Kataklysmos in Cyprus

Most of the world knows the past weekend as the Jewish/Christian feast of Pentecost, previously called Whitsun in some church circles, and today as a bank holiday Monday for Pentecost, previously known as Whit Monday.

But in Cyprus, the whole of the last weekend, and this next week is known as the Kataklysmos festival. It manages to combine celebrations of Pentecost (when the Holy Spirit first fell on the early disciples of Jesus) with the ancient flood (of which Noah's Ark and its residents were the only survivors). One of Noah's grandsons was the legendary founder of Larnaka - previously known as Kition - so although the whole of Cyprus celebrates this festival, Larnaka is apparently the most flamboyant, and probably the noisiest.

Towards the end of last week, a fair was brought to the sea-front, and hundreds of booths selling sweets, toys, jewellery and a variety of glittery junk at inexpensive rates. The place is crowded. I don't usually go anywhere near the sea-front at this time of year as I'm not over-keen on crowds. However on Friday, the opening day of the festival, our house group decided to have a meal out at Hobo's restaurant which is right on the sea-front, set a little back from the road opposite the band-stand.

It was indeed very noisy, but we had a good time and the fireworks were impressive, if brief:


There were people everywhere:


with children swarming over fairground rides, and running up and down the streets:






Not my idea of heaven, indeed rather the reverse, and I ended up with a migraine in the middle of Friday night. Thank goodness for Solpadeine.

Today, the bank holiday Monday, the sailing club had a regatta. They had races yesterday but Richard didn't feel inclined to enter those; but he decided, with our sailing friends, to join the regatta. Apparently about ten boats eventually left the Larnaka Sailing Club - only forty-five minutes late - and sailed as far as the Finikoudes sea-front, where there's a boat-lane at the far end.

The event was sponsored by McDonald's, who provided lunch for everyone - about twenty people in all - and then everyone sailed back in the afternoon. I gather it was tiring, as the sea was a bit choppy, but enjoyable.


I didn't go, not being very good in strong sunshine, and having no desire to be anywhere near the Kataklysmos crowds on the busiest day of the festival!

Septic tanks in Cyprus

Life in Cyprus is not all sunshine and sailing.

One of the things that often seems to bother visitors to the island is that most buildings are not yet connected to mains drainage, instead relying on septic tanks (otherwise known as cess pits, but that sounds much worse). Thus we can't put toilet paper in the toilet. Instead, we have little bins designed for it. And although it did seem strange at first, we got used to it pretty quickly, so much so that when going back to the UK it feels odd to flush the loo paper again...

But I digress. The one real problem with septic tanks is that sometimes the bacteria stop working, and then the tank starts to overflow, out of the little manhole covers in the back (or side) yard. Which can be rather unpleasant. It happened once at our old house, although it turned out to be a different problem, but as the house was rented we just phoned the landlady who got someone in to drain it. Since then we've seen several such trucks, with long flexible hoses, and rather a bad smell emanating from whatever house they are currently dealing with.

About a week ago, I noticed water seeping out of one of the drain covers here. Uh-oh. Maybe it was due to the excessive rain we've been having, and the large number of extra guests in the flat downstairs. Perhaps, I thought optimistically, it would stop.

It didn't.

However as Richard doesn't always take the car to work, and the drain covers are in the carport behind the car, I didn't think much about it for a couple of days.

By Thursday, there was water seeping not just into the carport but down the street.

I looked in the Yellow Pages for Larnaka, but there was no entry for septic tanks. Or for tanks. There were a few numbers under 'drains', but none of them seemed to be correct. We don't want someone to come and install a drain, we wanted the tank emptied. We know there are companies who do it, we just didn't know how to contact them.

Our neighbours over the street speak good English, but we didn't see them about. Cypriot people keep themselves to themselves much of the time, and we didn't see any of the other neighbours too.

On Friday I had a good idea - a friend of ours who lives just five minutes' walk away has been in Larnaka for over twenty years. Perhaps she would know of a suitable company. So Richard phoned her, and she said yes, they have their tanks cleaned regularly.

Unfortunately, the man they use doesn't speak any English at all.

Fortunately, our friend's husband is Cypriot, so he phoned the man for us. He apparently said he would come on Friday, or possibly Saturday.

