Daniel, relaxing in Cyprus

Daniel says he is spending his first week in Larnaka relaxing.



He is determined to do nothing more exhausting than reading for this week, although there are many things he wants to do during his three month furlough. But he was tired when he got here, despite nearly two weeks in the UK after leaving the Doulos. The problem, as we always find when we're in the UK, is that he wanted to see lots of people - all his grandparents, and some other relatives and friends.

So he found himself rushing around, very much enjoying seeing people whom he had not seen for over two years. He also got to know the UK public transport system much better than he had done before! When he arrived in Cyprus, he said he would be very glad not to see another train for a while... which is easy enough to grant, since Cyprus does not have any trains!

Anyway, he loved seeing so many folk and appreciated all the hospitality. But all he wants to do at present is sleep, and read, and watch DVDs. He hasn't left the house since Monday evening (when he accompanied Richard to an evening meeting).

Daniel is back in Cyprus!

Richard and Daniel arrived on a flight from Heathrow this afternoon, amidst rain and wind - really the first rain we've had this month. Richard has been away for nearly two weeks, but Daniel's been away for two years, and has never seen this house. It seems very strange to him, having left from one home, and returning to somewhere completely different - where the rest of us have been living for 18 months now.

Sophia, who always used to be Daniel's cat, was well aware that something was going on. When Richard phoned to say they were just waiting for their luggage at the airport, she mewed and purred, and ran around, not quite sure what to do with herself.

She's been sitting on or with Daniel since then... probably when he returns to the Doulos in April she'll come back to being a family cat, but in the meantime she's his cat alone.

Cleo was pretty pleased to see him too. Tessie didn't really notice. But then Tessie is happy to sit on just about anyone who comes to the house.

So nice to be a whole family again, if only for two or three months.

Tim and I are both pretty much over the flu now, too, so I hope we're no longer infectious. I still feel rather weak, but otherwise back to normal.

The current flu in Cyprus

I didn't escape. I suppose it was too much to hope for, having looked after Tim with the flu last week.

Yesterday I felt really grim... I didn't do anything, other than read, and a few things on the computer. Tim cooked, tidied up, and generally looked after me.

I took lots of Vitamin C.

I went to bed at about 8pm, with paracetamol for the general headache/neckache/sore throat, and yet more Vitamin C.

This morning, I felt decidely more human again, despite waking about 5am. I now have a streaming cold - very annoying, and I'm getting through hundreds of tissues. But I no longer have that achey, exhausted, shivery feeling that's been with me - off and on - for the last few days.

Having talked to several people who have had this flu in Cyprus, there seems to be a general pattern:

- a few days of slightly aching joints and tiredness, with extreme lethargy
- then a dry throat - not painful exactly, but making it hard to swallow
- then a bit more achiness, and some shivering, and a bunged-up feeling
- then a day or two of complete collapse, feeling appalling
- then several days of a streaming cold, accompanied by a cough

These vary somewhat in intensity - Tim's throat was a lot worse than mine, for instance - and occasionally it's also accompanied by a stomach bug in the first few days. But people are calling it a laryngitis/flu virus, and I guess that describes it well. On the whole, I've got off lightly.

I just hope I'm no longer infectious when Richard and Daniel get back to Cyprus... in three days time!

Still hoping to fight off the flu...

I haven't yet succumbed, but I still don't feel 100%. Woke up this morning with quite a sore throat, and extremely lethargic. I've done almost nothing today. Tim did all the cooking. But I haven't felt bad enough to collapse in bed and sleep, either. Although I think I shall probably get to bed by about 9pm tonight.

Weird. I just hope it doesn't get worse at the weekend.

Fighting off the Flu in Cyprus... perhaps

Tim had the flu for most of last week. He felt under par on Monday and Tuesday morning, though he kept going. Then for two days he had a high temperature, swollen glands, a sore throat, and felt totally rotten. He slept for several hours, drank a lot of juice, and a couple of smoothies, and had a bit of chicken soup. And lots of Vitamin C and garlic.

