buffet as usual, with huge variety of salads, and not much of a queue. Yes, the proprietor says, fewer people come out on rainy nights, but it’s good anyway - we need the rain.

Wednesday, January 24/2018

Looks like we're in for a couple of days of intermittent rain. Which it's hard to complain about here, partly because the weather is predominantly fine and partly because the island is chronically short of water, so that the inevitable response to rain by locals is always but we need it. Cyprus has always been dry but climate change has been taking its toll, along with welcome but ecologically damaging tourism and scientists are warning of the dangers of desertification. In the North water is brought from Turkey through underwater pipes. Apparently the North offered to supply water to the South as well but the offer was refused. So we nip over to Prinos before predicted rain begins. Wednesdays fruit and vegetables, which are most of what Prinos sells, are 20% off. The difficulty is never paying for the produce. It's that €3 (£2.64, $4.56 CAD) worth of oranges, grapefruit, courgettes, onions, potatoes and tomatoes is as much as we can carry. 

Tuesday, January 23/2018

Cyprus Mail, the English language daily in the South, reports on the attack on the Afrika journal offices in the North. Hard not to feel that there is a certain amount of censorious satisfaction in the lack of decorum displayed in the North, possibly down to the inevitable use of "prime minister" and "parliament" in quotation marks, to indicate that the South regards the position and institution as illegitimate. Only slightly less clumsy than the television news standard use of "so-called" for TRNC political titles.

Monday, January 22/2018

Offices of left wing North Cyprus newspaper Afrika trashed by citizens who object to the paper suggesting that Turkish President Erdogan had attacked a Kurdish enclave in Syria in order to occupy the territory and - crucially - comparing the power play to Turkish military “occupying” North Cyprus. There are indeed 35,000 Turkish troops in the North, although the alternative way of regarding this is the one expressed by TRNC leader Akinci, that the Turkish troops who intervened in 1974 and remained on the island have prevented Turkish Cypriots from becoming a minority (and an oppressed one) in a Greek state. But Erdogan obviously noticed Afrika’s headline - or, more probably had it brought to his attention - and urged Turkish Cypriots to “give the necessary response to this”, which led to an attack with eggs and stones, doing significant damage.

Sunday, January 21/2018

To Cambanella's for Sunday lunch. We're walking in past a table for two where Bob and Hazel sometimes sit. The man has his back to me and from the back he looks almost identical to Bob, so I'm shocked to see that the woman, while fair haired, is NOT Hazel. And in broad daylight. Sit down and sneak another look and am relieved to see that the man, though very like Bob, is a complete stranger, and therefore presumably entitled to any female companionship he wishes. Tell Jane, who it seems has made the same mistake and has in fact said hello before registering that Hazel has had a significant makeover.

Saturday, January 20/2018

Bill and Jane collect us at nine for the weekly open air market. We haven’t been for ages, though we used to go pretty frequently when we lived closer. Love the jewel toned boxes of oranges and lemons and tomatoes. There’s a bucket of wild asparagus and a string bag of snails. Thee radishes here are the biggest we’ve ever seen, some baseball sized or even larger. And then there are cabbages that must be two feet in diameter. Easy to look at them and see them as more than adequate cover for the newborn babies that in French tradition are said to come from cabbages.

But we’re there for the fish. Bill knows the fish seller and he and J discuss the requirements before settling on sea bream and bass. Which we take back to theirs to barbecue. Outside in the sun, with salad and fresh strawberries - also from the market, local but presumably greenhouse. Superb.

Friday, January 19/2018

Keep getting Czech language pop-ups on the tablets. Also Greek, but that's less surprising since we're currently in a Greek speaking country. Think the Czech is down to a visual puzzle I sometimes do which seems to have been designed in Czechia. So the pop-up message will ask me to signal "rozumím" which I do, the word being pretty close to the Polish "rozumiem" meaning I understand. Actually, I don't understand anything else in the message, but assume it means I'm accepting terms or cookies. Pretty funny.

Thursday, January 18/2018

Crazy weather. Rain, but also strong enough winds that the rain, which is only intermittent, at times seems to be hitting the windows horizontally. Warm enough, though, so before the rain really starts we split up. I to Elephant Store for olive oil, yoghurt, mushrooms, peppers, pears, and J to Lidl for bread, flour, little spinach pastries. Conference pears delicious here - sweet, juicy, and ripe but not over ripe.

 

To To Kozani in the evening with Jane and Bill. By this time the rain is over, and the water that floods the streets has, as always, mysteriously disappeared. Good thing, because the restaurant is hard enough to find in the endless dark maze of narrow streets without rain. Always a warm welcome here as reward for reaching the end of the maze, though Jane had hoped to be nearer to the little wood burning stove. (Though wood burning in Cyprus is hard for a Canadian to take seriously, consisting as it does of twigs and odd ends of scrap wood - except for the time at Ship Inn where one of the workers added a whole plastic carrier box to create a presumably toxic mixture in the large fireplace.) Nice leisurely meal and the maze, as always, easier to negotiate in reverse.

Wednesday, January 17/2018

Maggi drops in briefly between her volunteer visiting and collecting some take away food from the little restaurant across the road from us which specialises in, among other things, rabbit stifado. Get to pass on the Ian Rankin book we’ve recently finished. 

