Sometimes people ask me what I do all day. Sometimes I wonder myself! Time rushes by and it doesn't seem as if I actually get much done. Today when I woke up I couldn't think of a single thing I planned to do (other than the usual making and clearing up from meals) so I decided to log every last detail of the day, just to see where the time goes. Do I really spend far too long online? Do I waste my hours?
This will be a long, long post which I'm writing on paper and off-line through the day (Wednesday March 30th) before posting the following morning. It will be full of minute detail so probably excessively boring. But if anyone really wants to know what a fairly typical day is for me... this is about as close as it gets. If anyone actually enjoys reading this, and is interested in other seasons too, I did something similar at the end of June last year and posted it as 'A Day in the Life' at the Ciao UK site.
7.00am - I woke up. Drifted a bit as I realised I had no particular reason to get up at that time, and eventually got out of bed about 7.20. Immediately Sophia, our noisiest cat, informed me that their food bowl was empty so I put some food in. They eat dry food only - recommended by the vet, and certainly much pleasanter and more convenient (not to mention cheaper!) than using cans. I also filled up their water bowl, then put on the kettle. I noticed that some of our drinking water bottles were empty so I filled them up from the filtered mains water. Recently we've had a couple of days where the mains has gone off mid-morning so I'm trying to remember to keep the six water bottles filled.
I went to the loo, and splashed my face with cold water to wake me up a bit, then made some instant coffee and went to sit in the study. Cleo, our oldest and most nervous cat, came to join me and sat on my lap purring and nuzzling for about ten minutes while I sipped my coffee and thought and half-prayed. I read a chapter of one of the new books, 'Finding God in Unexpected Places' by Philip Yancy and thought about that for a while, then read some of the Bible and the devotional notes with 'Every Day with Jesus', and prayed/thought/meditated a bit more.
Suddenly I remembered that Dan was supposed to be at the theatre by 9.30 so I went to check a clock - and found it was 8.30, so still plenty of time.
8.30 - Decided that as the water wasn't all that hot, and at least two of us would be having showers this morning, I'd put the water heater on. Most of hot water is heated by the solar panels, but with a cloudy day I knew they wouldn't be very effective.
I washed and squeezed six oranges in the food processor, making just over 600ml - enough for four glasses of juice. Took one to Richard who was still asleep, and one to Dan, reminding him that he needed to be at the theatre. Tim doesn't like his juice in bed, but does like it strained so we use a tea-strainer to get the 'bits' out of his juice. I drank my juice and put away last night's washing up, then washed up about eight glasses which had mysteriously appeared in the sink overnight.
I gathered up dirty clothes from the laundry basket, and a few from Dan's floor and the end of Tim's bed, and put on a load of laundry. Rain is predicted for the end of the week so I want to make sure I'm fairly well caught up with the washing. Today it's a bit overcast but the sun shines through every so often... quite pleasant, actually.
I went around the house opening shutters and curtains, and opened the windows in the kitchen as the orange tree is outside and is currently in blossom. I love that scent!! Went to check the time again and found to my amazement it was already 9.00. Dan had got out of bed and was making himself breakfast so I went to find some clean clothes for myself.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 2
(Here's a photo of the orange tree. The blossom just about shows... unfortunately it's not possible to send the scent!)
9.00 - Took my shower; the water was just the right temperature to run the hot only. The bath was looking a bit soapy so I gave it a quick clean, then as I was getting dressed I saw a large insect on the wall. My instant reaction was that it was like an emormous mosquito - with the body at least 3cm long. I couldn't think what it was... not big enough for a dragonfly, though, so probably harmless. And it wasn't flying around. Suddenly I remembered what it was: a daddy long-legs (aka crane fly, I believe). I can't remember having seen one of those for years and have no idea what it was doing in our bathroom in the morning. I made sure the window was open wide so it could escape if it wished to... I don't like insects, and was glad I hadn't noticed it before taking my shower, but I don't like personally killing anything bigger than a mosquito.
Had a quick look at tonight's menu - we keep a four-week plan of evening meals on the fridge, which makes life so much easier. Tim organised this a few years back. Tonight is Stove-top barbecue Chicken for the meat-eaters, molasses bean bake for the veggies, with potato wedges, courgettes and broad beans. Remembered that I used up the last of the frozen pre-cooked beans, so put some more on to soak. Remembered that soya beans take a lot longer than others, so I put them in a separate pan; in the large one I used about a cup each of aduki beans, pinto beans, black-eye beans and black turtle beans. I gave up using red kidney beans ages ago when I realised they give me stomach-ache, no matter how well-cooked they are, and they're recommended to 'avoid' for my blood group in the ER4YT plans, which I loosely follow.
Went to get breakfast for myself - there's still plenty of the pear mixture from yesterday, and some lovely big strawberries. I had a bit of home made yogurt with it too. As I was about to start eating I saw Tim wander through to the bathroom in his pyjamas, then come out again, then go back with some newspaper, then come out again... 'Oh,' he said, 'I've just killed a daddy long-legs.' Ah well, that solves that one. Dan looked in at the door, dressed and ready to go, and said he was off. The performance this morning is at 10am apparently.
Tim had breakfast with me and finished yesterday's pear mixture. I commented on the current glut of pears meaning that they're selling off bags of slightly bruised pears very cheaply, yet it's spring and I doubt if they grow in Cyprus at all. We wondered where they came from - presumably somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere where it would currently be Autumn. South Africa, perhaps? It doesn't usually mention country of origin at the supermarket.
That reminded Tim to ask me if I knew what a 'tim-tam' is. Apparently one of his online friends in Australia is going to the USA soon and is going to miss tim-tams (and also Marmite). I've never heard of them...
Tim went to have his shower and I cleared up the kitchen, then realised I couldn't do the washing up since water used in the kitchen affects the flow of water in the bathroom. Still, I put away the clean glasses and wiped the kitchen surfaces. I noticed Richard's mobile phone ringing three times during the last 20 minutes or so... I'm glad our main phone isn't so active.
I checked my watch and found it was already 9.30... I wish I knew where time rushes by to. I don't seem to have done anything yet, but have already been up for two hours. Sigh.
Richard dashed into the kitchen to say goodbye; apparently there's a problem at the theatre with the lighting desk so he's popping in there to see if he can solve it before the show.
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 3
(Here's a picture showing some of my walk up and down the back garden, with the first load of laundry hung outside....)
9.30 - put my shoes on and went to empty last night's veggie bits and this morning's orange peel onto the compost heap. Watered all the flowers in the front and back garden, adding Phostrogen to the water. The back took three cans, the front about the same. At least I do a fair amount of walking even if I don't go out anywhere, since our back garden is at least 40 metres long and the flowers are at the far end, while the water supply is attached to the house!
Tim left to help at the office while I was watering the front, and when I'd finished I realised it was 10.00... just doing the watering, and a little dead-heading of petunias where necessary, must have taken over 20 minutes!!
10.00 Hung this morning's used towels out on the line to dry. Washed up from breakfast. Did a quick clean around the bathroom, then as the washing machine had done its final spin I went to hang all the laundry outside. I try to match socks on the line but inevitably there were three without partners....
Having emptied the washing machine I put in the dirty towels and tea-towels from the last few days, so I can do a 60 degree wash. I took the pillowcases off all our beds, and the bottom sheet from Tim's to add to the load and put it on.
Then I emptied all the bins into large black bin-liners and put them out. The dustmen come on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (quite early) so I try to ensure there's always something out for them. Rubbish can get smelly quite quickly if it's not taken out almost daily, and if the bins weren't emptied so often they would attract vermin. As it is they attract the feral cats who always root around in rubbish bags, but I don't begrudge it to them if they find something tasty.
The kitchen floor was looking a bit grubby, as was the corridor outside (which leads to the bathroom and back door) so I shook out the doormat, swept the area, and then mopped kitchen, bathroom and corridor. Found it was 10.45...
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 4
(The flowers at the far end of the garden with yet more weeds between the stones... the plants are doing better than they were a week or so ago so that's encouraging)
10.45 - Decided to do a bit of weeding at the far end of the garden, before it got too warm, so managed about 15 minutes weeding around the flowers and also amongst the stones which are just in front of the flowers. I've no idea how weeds grow so fast in Cyprus: it hasn't rained for two weeks, and the ground is extremely dry other than where I've watered, but the weeds keep on growing....