By Friday he was considerably better, feeling as if he simply had a cold. He went to band practice and youth group, and seemed to be fine. On Sunday he played twice in church services, including a big one for Christian Unity Sunday in the evening. He's still coughing somewhat, but basically is back to normal.

It's spreading rapidly around the churches. Apparently at least half of Tim's congregation have been struck down with the same thing, some of them more seriously. On Saturday I was asked if I could take the youngest Sunday School class at the church I go to, as the usual teacher had also succumbed.

A friend, who was supposed to be preaching that morning - and who never seems to get ill - had it too. I suppose it wasn't a good day for a Christian Unity service, with representatives of about twelve different congregations worshipping together in the evening, and no doubt sharing their germs as well as fellowship.

I am not usually very susceptible to colds and flu. But I've been looking after Tim, and breathing the air he's breathing, and also meeting other people who have been struck down. On Saturday morning, I felt lethargic and had a ticklish throat. I took a gram of Vitamin C and drank a lot of fresh orange juice.

By Saturday evening I felt rather weak and shaky, with a bit of a sore throat. That's just how this flu has started for many people. But I knew I had to go out to church on Sunday morning, to teach the under-fives, and I also wanted to go to the Christian Unity service in the evening if I possibly could.

So I took an extra gram of Vitamin C and ten drops of echinacea/goldenseal tincture, which tastes vile but is generally fairly effective. And two delicious roast garlic cloves (the very best way of eating garlic, in my opinion!)

Yesterday morning I had a bit of a cough and my throat was very ticklish, so I took another gram of Vitamin C and more fresh orange juice. I managed the walk to church - a little over a kilometre - and the class went well. I was pretty tired by the time I'd walked home again, but Tim cooked lunch, as he usually does on Sunday, and I did very little during the afternoon.

I felt reasonably OK by the time I had to go out again and walk to the Christian Unity service - also just over a kilometre, as Tim's church is just over the road from the one I go to - and back again, although I then went to bed with a hot water bottle around 9.30pm feeling utterly exhausted, shaky and shivery, and convinced I was going down with the flu.

However, before I went to sleep I took another gram of Vitamin C, and another ten drops of echinacea/goldenseal.

On Monday mornings I usually go out to the Post Office to collect our mail - that's about a 2km walk each way. When I woke up this morning, I felt achy and tired, and had a headache. So I took some Solpadeine, as well as Vitamin C, and then went out. My legs felt shaky by the time I got back again, but I managed it. I did my various housework jobs too, put on laundry, threw ingredients in the breadmaker, etc. By lunchtime I was feeling shivery, though Tim assured me it was warmer than it has been. I didn't do much at all this afternoon.

But... gradually I started feeling better.

This evening some potential new home educators came to chat about home education, and I felt (mostly) fine. It's now 10pm and I'm a bit tired, but a lot better than I was. My throat doesn't hurt, and doesn't feel clogged. I haven't coughed more than a couple of times in the past few hours.

I'm not sure if I've really succeeded in fighting it off, or if this is merely the calm before the storm.. but I shall be taking more Vitamin C and echinacea/goldenseal before I go to bed. The combination seems to work. I hope.

(PS - I phoned UPS this morning when I got back from the PO, to let them know our street address, and they delivered Tim's Christmas present around noon. So that's good!)

UPS in Cyprus... sigh

About six weeks ago, after much thought, Tim said he would like a special kind of headphones for Christmas. The kind that - supposedly - cut out all noise, particularly on airlines. Known as 'plane quiet'.

They're not available in Cyprus, as far as we can tell, but it was three weeks before Christmas. And Tim said he didn't mind if they were late, which is just as well because we couldn't find any online stores that had them in stock. Perhaps they were a popular gift last year. But eventually we found some which said they would soon be in stock, at the Dolphin Music site in the UK.

So Richard placed the order, and had a confirmation email. A few days later they emailed him to tell him that our credit card is a British issued one, in sterling, but the address for it is in Cyprus. Yup, we know that. It appears to create a problem on many sites. It's generally solved by faxing a copy of a utility bill to them, so that's what he did. And assumed all was well.

