A few hours in Nicosia, crossing the border at Ledra Street

Becky hadn't been to Nicosia, and Daniel - who had been there, many times, during his teens - wanted to walk down Ledra Street, the border to the North that was opened to the public back in the spring of 2008. So as Thursday was forecast to be a sunny day - for a change - and we had nothing else happening, we drove up to Nicosia late morning.

We didn't take a map, but Daniel and Richard both have a great sense of direction, and we soon arrived at Ledra Street, which is a fairly typical small pedestrianised road full of shops. I was a little surprised to see a Peacocks store - I almost forgot that we were in Cyprus:

And of course we sighed when we saw the ubiquitous Starbucks and McDonalds:

Still, the clear blue skies, fruting orange trees and occasional Greek shop names did remind us that we were, in fact, in Nicosia: 

I think something must have got lost in translation with this shop, 'Pull and Bear':

At last we reached the area which used to be boarded up, with armed guards ensuring nobody crossed. It didn't exactly look very enticing:

We had to take our passports to some rather bored looking officers in booths, and get our free visas which are on separate pieces of paper. Fortunately we didn't have any counterfeit or pirated goods with us...

Just in case we had any doubt as to where we were, this helpful sign reassured us:

There was a great deal of graffiti, random signs, and 'occupy buffer zone' posters in the short area between the South and the North:

At first, things didn't look too different in the North - there were jewellery shops galore, a surprising book shop full of old hardback British books (and some others) and a coffee shop, the only difference, of course, being that signs were in Turkish rather than Greek:

However it all quickly started looking rather run down and generally unkept. Not really a good way to entice tourists to explore and spend money. We wondered about having lunch somewhere in the North, but didn't see anywhere particularly appealing.

At least the sun came out again, for a while:

We didn't really have any planned route - we wandered around, and came across a church that was being restored, slightly to our surprise:

By this time I was feeling distinctly hungry... only to discover that we were lost. Richard and Daniel did manage to take us in the direction of the border, but of course there are only a few places where it can be crossed. Cyprus mobile phones don't work in the North, so Richard could not use his GPS, but we managed to find a useful sign:

Well... it wasn't that useful; we found ourselves in a covered market, with no way out, and had to retrace our steps. But eventually we found ourselves back on the Northern part of Ledra Street, much to my relief. We had to show our passports twice - once on leaving the occupied North, and once on re-entering the Republic of Cyprus.

It was strange, but as we walked back into the South, it felt as if an oppressive cloud lifted from the top of my head.

I was surprised and pleased to spot a Holland and Barrett, newly opened - but a quick perusal of the prices showed that it's still better value to order online from the UK:

By the time we reached the small café which Richard knew of, it was nearly 2.00 and I was excessively hungry. We had a good lunch with halloumi and salad, then walked around a bit more looking at the various tourist shops. However the afternoon was starting to get a bit chilly, so, rather than doing any more sight-seeing, we returned home to Larnaka. 

January's rainfall in Cyprus

As I have been saying - probably rather too frequently! - we have had a lot of rain in Cyprus during the past month. It's been cold, too, and rather grey. Rather than the typical Cyprus rain - a torrential pouring down for about an hour, followed by sunshine - we've had drizzle, light rain, heavy rain, downpours... and pretty much every other kind of rain, followed by grey skies and yet more rain. Oh, we've had some days of sunshine, or at least a few hours of sunshine on most days, but apparently this past January was the fourth wettest in the past 110 years.

For some reason my camera was set to something strange when I walked to the Post Office recently - however, despite the colours being very weird, these do show the kind of puddles we were seeing on waste ground which is normally dry:

- and on patches of grass where there's rarely any water showing at all:

Usually rain soaks into the ground, but the water table must be high enough that it's simply sitting there in large puddles, providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

It's great news for Cyprus that we've had so much rain. Some of the reservoirs in Paphos have started overflowing for the first time in many years, and island-wide we have a good amount of water, even before the snow on the mountains starts to melt.

But although I don't look forward to the heat of summer, I must admit that I've been pleased to see some sunshine and a little more warmth in the past couple of days.

Lots of lovely lemons

Lemons are very good at this time of year, in Cyprus. And they seem to be larger than usual this winter. I don't know if that's because of the vast amount of rain we've had, or whether it just happens to be a good year for lemons.

I've bought three or four euro bags from the fruitaria, each containing a couple of kilograms of lemons. I've been making lemonade, as usual, and also freezing some peel and juice for the summer, when it will be more difficult (and expensive) to get good lemons - sometimes all that's available is rather small green ones with not much juice. I make 'lemon cubes' too, in ice cube trays, which are useful for recipes that require a tablespoon of lemon juice, and also for hot honey and lemon drinks which are so soothing on cold nights, or when we have coughs.

A couple of nights ago, there was an unexpected knock on the door.. heralding a friend with two large bags of lemons for us:

He said there were plenty more on the tree, and they simply can't use them. So that's at least another three litres of lemon juice to freeze!