I do hope it will rain at the end of the week, otherwise I'm going to have to start watering the trees - and March seems far too early to start that routine.
By just after 11.00 the sun was on the patch where I was weeding, so I emptied what I'd pulled onto the compost heap, and came inside to have a quick wash and a glass of water. Then switched the computer on to check for mail, and made our bed while waiting for it to boot up. The computer is currently in our bedroom where we moved it before our last guests. Usually it lives in the study but someone else is coming to stay in a couple of weeks so it didn't seem worth moving it for that time, even though I prefer in theory not to have a computer in the bedroom.
11.15 - downloaded mail from my three addresses. Nine in my oft-spammed address, of which four were genuine and five were spam. I use Mailwasher to blacklist the spam and it does seem to be working. I'm not currently getting any of the really nasty stuff, and only about five a day rather than the thirty or forty I used to get.
No mail at all in my family-and-friends personal address, and 81 in my lists address, of which four were non-serious spam that I deleted instantly. Decided to type up what I'd been writing down so far about today, and that took half an hour to this point!
Read list email... replied to one quickly but nothing else. One of the lists is so big I may have to unsubscribe, I keep deleting messages unread from it. Just reading about 40 messages took 25 minutes...
Noticed that the washing machine had finished its last spin again so went to hang out the towels and sheets etc. Had to bring in the used towels as the lines were crowded (and they were quite dry anyway). Dan arrived back after his performance of 'The Little Man', saying he felt exhausted. Ah, maybe he hasn't been taking the vitamins and minerals (including iron) that seemed to be helping him. It's so difficult to remember every day...
Having finished with the washing machine for the day, I decided to make some yogurt. In our kitchen (as is fairly typical in Cyprus) there are only two power points... one has a multi-way extension thingy which powers the fridge, the microwave, the coffee machine, the food processor, and has one slot which is used by the kettle or the toaster or the ice-cream churn or the small hand mixer as required, since those are only each on for a short time.
The other power point is mainly for the washing machine, but on top of that live the steamer and the yogurt maker. Both of them tend to be used for longer periods than the kettle etc, so plugging them in the one spare slot makes life complicated; particularly the yogurt maker, which has to be on for 4-6 hours and mustn't be moved or jogged when it's working. So I use them when I'm not using the washing machine, and they're out of the way enough that they don't get disturbed, so it works well.
Anyway I'd noticed earlier that we were into our last pot of home-made yogurt, so I used what was left of that as the starter for another batch. I use evaporated milk (with a bit of water to make it up to 800ml, the quantity I can make at one go, and some dried milk for extra thickness) so I don't have to do any cooking - the whole process only takes about five minutes. So that's on and should be ready late afternoon.
Dan says he has a drama rehearsal for the youth play 'Mugged' this evening from 7pm - 9pm, so he won't be able to go to karate - however he will be able to eat beforehand, which does make life simpler. Sometimes he doesn't eat until he gets back from karate about 10.30pm.
Just hanging out the laundry, talking to Dan and making the yogurt took me to 12.30...
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 5
(The yogurt maker [and steamer, and bottles of water] on top of hte washing machine in our rather tastelessly tiled kitchen - not our taste!! It's a rental house....)
12.30 - Richard and Tim should be back in half an hour or so, so there's just time to read the various forums I belong to online and any more email that might have arrived in the meantime.
Did that - it took about ten minutes. Checked the BBC news site briefly, and the Cyprus weather page - they're still predicting rain for Friday and the weekend. I do hope they're right and that it's more than a few spots.
Not much that's new on the forums, and nothing I want to reply to! Remembered that I finished reading a book last night so that needs to be added to my books blog so went to do that, only to find that the main blogger page is down with an apology message from the engineers. So instead I read the latest entries from people whose blogs I enjoy... at least they're still showing. The technical glitch reminded me that sometimes entire databases do disappear, so I copied all my previous entries into a text document for keeping on my hard drive.
12.55 - went to get some bread from our local bakery, and some milk since we had nearly run out. I love the bakery - the smells are wonderful, the selection of bread excellent. We usually avoid the various cakes and pastries although sometimes guests are intrigued (and often treat us!) - if we ate them every day we'd put on vast amounts of weight. There's a refrigerated section too with dairy products, ham, humus (etc) and also some soft drinks. Very useful when we run out of milk as this bakery is open for about 14 hours every day other than Christmas and Greek Easter. We usually get through abpit a loaf of bread each day. Today I chose a brown oval one that I quite like - there weren't any of my favourite, a square brown loaf rather like those available in British bakeries.
When I got back Dan set the table and I phoned Richard to check that he and Tim were coming back shortly. Then sat down to have a quick look at this week's Sunday School lesson, just in case there was anything I need to do in advance. It looks like quite a nice one, about the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection.
Then I washed some lettuce and cherry tomatoes for lunch, and realised the fridge was a bit over-crowded with leftovers from previous night's meals. I re-packed two portions of cauliflower cheese and half a portion of sausage-tomato bake in tubs and put them in the freezer, and we got out last night's leftover beef and mushroom pie, and cheese and onion pie, as we knew Tim would probably eat them for lunch.
1.20 - Tim and Richard were back, I washed some lettuce and tomatoes, and we had lunch. We almost always have a cold lunch (other than on Sundays) with bread, cheese, salads etc, and anything else we come across in the fridge. Sure enough, Tim ate his way through about 1/4 of the meat pie, and 1/2 the cheese pie... he loves pies! The rest of us ate sandwiches as usual. My favourite at present is marmite, cheese, cherry tomatoes and pickle.
We usually chat about all kinds of things around the table - today it was mostly about the theatre, talking about some people who booked it at the weekend but left it in a terrible mess, and some frustrations Richard's had at work this morning.
At the end of the meal Richard made coffee for himself and me, and blackcurrant and green tea for Daniel. Tim doesn't really like hot drinks.
2.00 - Richard went back to the office; Tim cleared the table and then did some piano practice; Dan was doing something on their computer. I went to take some photos of the garden and in looking out of the kitchen window noticed how bad the weeds are in the little patch of ground there... and also realised that the grass there (such as it is) quite badly needs cutting. So I did about 20 minutes' worth of weeding before I became too hot to stay outside (why, oh why can't I remember that I should always wear gardening gloves before pulling up nettles?!) and then washed up from lunch.
2.30 - Sat down to try again with my books blog, but the system is still down. Strange. Quickly read through the email that had arrived since this morning, and some which I hadn't read earlier. Checked the forums again - not much that's new. Read a few articles at the BBC news site - the earthquake in Indonesia on Monday has been absolutely devastating, even without the feared tsunami afterwards. Apparently over 1000 are dead. Terrible.
3.00 - Dan did some drum practice (much to the disgust of Sophia, his cat); Tim was reading mail and forums on his computer. I did about five minutes of juggling - just ordinary three-ball juggling. A couple of weeks ago I couldn't do more than four throws without dropping the balls or ending up with them all in my hands, but suddenly about a week ago something clicked and I did eight... now I can fairly easily do up to about 12 throws, and actually managed 18 one time today. Apparently it's opening up new neural pathways in my brain.... not sure if I'll manage any of the complex tricks and patterns Dan can do, but if I could get to 50 throws I'd feel I could say 'I can juggle'!
It's surprisingly tiring even though I juggle next to the bed so it's not too far to bend to pick up dropped balls. So after that I sat down to read my current Georgette Heyer novel for 25 minutes.
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 6
(The bit of garden outside our kitchen window, before weeding and cutting....)
3.30 - Margaret arrived for Tim's piano lesson, so we talked for a couple of minutes then I went to make her a cup of tea, and myself a green tea with blackcurrant. I put away the lunchtime washing up while waiting for the kettle to boil. I put the two pans of beans on to simmer, then went to check the laundry. The sheet and pillowcases were all dry, as were the tea-towels. So I folded the tea-towels and put them away (I rarely iron anything) and put the sheet back on Tim's bed, and distributed the pillowcases appropriately on the correct pillows. I also moved some of the towels to a line where they would get more breeze.
And then discovered to my amazement that it was already 4pm. It's unbelievable how long such little things take.