BBC Radio news full of speculation, headlined as fact, that the Bayeux Tapestry is to be lent to the UK for display. Announcement slightly premature, as followed by “Macron is expected to announce....” But more to the point an assessment of the nearly thousand year old tapestry’s fitness for surviving a move must take place, so speculation is that the loan is likely to be five years or so away. Does make me think it would be worth visiting in France some time in the nearer future. Almost all announcers pronounce Bayeux as if it were a Louisiana bayou, which I have to admit to having accepted myself in the past, although clearly, thinking in French and not southern US, the first syllable is Ba, not Bay, and the accent is on the second syllable. The eyes have it.

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Tuesday, January 16/2018

Coffee on the waterfront at McDonald's. Not much for atmosphere, but good beach watching and good filter coffee, which is a rarity in Cyprus where the standard alternative to Cyprus coffee is Nescafé. Man sitting near us is one we overheard yesterday talking to a young girl about how he never went with women who were fat. Think of newspaper personal columns where men frequently specify that the woman they are looking for must be slim; virtually never a requirement expressed by women. Also think of the high standards of appearance demanded by the most unprepossessing men. 

Collect watch from watchmaker used by Bill and Jane. New works, so as good as a new watch for €20 as promised. Think we have changed watchmakers.

Monday, January 15/2018

Bougainvillea everywhere, though not at their most luxuriant in January. J collects small bouquets, mostly from the overgrown bushes in front of the deserted Chinese restaurant. Bougainvillea should have a special meaning for Canadians, as it was named in honour of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who was an aide-de-camp to Montcalm but, luckier than Montcalm, survived the battle for Quebec and accompanied the Chevalier de Lévis to St Helen’s Island off Montreal for the last stand of France in Canada. But bougainvillea obviously comes from a warmer climate. It was in fact discovered (in Brazil?) and named for Bougainville during a trip to circumnavigate the globe. Not that this was by any means the end of Bougainville’s adventures. After South Sea exploration he found himself with France on the side of the rebels in the American Revolution, and took part in the Battle of Chesapeake. An astonishing number of other accomplishments (such as writing a book on calculus), but this is in danger of becoming a biography.

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Sunday, January 14/2018

Bus to Cambanella’s for their British style Sunday lunch, with Jane and Bill. Bus itself totally full - an unprecedented occurrence. Well, not quite totally, as there are a very few scattered seats, but just about so. A dozen young men get out at the same spot, but can’t tell where they’re headed. Encouraging to see the system being used, and the recent improvement in timing does lead to more use. One of the best lunches we’ve had there. Jane’s chest cold seems now to be finally cured. 

Get notice that online library book is in. By the time I get notified of a book’s availability, I’ve usually forgotten that it exists, let alone that I’ve ordered it. This one requested last July. Suppose I should be considering what to request for next July’s reading. Now down to three read aloud books. John Simpson’s memoirs, A Mad World my Masters (excellent) as the daytime “real” book, as well as Living in the Real Cyprus by Vic Heaney and Please Mr Postman, second volume of Alan Johnson’s memoirs. Johnson, who went from London slum to Labour Secretary of State via the union rather than Eton and could certainly have been party leader post Blair had he chosen,  is self-deprecating as ever and a pleasure to read. Heaney’s book interesting in places, but suffers from too much ego and far too little editing.

Saturday, January 13/2018

Apart from the obvious - fresh fruit and vegetables all winter - there are quite a few differences between what is available at supermarkets here and at home. For example J comes home from Lidl - which is only a medium sized store - with a packet of gnocchi filled with pesto. An unlikely find in most Canadian supermarkets I frequent, especially unfrozen. 

And I often think of Mr Czekaj in Hudson, who spoke English well enough but didn't really read or write it, asking us to identify the contents of a tin, as he was stuck when there was no picture on the label. Thus we're looking at a (glass) jar of yoghurt, trying to see if it is sheep - we're hoping it is - and I say to J you'd think they could put a picture of the animal on the label. Can read some words in Greek, and disproportionately food words, but the alphabet is different, of course, and the writing on products often minute.

Friday, January 12/2018

Stop at stationer's to buy a drawing pencil. Clerk asks what I'm looking for. Me: A drawing pencil. C: A pen? Me: No, pencil. Several more rounds of same. Try saying to write with but this leads us back to pen. Add with lead, but can see this is scarcely helpful, and in any case it isn't actually lead, of course. Eventually translation assistance is summoned. (And the Greek word appears to include 'grafia', which is logical). I am shown the extensive pencil display. Ah, says the clerk: Pen-seeel. And she sounds like she's correcting my pronunciation rather than trying to get it right.

Meet J for coffee at Harry's. And stop at the minute watchmaker's shop (shop minute, not watchmaker) where we usually go. My watch stopped running some time in the night, and our assumption was that it needed a new battery. Watchmaker says that the battery is good; the problem is with the works, which he refers to as the machine. Might be fixable, but not cheaply, and even more expensive if the works need replacing. He could sell me a similar one from the dusty collection in his window for €40 (we ascertain that the faded tag says €50). It's a good price for a Seiko, although the benefit is mutual, as the style is now unfashionable, and while I like it he would probably have trouble shifting it and knows it. We decide to think about it, and ask for the battery back. He's scornful - why would we want an old battery, we wouldn't put an old battery in a new watch. But we take it home, where J tests it with the voltmeter. And finds that the battery is, in fact, dead. Make due allowance for watchmaker's deficient social skills - he's always been a bit awkward - but not entirely happy with the encounter. To be continued....