Enjoying some special visitors

Last Friday evening, we met Daniel and Becky at the airport for their first visit to Cyprus since getting married at the end of April last year. Since we have converted what used to be Daniel's room into Richard's study for his sabbatical, they are sleeping - and breakfasting - in our ground floor guest flat.

Sophia is, of course, very happy that Daniel is here:

However, she seems happy to accept that he sleeps downstairs, and still spends the night on my feet, waking me fairly early in the mornings. She has sat on me once or twice too, something she didn't do at all last time Daniel visited. I feel very honoured.

Naturally, we have already played several games, including Ticket to Ride:

And my small friends were very happy to see Becky again, when they came over yesterday morning:

Last night, Richard was out, so after a fairly quick Ticket to Ride game (which Daniel won by a considerably amount, although I would have done if we'd had just one more round...) we realised that we could play a card game:

Richard will not play card games. Ever.

It's not just Sophia who likes sitting on Daniel. He seems to have a natural affinity for cats. Here he is with Tessie:

I'm sure the time will race past while they're here, but we're very much enjoying having them. And while it's been fairly rainy, and decidedly chilly, at least it's rather warmer than Carlisle where they are usually based.

Unpredictable Cyprus weather in January

One doesn't, of course, expect warm weather in the Northern hemisphere during January. But Cyprus is renowned for having plenty of sunshine. We wear two or three layers of clothing during the daytime, sleep under a warm duvet at night, and run our central heating morning and evening, although sometimes it doesn't even cut in because the house is already warmer than 15C. I really don't mind January at all, in general.

Just over a week ago, it was a gorgeous day. Richard was out, and my friend Sheila suggested a walk, without any children. We went to the Salt Lake trail, and saw the flamingoes looking very pink:

After the amount of rain we've had, the Salt Lake is looking quite full this year. We walked for a little over an hour, and felt distinctly warm by the time we returned. I even took my fleece off during the walk, although I had to put it on again shortly after returning home. Even after fourteen years, I still find it odd that it's often warmer outside than in.

During last week, however, the temperatures plummeted. A couple of times it got as low as 3C overnight. It was no more than 12 during the daytime, and we had to run the heating a couple of times in the middle of the day just to stop ourselves from shivering.

Cleo is very much enjoying Richard's sabbatical, and keeps warm by sitting on him any time he's home. She likes his black chair, too, which nicely camouflages her - or so she thinks:

Sophia curls up in a tight ball wherever she happens to be sleeping, which is not very photogenic, but Tessie isn't quite so used to sleeping on beanbags, and was happy to pose when the sun came out:

There has been a lot more rain, too. The reservoirs are fuller than they have been for a long time, and some of the dams are even overflowing. Most of the island's water comes from the snow (in the mountains) melting in the spring, so it's very good news that we have so much water already.

But I was glad to wake up to some sunshine this morning, even though it's still a bit cold.

Roof holes and loft insulation in Cyprus

It has been a recurring theme of this blog that, when it rains (mostly in the winter in Cyprus), the roof leaks. Not over anything that matters too much, thankfully, but a steady stream over the (uncarpeted) stairs. It had almost become a way of life - when the sky turned grey, I went to fetch a bucket and the cool box to catch the worst of it.

A little over a year ago, after some other leaks had developed, Richard and his sailing buddy Tim P (The P distinguishes him from our son Tim) went on the roof and mended some of the holes they found. They stopped the bathroom leak; but, sadly, their efforts did not fix the one problem we have had ever since moving into our house - the leak over the stairs. Tim P did comment that there was a huge amount of bird mess on the roof, and he wanted to clean it off. We could not imagine how it would help; if anything, I thought that it would help to plug holes in the tiles!

Richard has kept studying the roof, off and on, and we - like a few others who have crawled on our roof - could not understand where the hole could be. And, while there is some loft space above our bathroom, where Richard did manage to spot one of the holes a year ago, the area where the leak was happening was inaccessible.

So, early in December, Richard decided that the only way to solve the problem was to cut a hole into the loft area that he could not reach. If nothing else, he thought that perhaps he could affix some kind of membrane inside the roof, to channel the water out when the next heavy rain happened. Here's the area - beautifully panelled - above our stairs, which he decided to cut into:

He had not been sure how to do it without making a mess; but Tim P had bought a useful tool for the boat, which enables holes to be cut without first cutting into the piece to be removed. So Richard borrowed it, and set to work:

It made such a dreadful noise that there was no way I could stay and take further photos. Even Richard, who tolerates loud noises better than I do, went to fetch some ear defenders. But the eventual access hole looked like this: 

To his surprise, he found that there was already a membrane inside the roof - unusual in Cyprus, but then the guy who built our house did it very well, on the whole. That cast a whole new light on the leak problem. The hole in the roof could be anywhere - it was being channelled down to the lowest point, which was, indeed, where our leak was happening. 

Richard also noted that it was very cold up there, and thought that it might be a good opportunity to put some loft insulation in - also not common in Cyprus.