4.00 - got out the lawnmower and extension cable, and cut the grass/weed combination outside the kitchen. I didn't use the basket, it's much less effort if I don't have to keep emptying it, and if it does rain the 'mulch' of cut grass and weeds will possibly do some good. I had already picked the biggest of the weeds, including the ones in flower. After doing that patch, I cut the pathway down the side of the house and the tiny bit of grass at the front, and then seeing that some of the main 'lawn' in the back was looking a bit weedy - the bits we haven't done for a week - I cut some of the worst of those. However half an hour's mowing was quite sufficient, even without having to empty the basket; it's not exactly hot today but I realise it's muggy... not something I expect at this time of year, but perhaps it really does mean rain will be coming in the next few days.
A Long and Detailed Post about a 'Typical' Day.... part 7 (and last)
(the bit outside the kitchen window after weeding and cutting)
4.30 - I put the lawnmower and cable away in time to say goodbye to Margaret and offer her a few lemons. We have four trees all producing magnificently this year.
Then I topped up the water in the simmering beans, and came to sit down for a few minutes to check email and see if blogger was working yet... alas, no change.
4.45 - Made the chicken mixture and put that on to simmer gently, washed potatoes and cut up some potato wedges, transferred some of the mixed beans to a smaller pan to cook the bean bake (it should have been in the oven but I find works as well on the stove top) and left the rest to cool so I can bag and freeze them later. The soya beans are still fairly hard so they can have another hour or so simmering.
Went to check the laundry and found most of the clothes dry, so I did what I usually do: fold all of one person's clean washing over my arm as I unpeg, then go and deposit it in a pile on that person's bed. Then repeat the process with another person. It might take longer initially than doing the whole lot in one go, but not having to sort it after bringing it in saves time in the long run - and piling them roughly folded means that the mostly don't need ironing - they just go straight away. Or sit on the person's chest-of-drawers, depending who it is!
Then I moved the remaining few items around on the lines so they'll get the best of the breeze overnight. Checked the yogurt.. they seem to be nicely set so I switched the machine off to cool down.
And just that - getting a simple meal on to cook and bringing in the laundry has taken me 45 minutes! I can't believe it would take so long!
5.30 - Dan is back from whatever he was doing at the theatre - either helping with the little ones' class or manning the desk. He's now doing his clarinet practice. Tim is busy at their computer. Blogger STILL isn't working!
Replied to a few emails on various lists and read a few more. Checked the supper a couple of times: turned the wedges, added some water to the chicken dish, removed the soya beans from the stove.
6.00 - Checked the supper again, found frozen broad beans to put in the microwave. Asked Tim to set the table and cook some courgettes (which he insists he does much better than I do! We stir-fry them in slices in olive oil) Dan and Tim were discussing some complicated music theory thing about augmented sevenths or major sixths... I think part of the reason Tim struggles hugely with fractions in maths is that he intuitively thinks of a seventh as being bigger than a sixth, and a sixth bigger than a fifth, etc - which they are in music.
Phoned Richard when he wasn't back by 6.15; we eventually got the food on the table by about 6.20 and Richard came in just as we were starting. Evening meals are never as relaxed as lunchtime since usually someone has to rush off afterwards - this time it was Dan going to a rehearsal at seven o'clock, and Richard also had to get back to the office as he's having major server problems.
6.50 - Turned on the water heater after Dan had cleared the table, as the water hasn't been all that hot this afternoon, and went around the house closing all the shutters. Found my secateurs and little trowel which I'd left outside earlier and put them away.
7.00 Blogger is working again! So after a quick glance at email I typed up my book review. It's all working rather slowly but then I suppose a lot of people are using it now, catching up after the system being unavailable all day! Tried to change one or two of my settings but that didn't seem to work.
Uploaded all the photos I took today on the digital camera to the hard drive, and renamed them appropriately. It's not the greatest camera in the world but it's great for quick snaps outside - and inside if there's plenty of daylight - and for use online.
Had a quick glance at email and online forums - nothing of interest at present.
7.30 - Washed up from supper. The water was perfect temperature... in the middle I realised I had to bag the beans so I paused to do that, mixing the soya beans in with the mixed ones, and then dividing them into little freezer bags with about 300g cooked beans in each - that's usually about the right amount for two of us for one evening meal. I ended up with 7 small bags, so I won't have to boil any more beans for a few weeks. Also I had to pack tonights' leftovers into freezer cartons and freeze those.
Then when I'd finished the washing up, there was the oven top to tackle. Why does bean liquid ALWAYS boil over and make a horrible mess?! Of course it was worse than usual since I'd cooked potato wedges in the oven for an hour so the spilled liquid had got stuck on. Whew. It's better now. But I could scarcely believe that simply washing up, bagging beans and then cleaning the oven top took forty-five minutes...!
8.15 - Tim is playing his guitar, always a pleasant sound. Richard and Dan are still out. So I sat down to read some email and perhaps catch up on some reviews on Ciao. Then after about ten minutes he said he was going to watch an episode of All Creatures Great and Small and did I want tojoin him. Sounded like a good idea so I watched for about 45 minutes. Then Richard got home with a query about some bills which we sorted out, by which time it was 9.30.
Dan came home and suggested I read to them for a while, so I read another chapter of 'A Hat Full of Sky' by Terry Pratchett which we're all enjoying, then chatted awhile. I did a final check of email, switched off my computer, and then got into bed about 10.30pm where I read for about fifteen minutes before switching the light off... and vaguely wondering where the day had gone as despite all the lengthy detail above, I don't seem to have got a whole lot done.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Working Sons
One of the great benefits to home education is that the boys can follow their interests and do voluntary or paid work as and when it crops up. So Dan's working for Antidote Theatre this year - not full-time, and not paid much, but it's useful experience. This morning he had two theatre performances in Nicosia - at different schools, so it was a bit chaotic and he was pretty tired by the time he got back at lunchtime. However he still went out to his stage combat class afterwards. When he got back he spent quite a bit of time working on a poster for the 'Kids Fest' - the day when the children's classes at the theatre put on their end-of-year performances for family and friends.
Tim went into Richard's office for most of the day, to help one of the other people with various computer problems. Tim has the right sort of mind for software support and seems to understand better than anyone else around what needs to be done when there are problems. Some people have an instinct for recognising what's gone wrong or what needs to be downloaded, and Tim is one of them. He said he enjoyed it although it's a lengthy process and he'll be spending most of tomorrow at the office too.
So I've had a peaceful day at home, mostly on my own, and was thinking how odd it is to have two sons who are quite capable of being employed... and legally beyond the age of having to be educated.
Tim went into Richard's office for most of the day, to help one of the other people with various computer problems. Tim has the right sort of mind for software support and seems to understand better than anyone else around what needs to be done when there are problems. Some people have an instinct for recognising what's gone wrong or what needs to be downloaded, and Tim is one of them. He said he enjoyed it although it's a lengthy process and he'll be spending most of tomorrow at the office too.
So I've had a peaceful day at home, mostly on my own, and was thinking how odd it is to have two sons who are quite capable of being employed... and legally beyond the age of having to be educated.
Optician
On Sunday one of the side-frames of Tim's glasses broke. He mended it temporarily with masking tape but said he would need to see if the optician could mend it on Monday morning. Richard wasn't free to go with him, so Tim said he'd go alone. He pointed out that he hadn't had his eyes tested for a couple of years, and said that if it was going to cost a lot to have his frames mended it might be a better idea to get some new glasses anyway. I said to go ahead....
Monday mid-morning he went out, and returned about an hour later. His glasses had been glued - at no cost, but he had been told the fix would only last a day or two. So he had his eyes tested, and also ordered some new glasses! I wouldn't have thought someone of 16 could do that kind of thing in the UK, but this is Cyprus... and of course they know Richard. It's all very friendly and relaxed.
I was a little worried when Tim said he had ordered blue frames, rather different from his old ones, since none of us had checked whether they suited him. But he got them today, and they look fine. As he assures us, he has good taste! It's dark blue metal, nothing dramatic.
The cost was £90 including the eye test, and a special anti-glare type coating or whatever it is they do to make it safer to use computers. I know they'd be free in the UK (although there would be less choice in frame) but I don't think this is bad value.
Richard took Tim this afternoon to pay for these new glasses, and while he was there had his own eyes tested and ordered some varifocals as he gets so annoyed having to change glasses all the time. They come to £160, and again I believe that's better value than in the UK. But would be interested to know if anyone cares to comment, since we do usually have a few weeks in the UK every year or two.
Monday mid-morning he went out, and returned about an hour later. His glasses had been glued - at no cost, but he had been told the fix would only last a day or two. So he had his eyes tested, and also ordered some new glasses! I wouldn't have thought someone of 16 could do that kind of thing in the UK, but this is Cyprus... and of course they know Richard. It's all very friendly and relaxed.