I waited in all Friday afternoon (not that I was going anywhere anyway) but he didn't arrive. We were going out with our house group on Friday evening, but we have someone staying in the guest flat, so we asked him to deal with it, if by chance the man arrived in the evening.

He didn't.

On Saturday Richard and Tim went sailing, and I went along to video the new boat. But our guest was still in downstairs.

The man didn't come.

Nor did he come in the afternoon, when I stayed at home. We did wonder if we should call our friends and ask them to phone him again, but we thought perhaps he wouldn't work Saturday evening (Saturday is usually early closing), and he certainly wouldn't work on a Sunday. What's worse, Monday is a public holiday (for Kataklysmos). And there was still water pouring down the street.

At lunch-time, Tim and I went to one of the local churches for a joint service and potluck lunch. Richard had a meeting in Limassol, but didn't leave until about an hour after we did.

During that time, amazingly, the drain-cleaning man came. He did in fact speak about six words of English. He drained the tanks, and discovered that part of the problem was a blockage, so he unblocked it with some large and noisy machine. I'm not sure what would have blocked it; we always tell our guests about the toilet paper problem, and if they forgot once or twice I don't imagine that would cause an entire drain to block.

Anyway, it's now sorted out. It cost us £40 which is quite a high amount for a service of that kind in Cyprus, but I suppose companies can charge what they like for this kind of thing - we have to use them.

Eventually, under European Union regulations, we should have mains drainage installed throughout the island, but I don't know of anywhere in Larnaka where it's actually happened. We've seen the pipes being put in some roads, but connecting all the houses up is going to be a lengthy and expensive process, so it will probably take years.

Poor Sophia...

Some of our neighbours are having extensive work done on their house. Or, at least, their yard. A couple of weeks ago there was the most horrendous noise, which turned out to be someone using an electric saw to cut away part of the concrete wall in front of their house. When finished, we could see an unfinished passageway at the side. Good idea, we thought. They're going to pave it, and put in a gate at the front.

But they must be doing more than that. In the past week, there have been two humongous piles of (we assume) sand dumped in front of another neighbour's house. Then various men have moved this sand with wheelbarrows to the back of the house. Perhaps there's a patio being built. We've also seen a small cement-mixer, and several pipes of different shapes and sizes.

Today, one of those huge vehicles arrived - the ones with the crane-like attachment that unfolds and can lift or drop things over the top of a house:


It's a bit noisy, but not unbearable and I thought nothing of it until Sophia suddenly pelted into the study, her ears flat against her head, her body as low as she could get it. She then hid under my desk and refused to come out:


She was obviously terrified. Eventually we persuaded her to leave her hiding place, but she wouldn't settle anywhere. She wasn't even interested in her usual cheese at lunch-time, and she kept nuzzling against the stairs, or the wall. Then returned to the safety of my desk for at least half an hour.

If it had been Sophia's mother Cleo, I wouldn't have been surprised. Cleo has always been a nervous cat, and sure enough she was on the alert all morning, keeping half an eye on the machine from the windows.


But she didn't hide anywhere. She was just her normal, anxious self, aware of something unusual but not terrified.

Jemima, Sophia's twin was obviously a bit puzzled by the machine and the noise, but realised it couldn't hurt her. She spent most of her time by my study window, looking out.


At least, she did until I tried to take a photo of her. Then she looked at me!

As for Tessie, our fourth cat (unrelated to the other three) - as usual, she was relaxed and confident. Or, at least, fast asleep. She opened her eyes a couple of times, but didn't seem at all worried by the intruder in our neighbourhood:


Sophia has just emerged from my desk (the machine noise has stopped at last) but she still looks worried.

We wonder if she was peacefully dozing on our upstairs balcony, only to find the arm of the machine opening up and apparently coming to eat her...

Buying a boat in Larnaka

After the awful tornado that destroyed Richard's Mirror dinghy, he's been looking around for a replacement. He had been thinking for a while that he would like a slightly bigger boat. The Mirror was ideal to learn on, but could only really take one other person - or two small ones.