The hole remained for a week or two, then he bought some hinges and other fittings, and made a very tidy job of turning the removed panel into a door: 

A couple of weeks ago, after a few dry days, he and Tim P went back onto the roof again. They searched thoroughly, but simply could not find any holes. They talked about using some special sealant to pour over the tiles, which would plug any small leaks, but Tim said, while they were there, he wanted to clean away the awful bird mess. So they borrowed the hose from the boat, and attached it to ours, and cleaned away a vast amount of - mostly ancient - bird mess, bits of bird nests, and other gunk.

The following day, it rained torrentially. I put out the bucket to catch the leak... and there was no leak.

It rained overnight, steadily, for several hours. We were not awoken by drips on the stairs... and when I got up, they were completely dry.

Apparently, the bird mess had formed some kind of dam on the roof which was catching water that then dripped through the tiles. Getting rid of this meant that the rain simply slid off the tiles as it was supposed to, and any small cracks did not cause problems.

It was like a miracle!

So, Richard found somewhere that sold loft insulation - the pink fibreglass stuff that we've used in the UK - and last weekend, they cut and fitted it. It didn't take all that long, but left a lot of dust which I've swept away and mopped.. but at night my throat seems to get scratchy and tickly even now, a week later. It's so cold that we don't want to leave windows open... so I've suggested that they don't do any more insulation until the spring.

Has it made the house any warmer? Hard to tell, really. On a cold day, houses in Cyprus just do feel cold... I'm sitting here wearing two sweaters and a fleece, and while not as cold as I was at our old house (we do have good double glazing here, and central heating that we run for a couple of hours, at about 14-15C morning and night) I'm still not warm. 

Lots of rain in Cyprus... and lots of mosquitoes too

Every cloud, as they say, has a silver lining. And sometimes it seems as if the reverse is true. We've had one of the wettest winters I can remember in Cyprus, in the past couple of months. Oh, there has been plenty of sunshine, and the daytime temperatures haven't been TOO cold. We keep having a week or two when it's mostly dry and sunny, then out of the blue, yet more rain.

Today it came on to pour just after lunch. For about five minutes, it was absolutely torrential, and even included some hailstones:

I was glad not to be outside in it. Glad, too, that the reservoirs are filling up, and the water table doing better, and that, with the new desalination plants currently being built, water shortages in Cyprus should (probably) be a thing of the past.

So, the clouds in Cyprus do indeed have a wonderfully silver lining. But the resultant rain brings another problem, which I hinted at when I wrote about going for a walk to the Aqueduct.

Yes. All this rain, and relatively mild temperatures means that there are also more mosquitoes than I can remember at any time of year, let alone January. We don't normally expect them at this time of year at all. But for the last few nights, I've been awakened by that annoying bzzzzzzzzzzz in my ear more than once. I've been here long enough that mosquito bites no longer cause pain or even itching, but it was a bit of a shock to discover, yesterday morning, just how many bites I had on my face.

Today there were even more. I look almost as if I have chicken-pox. I even took a very unflattering photo of myself, enlarging the middle area to demonstrate my current spottiness:

And there are more on my forehead:

There are some on my arms, too. None of them itch, but they're not very pretty.

This morning I did manage to squash THREE mosquitoes that were resting on the bedroom wall, low enough for me to hit them. While I don't like destroying any living creature, I'm afraid I have no compassion for mozzies. Particularly since it was evident on their demise that they had, indeed, been biting me...

Technology and communication

While there are many good things about living in Cyprus, it's not easy being thousands of miles away from our sons, most of the year. So we're very thankful for modern technology which enables us to stay in touch regularly. Tim and I often chat briefly via Google Chat (on Gmail), and we've used Yahoo! Instant messenger regularly too.

It was nearly fifteen months ago when we experimented with a game of Settlers via Skype with Tim. It was so successful that we've played several similar games since. So many, indeed, that I don't tend to blog about them any more. Last night we played another game, from 8.30 until about 9.30 (Cyprus time). We use 'Facetime' now rather than Skype, with the video camera to project the game board to Tim, but the general idea is the same as it was when we first thought of it, and it works well.

However, there are always questions, at the end, about how we might improve the quality of either the sound or the picture. We also wondered whether we could try having another computer open with a different kind of chat, so that Tim could see us as well as the game board. We did manage that the first time, but our bandwidth is not great, and it reduces the quality. So they tried Google chat... it didn't work too well on Richard's computer, so we fetched the Chromebook - wanting to give it something to do - and Richard played around with that:

Then Tim spotted that Daniel was online too. He and Becky are currently staying in Barcelona with Becky's Mum; we had a good online chat with them on Sunday evening. But Tim thought that, using the 'Google Plus Hangout' system, we might be able to have a three-way chat.

He was correct. The sound quality wasn't bad at all, and although the pictures went a bit pixellated at times, we could see small images of all three of us, and a larger one of whichever of our sons was talking at the time. So this is what we saw when Daniel or Becky was speaking:

And this is what we saw when Tim was speaking:

All very clever stuff. Dan and Becky couldn't stay for very long as they were going out, so we never did discover if we could have set it up on both the laptops here, to have a four-way chat... I couldn't quite see the point of Richard going to another room to join in, but sometimes people in my family are just curious to know what can be done in theory...