I was a little worried when Tim said he had ordered blue frames, rather different from his old ones, since none of us had checked whether they suited him. But he got them today, and they look fine. As he assures us, he has good taste! It's dark blue metal, nothing dramatic.
The cost was £90 including the eye test, and a special anti-glare type coating or whatever it is they do to make it safer to use computers. I know they'd be free in the UK (although there would be less choice in frame) but I don't think this is bad value.
Richard took Tim this afternoon to pay for these new glasses, and while he was there had his own eyes tested and ordered some varifocals as he gets so annoyed having to change glasses all the time. They come to £160, and again I believe that's better value than in the UK. But would be interested to know if anyone cares to comment, since we do usually have a few weeks in the UK every year or two.
This is Cyprus....!
On my way home from the Post Office, I went by one of my favourite plant shops. I reckon I need a few more bedding plants to fill in a few gaps in the borders and there was a good display in front of the shop. I wasn't sure if it would be open, but the night-time barriers around the outdoor plants had been removed, and I could see that the door padlock had been unlocked.
So I picked out a few plants, then went to ask how much they were. Sometimes they sell them in threes or fours for a set price. I pushed the door, but it didn't open. So I put the plants down and went to the side door. I could see a freshly empty coffee cup on the table outside. I could see a light on inside the shop, and a TV blaring away. But no people... and the side door was also locked.
I looked around - sometimes shopkeepers wander away but keep an eye on their shops. Nobody in sight. I tried the front door again, then shrugged and went home without the plants. I'll try again another time.
But it occurred to me how typical this is of Cyprus ... robbery is so rare that a shop owner would feel quite happy to unlock his shop, leave some of the stock outside, and just assume that nobody would take anything. Or that if they did, they'd come back and pay another time.
So I picked out a few plants, then went to ask how much they were. Sometimes they sell them in threes or fours for a set price. I pushed the door, but it didn't open. So I put the plants down and went to the side door. I could see a freshly empty coffee cup on the table outside. I could see a light on inside the shop, and a TV blaring away. But no people... and the side door was also locked.
I looked around - sometimes shopkeepers wander away but keep an eye on their shops. Nobody in sight. I tried the front door again, then shrugged and went home without the plants. I'll try again another time.
But it occurred to me how typical this is of Cyprus ... robbery is so rare that a shop owner would feel quite happy to unlock his shop, leave some of the stock outside, and just assume that nobody would take anything. Or that if they did, they'd come back and pay another time.
Books and DVDs
I went to the Post Office this morning first thing to collect mail from our box... Dan had to be at the theatre by 7am so I set my alarm earlier as his doesn't work well. Then when he'd gone, I went out. The PO opens at 7.30am and I had a registered letter to collect so I had to go into the office itself. It's a pleasant walk first thing in the morning, with not too much traffic about.
To my delight, all the rest of my order from Play.com had arrived. It was a great day for me when this company started selling books as well as CDs and DVDs. Their prices often rival (or are better than) those of Amazon.co.uk and best of all they do free postage anywhere in Europe. So there's no delay, no need to get them sent to a UK address, and no minimum order. The order contained a couple of thriller type DVDs for Richard, the special edition of Sound of Music (which was on special offer) for Tim - although I shall enjoy it too, and I think Dan will as well. There were also two Philip Yancey books, and 'Voyager' by Diana Gabaldon. I only ordered them just over a week ago.
The registered letter wasn't very interesting, however. Just a note to Richard telling him to change the passwords on an email account he never uses!
To my delight, all the rest of my order from Play.com had arrived. It was a great day for me when this company started selling books as well as CDs and DVDs. Their prices often rival (or are better than) those of Amazon.co.uk and best of all they do free postage anywhere in Europe. So there's no delay, no need to get them sent to a UK address, and no minimum order. The order contained a couple of thriller type DVDs for Richard, the special edition of Sound of Music (which was on special offer) for Tim - although I shall enjoy it too, and I think Dan will as well. There were also two Philip Yancey books, and 'Voyager' by Diana Gabaldon. I only ordered them just over a week ago.
The registered letter wasn't very interesting, however. Just a note to Richard telling him to change the passwords on an email account he never uses!
Food Processor
We didn't have a food processor until about six months ago. Well, we did when we lived in the UK, but I hardly ever used it. It seemed like such a hassle, somehow. But last year we saw a Moulinex Ovatio Duo for £24 at the Thrift Store after noticing how useful they were to other people...
On Sunday I first used it to squeeze our daily six oranges for early morning juice. Then I used it to squeeze five lemons, since I had the juicing attachments in place and only needed to give them a quick rinse from the orange juice. Tim needed one for some stuffing, I needed four for the lemon meringue pies I was making for lunch.
Then I washed it out quickly and put in the plastic blade so I could make pastry. So easy in a food processor - none of that messy rubbing-in, just a quick whizz and a ball of pastry appears.
Then Tim used it to make two types of stuffing for the chicken. Breadcrumbs, lightly fried onions, lemon, mushrooms - just whizzed together. Then he did the same for some sage and onion stuffing.
As Tim pointed out, I could also have used it for whisking the egg whites to make the meringue, but I actually used my little hand mixer for that as it's more controllable.
This morning I made orange juice as usual, then having been out to buy some pears I made our 'live porridge' for breakfast: nuts, seeds, raisins, pears. And a few strawberries to make it slightly more attractive, since strawberries are now in season in Cyprus. Yum!
Monday, March 28, 2005
Easter Monday
The boys got back from their youth group sleepover about lunchtime on Saturday. Tim said he had about four hours sleep, and that was more than most. He was tired... by evening he was like a zombie, and went to bed at 8.00pm. Dan said he had no sleep at all... he had played pool with a friend and decided not to sleep. Unbelievable... particularly since he had another theatre group performance at 8pm in Nicosia and wasn't going to be home till 11pm. AND we moved the clocks forward, along with the rest of Europe, to Summer Time (or Daylight Savings as they call elsewhere).
The weather is just perfect at present: sunny, slightly breezy, and about 20C in the shade during the daytime. Even better now we've put the clocks forward, it's light until about 7pm. Being nearer the equator than the UK, we get longer days in the winter and shorter ones in the summer (it's dark by about 9pm even at the summer solstice) but around now I suppose it's about the same.
We had a pleasant day yesterday: friends came to lunch, so I got up about 7am and made some lemon meringue pies, which turned out extremely well. I ran out of cornflour and used some custard powder instead but I think it made them better, not worse. It's good using lemons from the garden and the boys have requested this particular dessert more often!
We didn't go to the early morning outdoor church service; I gather it went well and there were quite a few people there. But we went to the ordinary 9am service where we sang some great Easter songs. Tim played the piano, Dan the electronic drums.
Today there's no public holiday here, as the official Eastern Easter won't be until May 1st. So everything happens as normal: Tim had his music theory lesson at 9.30, Dan had his drum lesson at 11.00. He had a test this morning (his teacher is very into tests, as are most Cypriot teachers apparently) and got 100%. I suppose that means he's learned everything he's supposed to have learned up to now. Anyway, the teacher was pleased and I think Dan was too. He only started learning last October, and seems to be picking it up amazingly well. He just shrugs and points out that he's home educated, so of course he learns fast...
The weather is just perfect at present: sunny, slightly breezy, and about 20C in the shade during the daytime. Even better now we've put the clocks forward, it's light until about 7pm. Being nearer the equator than the UK, we get longer days in the winter and shorter ones in the summer (it's dark by about 9pm even at the summer solstice) but around now I suppose it's about the same.
We had a pleasant day yesterday: friends came to lunch, so I got up about 7am and made some lemon meringue pies, which turned out extremely well. I ran out of cornflour and used some custard powder instead but I think it made them better, not worse. It's good using lemons from the garden and the boys have requested this particular dessert more often!
We didn't go to the early morning outdoor church service; I gather it went well and there were quite a few people there. But we went to the ordinary 9am service where we sang some great Easter songs. Tim played the piano, Dan the electronic drums.
Today there's no public holiday here, as the official Eastern Easter won't be until May 1st. So everything happens as normal: Tim had his music theory lesson at 9.30, Dan had his drum lesson at 11.00. He had a test this morning (his teacher is very into tests, as are most Cypriot teachers apparently) and got 100%. I suppose that means he's learned everything he's supposed to have learned up to now. Anyway, the teacher was pleased and I think Dan was too. He only started learning last October, and seems to be picking it up amazingly well. He just shrugs and points out that he's home educated, so of course he learns fast...