However buying a boat in Cyprus is nothing like as easy as it would be in the UK. Yes, there are web-sites with yachts for sale, but even the second-hand ones are very expensive. I looked in the classified section of the local paper, but there was nothing there. Richard bought the Mirror nearly two years ago after seeing an advert in Metro supermarket - but it's the only one we've seen there.

But in Cyprus, relationships are all-important when it comes to buying something like a boat. The fact that Richard has been sailing fairly regularly at the Larnaka Sailing Club means that other people know him, and think it's a good idea that he has another boat, as he's one of the few people who does actually sail!

Moreover, we have a friend who knows several people at the Marina, where bigger boats are moored. And he said that there were quite likely some suitable small boats there. Indeed, he had been asked a few years ago if he wanted to buy a small yacht for £450. So he took Richard to see it, and also checked the notice-board at the Marina, where there are sometimes boats available for sale.

This is the one our friend had been offered. The White Boat:


It even has a small cabin inside. It needs some refurbishment: the cabin is in a very bad state and the boat needs some painting and repairs. But it looked a very nice boat, and an excellent price.

There were two others of similar size listed for sale at the Marina.

Next problem: finding the owners. Records are usually fairly casual, and while everyone seems to know everyone else's business, it's not always easy to pin down a phone number. But Richard managed it.... and learned that the White Boat is in fact not for sale after all. The owner may even refurbish it himself, although it doesn't seem to have been touched for years...

Ah well.

The second phone call was to a lady who said her boat was for sale at £6,500. Ah. Well, we won't be considering that one, then.

The third phone call was to a man, who said his boat was for sale at £6,000. But when Richard was about to say, 'Thankyou, goodbye" the owner said, 'But.. I might negotiate. It doesn't have to cost that much."

Haggling, in a genteel sort of way, is fairly common in Cyprus, so Richard said that he would have a look at the boat, and consider it if the price was right. He did some research, and learned that he could buy something similar elsewhere for about half the price, although shipping costs would then increase it. But he went to look. This is the Blue Boat:


It's never been sailed. Instead, it's been sitting out in the sun and rain for about five years, so it's looking a bit scruffy. More significantly, although there is a cabin inside, the entrance is via a porthole. And, for other reasons, it's not ideal. But Richard had a chat with the owner, who was very pleasant, and said he would let other friends know.

Meanwhile, our Sailing Club friends had been trying to find out if there was a Sailing Club boat that Richard could at least use while looking for something to buy. The boat they thought was owned by the Sailing Club turned out to be a privately owned one, a Wayfarer dinghy which hadn't been sailed for about five years - but which was, thankfully, undamaged by the tornado. So he went to look at that, and was very impressed. It's not quite as big as the other two, and there's no cabin - but there's room for at least four people in it. And it's bigger than the Mirror, so quite sufficient to provide a new challenge.

The guy asked 500 for the Wayfarer... and it seemed like the right price, and the right boat. So here it is, the Light Blue boat:


He and our friends cleaned it thoroughly, then he took it out for the first time on Saturday, with our friends' ten-year-old son as crew. Richard said it was wonderful; he's very pleased with it.

Oh, and we heard that there are two more dinghies for sale at the Sailing Club:


The one with the brown cover, on the left of the photo, is about the same size as the Mirror. The one with the blue cover is about the same size as the Wayfarer, but unfortunately has had some damage from the tornado. It's certainly repairable, but not sailable immediately.

We want to give the Light Blue boat a name. Probably something to do with the colour - suggestions welcome.

And the Mirror?

Richard salvaged the anchor, the oars, and some other useful bits and pieces. Then they loaded it onto the back of a truck that's used for taking away rubbish from the Sailing Club:


RIP, little Mirror.

Plant update: bedding plants, figs, oranges

I was a bit worried about our patio plants during the huge storm and tornado the week before last, particularly when we had some hail. But they seem to have survived pretty well on the whole, the only (surprising) casualty being an antirrhinum (snapdragon) which was doing extremely well. It was in a planter with two petunias that looked a bit sad; we added in two geraniums about a month ago.

The petunias and geraniums seem to be doing very well, but I can only imagine that the antirrhinum must have got waterlogged, as it looks very dead now:


I'll leave it a bit longer just in case it revives, but I don't hold out much hope.