Friday, March 25, 2005
Good Friday
Today has felt like Saturday, it's very strange. This morning we heard band music so I assume the town band were marching (for the Cypriot national day, nothing to do with Good Friday - the Greek Good Friday isn't for another five weeks), followed by the uniformed organisations and schools. We didn't go to watch, it's not very exciting! Dan is in the town band, but decided not to play today; he still has a slight cough and there are plenty of clarinets anyway.
Tim went to the Anglican church for a quiet service, where apparently he was singing with the choir. As this was at the same time as the marching, I don't suppose it was actually all that quiet! It was followed by a simple lunch, then a 'Stations of the Cross' service, something I had never heard of before. I spent some of the morning gardening, tidying up the beds at the front of the house where I planted some bedding plants about a month ago. One of them is doing well - a riot of red, with some freesias (planted in October) smelling wonderful. Freesias are the only bulbs we seem able to grow here; it's not cold enough for daffodils or crocuses, and tulips get eaten by snails. But I do love freesias!
However the other bed is rather disappointing. The plants are still alive and flowering, but very small. I did some extensive weeding of both beds, then watered the disappointing bed with phostrogen - I don't like to use artificial fertilisers, but it's not as if we're going to eat the plants. Then I did put some compost (home made from the heap) around them. I've posted a photo below; it will be interesting - for me, anyway! - to see if this makes any difference.
By about 11am the sun was on most of the garden, back and front, so I came in for a while. It's about 20C in the shade during the daytime, so not extremely hot yet, but I don't do well in bright sunlight.
In the afternoon, once the sun had moved from most of the back garden, I moved most of the remaining compost from the current heap to around some of the trees, did a lot of weeding, and Richard and I mowed the rest of the 'lawn', so it looks a lot neater. There are still huge grassy weeds around the edge of the garden, but it will take ages to get rid of those.
I started using compost from this heap last November, so it's done well. The newest one is enormous, as tall as me, so I was glad to have a space to start another new one after removing the last of the current compost. The third heap - which I stopped adding to last Autumn - is doing quite well, so I hope it will be ready to use by the end of this year when we need some more.
We had one set of hot cross buns about 4.30pm, but decided to eat the others tomorrow as we were eating our evening meal at 5.30, since the boys both had to leave about 6.00pm. Dan is in a performance of FairyTaleHeart in Nicosia this evening, Tim is at the youth group where they're having a sleepover.
At 7.00pm (after a quick shower!) I went to our church's Good Friday service which was informal and organised by the YWAM group. There was a guest speaker from Grace Church, one of the other churches in Larnaka. It went well, although I was saddened to hear from one of the youth group that another youth group member had a terrible bereavement this morning when his mother died suddenly. I don't know any more details, and wondered if they would go ahead with the sleepover - but Tim hasn't returned yet.
Tim went to the Anglican church for a quiet service, where apparently he was singing with the choir. As this was at the same time as the marching, I don't suppose it was actually all that quiet! It was followed by a simple lunch, then a 'Stations of the Cross' service, something I had never heard of before. I spent some of the morning gardening, tidying up the beds at the front of the house where I planted some bedding plants about a month ago. One of them is doing well - a riot of red, with some freesias (planted in October) smelling wonderful. Freesias are the only bulbs we seem able to grow here; it's not cold enough for daffodils or crocuses, and tulips get eaten by snails. But I do love freesias!
However the other bed is rather disappointing. The plants are still alive and flowering, but very small. I did some extensive weeding of both beds, then watered the disappointing bed with phostrogen - I don't like to use artificial fertilisers, but it's not as if we're going to eat the plants. Then I did put some compost (home made from the heap) around them. I've posted a photo below; it will be interesting - for me, anyway! - to see if this makes any difference.
By about 11am the sun was on most of the garden, back and front, so I came in for a while. It's about 20C in the shade during the daytime, so not extremely hot yet, but I don't do well in bright sunlight.
In the afternoon, once the sun had moved from most of the back garden, I moved most of the remaining compost from the current heap to around some of the trees, did a lot of weeding, and Richard and I mowed the rest of the 'lawn', so it looks a lot neater. There are still huge grassy weeds around the edge of the garden, but it will take ages to get rid of those.
I started using compost from this heap last November, so it's done well. The newest one is enormous, as tall as me, so I was glad to have a space to start another new one after removing the last of the current compost. The third heap - which I stopped adding to last Autumn - is doing quite well, so I hope it will be ready to use by the end of this year when we need some more.
We had one set of hot cross buns about 4.30pm, but decided to eat the others tomorrow as we were eating our evening meal at 5.30, since the boys both had to leave about 6.00pm. Dan is in a performance of FairyTaleHeart in Nicosia this evening, Tim is at the youth group where they're having a sleepover.
At 7.00pm (after a quick shower!) I went to our church's Good Friday service which was informal and organised by the YWAM group. There was a guest speaker from Grace Church, one of the other churches in Larnaka. It went well, although I was saddened to hear from one of the youth group that another youth group member had a terrible bereavement this morning when his mother died suddenly. I don't know any more details, and wondered if they would go ahead with the sleepover - but Tim hasn't returned yet.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Out and About Locally
We usually go to the supermarket once a week in the car, on Friday mornings. But tomorrow is a public holiday - not because it's Good Friday (and hence a British public holiday) but because it's one of the Cypriot national days. That means most shops, including the supermarket, will be shut and there will be marching parades along the sea-front.
So we went this morning instead. I was pleased to see that there was a reasonable selection of chocolate Easter eggs; I had wondered if there would be any in time for the Western Easter, since the Eastern/Orthodox Easter isn't until May 1st. There were also some hot cross buns in packs of four, so I bought some for tomorrow, although everyone's going to be so busy that I've no idea when we'll actually eat them!
Sometimes people ask me what kinds of foods we can get at the supermarket. We can get most regular groceries - flour, fruit juice, washing powder, cans of tomatoes etc, and a fair selection of fresh fruit and veggies. There are organic beans and lentils, and an increasing number of other organic foods available, although as they're mostly shipped from Canada or Mexico, it's more environmentally sound to buy non-organic ones from Cyprus or Egypt. A difficult decision.
In addition there's a meat counter and a delicatessan with cheeses, humous and other salads, and of course refrigerated and frozen foods. Much like a British supermarket really, except that there's far less convenience food. This is all to the good as it's not very nutritious to eat processed food, but occasionally it would be nice just to pick up a ready-made quiche!
I bought three large bags of oranges today (25c per kilogram) in addition to everything else we need for the next week, and the hot cross buns, and a couple of Easter eggs for the boys. The total bill came to £80 - that's Cyprus pounds, so about £90 sterling, or $150 US. I don't know if this is high or low for a family of four, but it's about our normal weekly supermarket bill.
In the afternoon I thought I might cut some more of the lawn - so far Tim and I have done about half of it this week, and it could probably be finished in another hour, but instead I decided to walk to the town to collect our snail-mail. We don't have doorstep delivery here; there are American style letter-boxes next to the street, but they're not at all secure, so we have all our mail sent to a PO Box which is about a mile away, at the far end of the town.
I was pleased to find a DVD which I ordered from Play.com on Sunday night had arrived already, along with some photos from the UK; I sent the films back with my brother when he left just over a week ago, so that's fairly good service too. Plus a card and a couple of statements. There's more coming from Play.com but I didn't expect anything to arrive until after Easter so it was a bonus to have one early.
I'm pretty tired now; Daniel had to leave the house at 6.30am this morning as the theatre group had a performance in Paphos which is about an hour and a half's drive away. So I set my alarm for just before 6am to ensure he got up, and once I was up I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep.
Dan got back about 2.30pm, then both boys were out at 3.30 for a church music group rehearsal. They got back about 5.00 and we ate at 6.00 as they were both out yet again at 6.30 - Dan to a drama rehearsal, Tim to a youth band practice. Life tends to be fairly hectic in our household and the timing of meals is quite complicated at times, since we all like to eat together whenever possible (and usually succeed).
So we went this morning instead. I was pleased to see that there was a reasonable selection of chocolate Easter eggs; I had wondered if there would be any in time for the Western Easter, since the Eastern/Orthodox Easter isn't until May 1st. There were also some hot cross buns in packs of four, so I bought some for tomorrow, although everyone's going to be so busy that I've no idea when we'll actually eat them!
Sometimes people ask me what kinds of foods we can get at the supermarket. We can get most regular groceries - flour, fruit juice, washing powder, cans of tomatoes etc, and a fair selection of fresh fruit and veggies. There are organic beans and lentils, and an increasing number of other organic foods available, although as they're mostly shipped from Canada or Mexico, it's more environmentally sound to buy non-organic ones from Cyprus or Egypt. A difficult decision.
In addition there's a meat counter and a delicatessan with cheeses, humous and other salads, and of course refrigerated and frozen foods. Much like a British supermarket really, except that there's far less convenience food. This is all to the good as it's not very nutritious to eat processed food, but occasionally it would be nice just to pick up a ready-made quiche!
I bought three large bags of oranges today (25c per kilogram) in addition to everything else we need for the next week, and the hot cross buns, and a couple of Easter eggs for the boys. The total bill came to £80 - that's Cyprus pounds, so about £90 sterling, or $150 US. I don't know if this is high or low for a family of four, but it's about our normal weekly supermarket bill.
In the afternoon I thought I might cut some more of the lawn - so far Tim and I have done about half of it this week, and it could probably be finished in another hour, but instead I decided to walk to the town to collect our snail-mail. We don't have doorstep delivery here; there are American style letter-boxes next to the street, but they're not at all secure, so we have all our mail sent to a PO Box which is about a mile away, at the far end of the town.
I was pleased to find a DVD which I ordered from Play.com on Sunday night had arrived already, along with some photos from the UK; I sent the films back with my brother when he left just over a week ago, so that's fairly good service too. Plus a card and a couple of statements. There's more coming from Play.com but I didn't expect anything to arrive until after Easter so it was a bonus to have one early.
I'm pretty tired now; Daniel had to leave the house at 6.30am this morning as the theatre group had a performance in Paphos which is about an hour and a half's drive away. So I set my alarm for just before 6am to ensure he got up, and once I was up I knew I wouldn't get back to sleep.
Dan got back about 2.30pm, then both boys were out at 3.30 for a church music group rehearsal. They got back about 5.00 and we ate at 6.00 as they were both out yet again at 6.30 - Dan to a drama rehearsal, Tim to a youth band practice. Life tends to be fairly hectic in our household and the timing of meals is quite complicated at times, since we all like to eat together whenever possible (and usually succeed).
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Water from above, but not from below
The forecast has been for sun all week, but the sky was a bit grey this morning and it's just started spitting. A pity as Tim had started cutting the grass at the back - a two-hour job in all, and had only done about a quarter of it when the rain started. Only a few drops so far, but of course it's not a good idea to use an electric lawnmower in the rain even though it has a surge protector thing. I was going to do some weeding this afternoon too, but perhaps not after all.
Our mains water is off at present. This used to be a regular feature of Cyprus life until a new desalination plant was built about three years ago. That was followed by some very wet winters, so the reservoirs are now full rather than almost empty. Theoretically we have water on all the time (it used to be just twice per week) but every so often the mains tap stops working without any warning.
I should perhaps explain that we have two different taps in the kitchen. One regular hot/cold mixer tap which is sourced from our tanks, and one that's directly from the mains. In general people drink the mains water, but tank water is used for washing up, for the washing machine, and also for the bathroom. So we're not without water entirely - the tanks still have plenty. And we still fill up plastic bottles with mains water for convenience - not as many as we used to in the days when the mains was sometimes off for three days in a row, but five or six. However we tend to forget to fill them as we take the mains water for granted, meaning that this morning when it went off there were only two bottles of drinking water. That's three litres in all, so assuming the mains comes on again before the evening we'll probably be all right.
Still, it meant that I didn't do the load of laundry I was planning to do this morning (the washing machine takes 60 litres in all so I didn't want to use up that much tank water, just in case....) and I suppose that's all to the good in view of the rain.
Daniel had another theatre performance this morning, at a school in Nicosia. He got back about 2.00pm, had a quick bite to eat, and then rushed out again for the 'stage combat' class he attends at the theatre. He's tired already... yesterday morning might have been peaceful, but in the afternoon he went to his art class, stayed late talking and then had to rush back to eat at great speed before rushing out again to his music theory class (he's taking the grade 5 theory exam in the spring which will then allow him to take instrument exams higher than grade 5). After that he decided not to go to the town band - they're marching on Friday for a national day and he finds that very dull - but instead went to a meeting at our church run by a group called YWAM.
Our mains water is off at present. This used to be a regular feature of Cyprus life until a new desalination plant was built about three years ago. That was followed by some very wet winters, so the reservoirs are now full rather than almost empty. Theoretically we have water on all the time (it used to be just twice per week) but every so often the mains tap stops working without any warning.
I should perhaps explain that we have two different taps in the kitchen. One regular hot/cold mixer tap which is sourced from our tanks, and one that's directly from the mains. In general people drink the mains water, but tank water is used for washing up, for the washing machine, and also for the bathroom. So we're not without water entirely - the tanks still have plenty. And we still fill up plastic bottles with mains water for convenience - not as many as we used to in the days when the mains was sometimes off for three days in a row, but five or six. However we tend to forget to fill them as we take the mains water for granted, meaning that this morning when it went off there were only two bottles of drinking water. That's three litres in all, so assuming the mains comes on again before the evening we'll probably be all right.
Still, it meant that I didn't do the load of laundry I was planning to do this morning (the washing machine takes 60 litres in all so I didn't want to use up that much tank water, just in case....) and I suppose that's all to the good in view of the rain.
Daniel had another theatre performance this morning, at a school in Nicosia. He got back about 2.00pm, had a quick bite to eat, and then rushed out again for the 'stage combat' class he attends at the theatre. He's tired already... yesterday morning might have been peaceful, but in the afternoon he went to his art class, stayed late talking and then had to rush back to eat at great speed before rushing out again to his music theory class (he's taking the grade 5 theory exam in the spring which will then allow him to take instrument exams higher than grade 5). After that he decided not to go to the town band - they're marching on Friday for a national day and he finds that very dull - but instead went to a meeting at our church run by a group called YWAM.
Monday, March 21, 2005
Spring
I can't believe it's nearly three months since Christmas, nearly Easter. Today is a lovely spring day - breezy and sunny, about 20C outside. I was amused to see someone commenting that the UK was having a heatwave of 20C, when to me that's still pleasantly cool. Evidently I've adjusted to Cyprus temperatures, at least somewhat!
Home education is a bit piecemeal at present. Daniel still has about 15 workbooks ('paces') and tests for his curriculum work to do before completing level 2, equivalent to A/S level. However he's been so busy with other things that he's hardly done anything since the end of last year. Tim has about 10 to finish the level 1 (equivalent to GCSE) and then quite a few more before he gets level 2. I don't see that there's any hurry: neither of them want to go to university, at least not in the immediate future. I'm less and less convinced about the need for any formal qualifications other than for the few careers that require them. However having got this far we're all agreed it's a bit silly not to finish at least what they're on. Still, this is the week before Easter and would be a school holiday in the UK, so I don't suppose anything at all will get done this week.
But life goes by and there are too many other activities and distractions. I'm not the kind of person to sit them down to work, even though I issue random reminders from time to time. Tim is 16 and keen for me to remember that he's now beyond compulsory education age anyway. Dan is working part-time for the theatre group. Right now he's in the middle of a performance of 'The Little Man's Best Friend', a lovely play with very little dialogue. They've finished the public performances, but are still booked for some school ones - this play attracts primary schools and the very youngest children love it. Dan is one of the musicians in the play, with a tiny amount of acting; mostly he's playing the clarinet.
Usually Tim begins Monday mornings with a music aural lesson, in preparation for doing an exam at some point, but his teacher is busy with guests this week so that was cancelled. Dan usually has a drum lesson mid-morning but had to cancel that due to the play performance. So it's been a more peaceful Monday than usual. I walked to the local supermarket earlier; Richard's away in Egypt so we didn't do our usual weekly shop on Friday. It's only five minutes' walk and we didn't need that much food. I did buy a couple of bags of oranges - there are none left on our tree, but they're only 30c/kg at the supermarket, so four glasses of freshly-squeezed juice each morning only costs about 40p in British currency.