The citrus trees (bought last summer) were beginning to produce tiny fruit, rather to my surprise, and we wondered if we should remove them as they're such new trees... however the hail did that effectively, and we're left now with just one minute orange. We'll wait and see if it survives. I doubt it, but if it does I don't suppose that will harm the tree:


I was also very surprised to see that the new fig tree, bought only a month ago, has already produced a few tiny fruit. At least, that's what they look like though I'm not entirely sure. I didn't notice any flowers, and it seems a bit odd that the fruit would sprout out like this between branches:


I'm relieved to see that our two bigger plants bought recently also seem to be thriving - the euonymus and the unknown plant:


Of the plants we planted out last summer, one of the most successful is the cactus which a friend transplanted into two pots. Here's what the long one looks like now:

Ascension Day in Cyprus

Ascension Day is supposedly one of the greatest feasts in the Christian year. It ranks pretty close to Christmas, Easter and Pentecost in scale of importance. Yet in the evangelical non-traditional churches we tend to ignore it completely. I'm not sure why. Nor am I entirely sure what one would do to remember or celebrate the Ascension.

Tim, who is organist at St Helena's Anglican Church, will be playing for an Ascension Day service there this evening. He had to eat early, since choir practice - which he runs - is at 6pm and the service immediately afterwards. Then there's a meeting for people who do readings at St Helena's, so he'll be there quite a while. He expects that quite a few of the congregation will be present.

I'm not sure what the Greek Orthodox majority do about Ascension Day, but it's certainly taken fairly seriously in Cyprus since it's a minor public holiday - all the schools have the day off, and while most shops are open as usual, some businesses are also closed. Children are out playing in the streets, and workmen have been hard at work shovelling sand into a new driveway that one of our neighbours is making.

As for me... I did my weekly clean of the guest flat, including washing down the patio at the front which was still sandy after last Friday's sandy rain. Unlike many of my neighbours, I didn't use a hosepipe (since they are banned) but filled a watering can with water and washed away the worst of it using a soft broom. Not nearly as effective as a hosepipe, but I don't want to be caught by a fine. Not that the police are likely to be out today, but I'm British enough that I can't quite deal with unecessary water usage in the midst of a drought.

Mind you, it's been raining again. I woke to the sound of light rain, and there was a heavier downpour at lunchtime. More is predicted for today and tomorrow. Very unusual for May, and I doubt if it will make a lot of difference to the reservoirs. But it does mean I don't have to water my plants today. Besides which, it's been nice clean rain which has helped to wash away the last of the sand.

After cleaning the guest flat and patio, I made some apricot jam. And this afternoon, I did a little updating of my home education site.

(If anyone found this entry wanting to know about public holidays in Cyprus in general, one of the pages on my new site is devoted to that very topic: public holidays in Cyprus. )

Sunshine again

I know, I know, the Brits are reputed to talk about the weather all the time. And this is the fourth blog post in a row dedicated to the weather... but in Cyprus, it really is worth talking about, at least at this time of year. In a couple of months it will be hot, humid and sunny, and we'll just shrug and get on with life. But early May is entirely unpredictable. So it's interesting. At least, it's is to those of us who live here.

Today, the sun is shining for the first time since about Tuesday. Bad luck to all those folk who came out here on holiday this week, expecting to sunbathe on the beach. At least today is better. When I walked to church this morning, there were a few puddles on the road, but nowhere was impassable. With the sun, they'll dry up rapidly, although I notice that more thunder and rain is forecast for later in the week. But today there's little evidence of the tornado and storm from Friday, which Richard also wrote about on his blog.

(Incidentally, if anyone found this page by searching for 'Cyprus weather', there's more general information and links to a forecast site on my new site page 'Weather in Cyprus')

Despite the heavy rain, I doubt if much difference has been made to the reservoirs. But do the locals believe that? Apparently not. On my way back from church, I spotted at least three households where the hosepipe was running, washing down patios and pavements. Unbelievable. I know they got grubby and rather sandy from the storm, but nobody is supposed to use hosepipes. There's a threat of on-the-spot fines for anyone caught, but of course the police won't be out on a Sunday morning...

Storms and a sad, broken Mirror dinghy

We do need rain. Lots of it. So when I woke around 6am to the sound of pouring, with a bit of thunder in the distance, I wasn't worried.