There were pears in bags too, slightly bruised in places but still firm, also costing 30c/kg. Usually they're considerably more. So I bought a bag and experimented with 'live porridge', as described in the book 'Raw Energy'. Put about half a cup (any size - though I use American cups of 8 fluid ounces each) of mixed nuts and seeds in a food processor and grind until small. Add quarter of a cup of raisins and about four pears, washed and cored but no need to peel, and process again until smooth.
The resulting gunge didn't look particularly appetizing; it was a kind of greeny-brown colour with bits in, but it smelled good and tasted wonderful! I used almonds and sesame seeds but will include some flaxseeds next time for the Omega-3 oils. The boys and I have been eating mostly raw breafasts recently, but until now they've been been based on grated apple rather than processed pears.
Home education is a bit piecemeal at present. Daniel still has about 15 workbooks ('paces') and tests for his curriculum work to do before completing level 2, equivalent to A/S level. However he's been so busy with other things that he's hardly done anything since the end of last year. Tim has about 10 to finish the level 1 (equivalent to GCSE) and then quite a few more before he gets level 2. I don't see that there's any hurry: neither of them want to go to university, at least not in the immediate future. I'm less and less convinced about the need for any formal qualifications other than for the few careers that require them. However having got this far we're all agreed it's a bit silly not to finish at least what they're on. Still, this is the week before Easter and would be a school holiday in the UK, so I don't suppose anything at all will get done this week.
But life goes by and there are too many other activities and distractions. I'm not the kind of person to sit them down to work, even though I issue random reminders from time to time. Tim is 16 and keen for me to remember that he's now beyond compulsory education age anyway. Dan is working part-time for the theatre group. Right now he's in the middle of a performance of 'The Little Man's Best Friend', a lovely play with very little dialogue. They've finished the public performances, but are still booked for some school ones - this play attracts primary schools and the very youngest children love it. Dan is one of the musicians in the play, with a tiny amount of acting; mostly he's playing the clarinet.
Usually Tim begins Monday mornings with a music aural lesson, in preparation for doing an exam at some point, but his teacher is busy with guests this week so that was cancelled. Dan usually has a drum lesson mid-morning but had to cancel that due to the play performance. So it's been a more peaceful Monday than usual. I walked to the local supermarket earlier; Richard's away in Egypt so we didn't do our usual weekly shop on Friday. It's only five minutes' walk and we didn't need that much food. I did buy a couple of bags of oranges - there are none left on our tree, but they're only 30c/kg at the supermarket, so four glasses of freshly-squeezed juice each morning only costs about 40p in British currency.
There were pears in bags too, slightly bruised in places but still firm, also costing 30c/kg. Usually they're considerably more. So I bought a bag and experimented with 'live porridge', as described in the book 'Raw Energy'. Put about half a cup (any size - though I use American cups of 8 fluid ounces each) of mixed nuts and seeds in a food processor and grind until small. Add quarter of a cup of raisins and about four pears, washed and cored but no need to peel, and process again until smooth.
The resulting gunge didn't look particularly appetizing; it was a kind of greeny-brown colour with bits in, but it smelled good and tasted wonderful! I used almonds and sesame seeds but will include some flaxseeds next time for the Omega-3 oils. The boys and I have been eating mostly raw breafasts recently, but until now they've been been based on grated apple rather than processed pears.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Online Photo Storage
I've been spending a lot of time uploading digital photos from my hard drive to Ofoto I discover this site after reading a review on Ciao. Ofoto has free and unlimited storage of photos, so it's like a permanent backup, easily accessible from anywhere in the world. So far I've uploaded a year's worth of pictures. It's a bit slow, and doesn't always work first time, but I'm not going to complain when it's free! It's sponsored by Kodak, and there are options for ordering prints from the photos when they're uploaded at fairly reasonable prices, so I'm going to try that. If they're good, then it's much less hassle than printing them, and probably cheaper too. There's an introductory offer of 10 free photos too, which expires in a week (I joined the site back in January and the offer is open for two months) which is why I'm busy uploading as many as I can so I can choose ten good ones!
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Busy week
My brother and his wife have been staying, and the week has rushed past. They did go away for a couple of days to the mountains beyond Paphos, where they said it rained rather a lot and they got extremely muddy! However the predicted rain in Larnaka didn't materialise, and they were able to get out and about to the town several times, and visited a museum.
On Saturday night was the premiere of the English version of 'Fairytaleheart', the latest play by Antidote Theatre so we all went. It's a teenage play with only two characters, plus three musicians who are off stage but just visible behind a screen. Daniel is one of the musicians, playing clarinet. It went very well and we all enjoyed it - I was surprised that an hour and a half of dialogue could be so engrossing, but it certainly was. There were some quite young children there despite it being at 8.00pm and they too watched and were absorbed by it.
Monday was a public holiday for 'Green Monday', the first day of Lent in the Greek Orthodox and Eastern tradition. They use a different calendar to calculate Easter than we use in the UK, and while the two sometimes coincide, this year the Western Easter is five weeks ahead of the Eastern one. Since Cyprus is mainly Greek Orthodox, naturally their dates are used as holidays, although the Protestant churches celebrate the Western Easter. I'm wondering if there will be any chocolate Easter eggs in the shops in time for Easter on March 27th... there weren't on Saturday.
On Monday evening my brother took us all out for a meal at the Art Cafe, a small and very friendly restaurant on a side-street near the sea-front. We went early, to avoid the cigarettes (many Cypriots smoke at meals, and restaurants don't have no-smoking areas) and had an excellent time.
On Saturday night was the premiere of the English version of 'Fairytaleheart', the latest play by Antidote Theatre so we all went. It's a teenage play with only two characters, plus three musicians who are off stage but just visible behind a screen. Daniel is one of the musicians, playing clarinet. It went very well and we all enjoyed it - I was surprised that an hour and a half of dialogue could be so engrossing, but it certainly was. There were some quite young children there despite it being at 8.00pm and they too watched and were absorbed by it.
Monday was a public holiday for 'Green Monday', the first day of Lent in the Greek Orthodox and Eastern tradition. They use a different calendar to calculate Easter than we use in the UK, and while the two sometimes coincide, this year the Western Easter is five weeks ahead of the Eastern one. Since Cyprus is mainly Greek Orthodox, naturally their dates are used as holidays, although the Protestant churches celebrate the Western Easter. I'm wondering if there will be any chocolate Easter eggs in the shops in time for Easter on March 27th... there weren't on Saturday.
On Monday evening my brother took us all out for a meal at the Art Cafe, a small and very friendly restaurant on a side-street near the sea-front. We went early, to avoid the cigarettes (many Cypriots smoke at meals, and restaurants don't have no-smoking areas) and had an excellent time.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Drunk Drivers and Power Failure
Last night we had great excitement in the street... about 8.30pm we heard a tremendous crash, and then a lesser noise - at which all the lights started flickering madly and the computers re-booted themselves! Richard and the boys rushed outside, to find that half the street was in total darkness and all the streetlights had gone out. An electricity pole (cables are overhead here) a few metres away from our house was wobbling, having been hit by something - with wires sparking like anything!! Very dangerous...
Neighbours started pouring out of houses, and talking in a mixture of Greek and English. They discovered that a large blue van had been weaving to and fro down the street (people who saw it thought the driver must have been drunk). It had bashed into a wall at the other end of the street, and then hit this pole - and driven away. One of the people in the street chased it on a motorbike but didn't catch it up - so we don't know what other damage might have been done elsewhere.
Someone managed to phone the electricity board, who arrived about 15 minutes later and turned off the mains to the whole street so our house was in complete darkness too. I needed to finish washing up so I did that by candlelight. We have quite a few candles so when Tim came in to warn me that we were about to have all the power off, I found a torch and then lit as many candles as I could find.
People were saying we could be without electricity for days... but thankfully the repairmen worked quickly and through half the night, so by about 2am (according to Richard, who woke up) it was all fixed again. We were also very thankful it didn't rain last night, as was forecast. Of course the fridge and freezer were without power for six hours or so, but we didn't open them so hope all the food is all right.
Neighbours started pouring out of houses, and talking in a mixture of Greek and English. They discovered that a large blue van had been weaving to and fro down the street (people who saw it thought the driver must have been drunk). It had bashed into a wall at the other end of the street, and then hit this pole - and driven away. One of the people in the street chased it on a motorbike but didn't catch it up - so we don't know what other damage might have been done elsewhere.
Someone managed to phone the electricity board, who arrived about 15 minutes later and turned off the mains to the whole street so our house was in complete darkness too. I needed to finish washing up so I did that by candlelight. We have quite a few candles so when Tim came in to warn me that we were about to have all the power off, I found a torch and then lit as many candles as I could find.
People were saying we could be without electricity for days... but thankfully the repairmen worked quickly and through half the night, so by about 2am (according to Richard, who woke up) it was all fixed again. We were also very thankful it didn't rain last night, as was forecast. Of course the fridge and freezer were without power for six hours or so, but we didn't open them so hope all the food is all right.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Carpet Cleaning
Yesterday we finally got around to doing something I'd been wanting to do for about six months - shampooing the carpets. We have a Bissell 'Big Green Clean Machine' (BGCM) which sprays on shampoo and then sucks out the water and dirt. We don't have many fitted carpets - it being Cyprus, most of the floors are marble tiles, although the study/guest room and two bedrooms do have carpets. But we have large rugs in the main entrance/atrium room and another rug in the living room.
Just one bottle of fluid was enough to shampoo the atrium rugs, the carpet in the study and the two sofas we have in the atrium which were looking rather grubby. When we've finished this job I always wonder why we don't do it more often - the result is so good! I think it's about 18 months since we last did it - just after we repainted most of the walls.
The rug in the living room is more difficult; it's lighter-weight than the others, and really looked terribly mucky when we thought about it. Perhaps it's the new sofas making everything else look dirty by contrast! Anyway, Richard decided the only way to get it clean would be to wash it in the bath. I wasn't convinced, but this morning after church he did exactly that. It was VERY dirty! He filled the bathtub about six times before the water was even reasoanble. Then we used the BGCM to suction out most of the water, lying the rug on the atrium floor having rolled up the other rugs out of the way.
Very hard work, but I have to admit, effective. The rug is now back in the living room, albeit rather damp still, and looking stunningly clean and fresh. We just hope it will dry out rather than growing mould. It's too heavy for the washing lines, and anyway rain is predicted for the next few days.
The garden's been rather neglected for a few days now - Tim finished mowing the grass area, and I did a bit more weeding, but then rather lost interest.
Just one bottle of fluid was enough to shampoo the atrium rugs, the carpet in the study and the two sofas we have in the atrium which were looking rather grubby. When we've finished this job I always wonder why we don't do it more often - the result is so good! I think it's about 18 months since we last did it - just after we repainted most of the walls.
The rug in the living room is more difficult; it's lighter-weight than the others, and really looked terribly mucky when we thought about it. Perhaps it's the new sofas making everything else look dirty by contrast! Anyway, Richard decided the only way to get it clean would be to wash it in the bath. I wasn't convinced, but this morning after church he did exactly that. It was VERY dirty! He filled the bathtub about six times before the water was even reasoanble. Then we used the BGCM to suction out most of the water, lying the rug on the atrium floor having rolled up the other rugs out of the way.
Very hard work, but I have to admit, effective. The rug is now back in the living room, albeit rather damp still, and looking stunningly clean and fresh. We just hope it will dry out rather than growing mould. It's too heavy for the washing lines, and anyway rain is predicted for the next few days.
The garden's been rather neglected for a few days now - Tim finished mowing the grass area, and I did a bit more weeding, but then rather lost interest.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The new sofas (see entry below for explanation)
Here are the new sofas, with our fourth cat Tessie making herself comfortable on the one on the right of the picture.
Far end of our garden, after some weeding
Here's the same spot after a couple of hours of weeding... I suppose it does look slightly better.
Far end of our garden, before today's weeding
The far end of the garden - some bedding plants, weeds growing through the stones, and huge weeds to the left. All rather overwhelming. This was before today's weeding.
Sofas and Weeds
Two new sofas were delivered at lunch-time. We had been thinking of replacing our very uncomfortable three-seater sofa for some time, and after visiting the Thrift Store many times we realised it could take months - even years - to find what we were looking for. So we went to some of the furniture shops. Most were expensive, with mainly leather-covered suites. Quite attractive in their way, but not much point having something like that with four cats in the house. One scratch and leather (or leather-look) would be ruined.
Eventually we ended up at D V Pavlimbes and sons, a furniture store in down-town Larnaka. Their selection was much more to our taste, and their prices better too! After much thought we went to order two two-seater sofas on Saturday. We chose a material that was somewhat more expensive than the default, thinking it would last longer and be better able to cope with feline scratches. All the sofas are hand-built and covered, so we thought it would be a week or two at least, and were surprised when the very friendly man who took our order said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday.
Cyprus companies are not renowned for good timing. So I was very surprised when today - Wednesday - a phone call came at 11.30am telling me the sofas would be delivered in an hour. I mentally decided that meant probably some time in the afternoon, but to my amazement the doorbell rang at 12.30, and the sofas were delivered. The boys like the look of them (that's a relief! Dan had threatened to leave home if they were tasteless) and we spent some time rearranging the room to best effect. When we finally had it the best way we could think of, Dan suggested swopping the dining room area with the living room area. Hmmm.... that would be a major effort (there's some fairly heavy furniture in the dining room) but it might work. He's going to model it in his graphic program Blender so we can see how it would look before moving anything. But it might just be a great improvement...
This afternoon I tackled some of the weeds in the garden. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the garden at the weekend; a couple of hours of heavy weeding seems to make very little difference, and with the warm wet spring we've had so far, the weeds are growing much faster than I can deal with them. Still, every little bit does help. Tim did a bit of lawn-cutting ('lawn' is a euphemism for 'green weedy area that we keep cut short and which contains a bit of grass) and I tackled the far end of the garden which has always been terrible for weeds. I even put out a few more bedding plants, having made some space for them. These are the last of some plants I bought over a month ago and which were looking decidely pot-bound. I wonder if they'll survive. Rain is forecast tomorrow, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Unfortunately it's also forecast for much of next week when my brother and his wife are coming to stay from the UK.
Eventually we ended up at D V Pavlimbes and sons, a furniture store in down-town Larnaka. Their selection was much more to our taste, and their prices better too! After much thought we went to order two two-seater sofas on Saturday. We chose a material that was somewhat more expensive than the default, thinking it would last longer and be better able to cope with feline scratches. All the sofas are hand-built and covered, so we thought it would be a week or two at least, and were surprised when the very friendly man who took our order said it would be Tuesday or Wednesday.
Cyprus companies are not renowned for good timing. So I was very surprised when today - Wednesday - a phone call came at 11.30am telling me the sofas would be delivered in an hour. I mentally decided that meant probably some time in the afternoon, but to my amazement the doorbell rang at 12.30, and the sofas were delivered. The boys like the look of them (that's a relief! Dan had threatened to leave home if they were tasteless) and we spent some time rearranging the room to best effect. When we finally had it the best way we could think of, Dan suggested swopping the dining room area with the living room area. Hmmm.... that would be a major effort (there's some fairly heavy furniture in the dining room) but it might work. He's going to model it in his graphic program Blender so we can see how it would look before moving anything. But it might just be a great improvement...
This afternoon I tackled some of the weeds in the garden. I was feeling very overwhelmed by the garden at the weekend; a couple of hours of heavy weeding seems to make very little difference, and with the warm wet spring we've had so far, the weeds are growing much faster than I can deal with them. Still, every little bit does help. Tim did a bit of lawn-cutting ('lawn' is a euphemism for 'green weedy area that we keep cut short and which contains a bit of grass) and I tackled the far end of the garden which has always been terrible for weeds. I even put out a few more bedding plants, having made some space for them. These are the last of some plants I bought over a month ago and which were looking decidely pot-bound. I wonder if they'll survive. Rain is forecast tomorrow, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Unfortunately it's also forecast for much of next week when my brother and his wife are coming to stay from the UK.
Starting a Blog
My Geocities site http://www.rsdt.org is getting full. 15 megabytes is the maximum allowed, and it's getting close. I don't want to delete any of it - it's only in the past couple of years that I've scanned and included photos from the time we arrived in Cyprus but equally I don't want to pay for an upgraded, larger site. They don't allow two sites on the same topic.
So finally I decided to follow the modern trend - not a monthly journal, but a random blog. Not two photos, tidily, per month but as and when appropriate.
So finally I decided to follow the modern trend - not a monthly journal, but a random blog. Not two photos, tidily, per month but as and when appropriate.
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