It got heavier, and windier. The rain was blowing diagonally against the windows, which were even leaking slightly in a few places. I still wasn't worried. It was only a little bit, and easy to wipe up.

There was a bit of a leak in the roof over our stairs, but that's happened before in heavy rain when the wind's blowing it around. No damage to anything, even the pictures on the walls. No problem...

The rain eased slightly, and we went to do our weekly shopping. We had to take a slight detour, as some of the roads were flooded:


as was a small orchard not far from where we live:


But that's happened before. Last time it took a few days before it dried up, but the sun always comes out eventually.

There was even a lull in the rain while we brought our shopping in. Then Richard went to work. He had a phone call from our sailing friends, saying they'd been to the sailing club, to check the boats. Theirs had been blown over, but seemed to be all right. However Richard's little wooden Mirror dinghy was apparently blown right from one end to the other, and was seriously broken. They said they would put it back on the trailer as well as they could.

So after lunch we drove to the sailing club to check the damage. There had evidently been very severe wind there this morning, perhaps even a minor tornado, as there were large branches from trees in several places:


.. and this caravan, which had evidently been blown entirely upside down and destoyed completely:


And Richard's Mirror? At least we didn't see it in pieces all over the place, but it's very badly damaged. This is probably the worst bit:


... but there are cracks or breaks in several other places. And the mast is broken too:


So sad. Some of the other boats at the club had slight damage, but none as bad as this. Probably because (a) the Mirror was the smallest and lightest, so the most easily blown about, and (b) it's the only one made of wood.

Of course it's nothing like as terrible as the tornado that ripped through a town in Kansas earlier in the week, but still quite a shock.

Now the sky is almost yellow, and the rain is dirty and sandy. Probably rain from Egypt.

Not so hot!

Thankfully, after two days when the temperatures hit 33C, Tuesday was distinctly cooler (no more than about 25C) and today cooler still. Moreover the sky has been grey for most of the day, and it's even rained. Unusual for May, but very welcome since the island is having quite a water shortage. The dams are only 26% full, apparently, despite heavier rain than usual during February and March. Fines have been in place for the last few months, for people wasting excessive water - and although I was a bit cynical, wondering whether they would be enforced, I haven't noticed our neighbours using their hoses as much as they used to. Perhaps people are finally realising that the shortage IS serious.

Someone mentioned the other day that we may get water restrictions again, as happened in the late 1990s when we were first here. I hope not, but if they can't encourage people to use less water there may be no alternative. It's incredible how much water is wasted in Cyprus. I don't know of anywhere else that an article such as 'The Ten Water Commandments' would actually be intended seriously. But until recently, people really did hose down not just their patios but the pavements in front of their houses.

A week of heavy rain wouldn't solve the problem, but it would certainly help....

Hot!

The last couple of days have felt like the middle of Summer, albeit not yet humid. Today it's 33C in the shade (that's over 90F) - almost as hot as it gets, even in July. Considerably hotter in the sun.

This is not what we want in early May. I just hope it's a heatwave glitch rather than something that's going to stay. We nearly melted just walking home from church this morning.

May Day and a new web-site about Cyprus

This is a public holiday - one of many in Cyprus. Today we discovered another benefit of our new house: we can't hear the May Day parade, which in previous years used almost to deafen us.

Our sailing friends said that today was an ideal day to take the dinghies out, so Richard went sailing, borrowing our friends' son as crew. It was too sunny for me even to think of going out, so I did some work on a project I've been turning over in my mind for a while: a new web-site about life in Cyprus. I get several comments from this blog asking me questions about Cyprus, and a fair number of searches for queries about shopping, weather, and other aspects of life here. So I thought I'd build an information site about the island, for ex-pats and visitors. We registered the domain a few days ago and I've now written and uploaded the first three pages.

Since we have more visitors coming tomorrow I won't get much chance to write more in the next week, but wanted to launch it properly today, exactly a year after I launched my home education site.

Any comments welcome... I'm a writer not a designer so I've stayed with a similar basic page layout, concentrating more on the content than the design.

Oh, and anyone who likes to keep up with Daniel's blog - I uploaded a lengthy post from him yesterday, and also some photos to go with his post from March 25th about renovating a ship's wheel.