A couple of days before Christmas, Richard had an email from Dolphin Music apologising that the headphones were still not in stock. So we told Tim, and he shrugged, and said that was OK.

About ten days ago, we realised that although the headphones had still not been shipped, our credit card was billed for them on December 5th, back when we made the order. That wasn't very impressive. Most sites don't bill cards until they're about to send out the parcel. But perhaps it happened because we were a new customer. Richard emailed them, anyway, and asked what was going on.

I also had a look on the site, and read the part that mentioned that packages were shipped by UPS, and had to be signed for. Thus we couldn't enter a PO Box address. Our credit card bills go to our PO Box address, so Richard had used that, not realising that we could have different shipping and billing addresses. But the parcel hadn't been shipped, so he edited the shipping address to give our street address.

He received an apologetic email a few days ago, saying that they hoped the headphones would be in stock within a week.

Then, a day or two afterwards, he received a dispatch note. The parcel had finally been sent! He had gone to the USA by then so he forwarded it to me, so that I could track it via the UPS website. I entered the tracking code given, and saw that the parcel had already sped through Europe, and was having its 'in-transit scan' at Larnaka.

So, on Friday, Tim and I made sure that one of us was always in the house, expecting the UPS van to call. Or, perhaps, to phone and find out exactly where our house was.

But nothing happened.

Then we realised that the address on the shipment email was the PO Box address.

Apparently, although we had changed our default shipping address, we hadn't changed the address to which we'd sent the parcel.

So, I thought, perhaps it would go to the PO Box as a registered letter, and I would be able to collect it on Monday.

Today, Richard received another email which he forwarded to me. It said:

THE RECEIVER'S ADDRESS IS INCOMPLETE. UPS IS ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN THE ENTIRE ADDRESS AND COMPLETE THE DELIVERY.

Since they have our phone number, and Richard's mobile number, it should have been easy enough to phone us and find out our street address. But either Tim or I has been in all day, and Richard has his mobile with him, and we haven't heard from them.

Richard found me a phone number for UPS Larnaka. I phoned it - and there was no reply.

I looked on the UPS site again, and this time it said that although the parcel had its in-transit scan in Larnaka on Thursday, it was actually now in Nicosia.

Great.

So I found the Nicosia UPS number and rang that.

No answer.

They probably don't work weekends. But I fail to see why they couldn't have phoned us yesterday.

I tried to register at the UPS site, since it said I could find out more information that way. Unfortunately, Cyprus is not one of the countries on the drop-down list for registering. And when I tried telling the home page that my country was Cyprus, the registering option disappeared altogether.

So Tim's Christmas present is now in some depot in Nicosia. Knowing how well (not) things are handled in Cyprus, I've no idea whether they will even be working, assuming we eventually get them. Of course, they could be sent to Paphos by Monday..

I expect UPS is remarkably efficient in every other country of the world.

Sickness in Cyprus

I like a bit of alliteration. Hence the dramatic title. It's not really that bad.

In fact, mostly things are going well. The gas man came on Monday evening, and filled up our gas barrel. The central heating now works. It's still very cold - for Cyprus, anyway. I don't remember such a lengthy cold spell before, so we're pleased to have it working again. Apparently the gas man did call round about three weeks ago: he first phoned Richard's mobile, but it was switched off, for some reason. He then knocked on our door, but nobody was in. And he says he also left a slip of paper in our mailbox, but we never saw it.

So, getting no response, he assumed we must have gone to the UK for a while, and wouldn't be needing gas. Instead of which, as we had various people in the guest flat in December, we used more gas than usual. He did apologise, and said he should have checked the levels.

Also on Monday, Tim completed and submitted his UCAS form, applying for UK university places. He had quite a hard time logging onto the site, which had reached its maximum capacity. He succeeded eventually, much to his relief. On Tuesday, the actual final deadline, he tried to get on the site and found it jammed all day. Presumably thousands of people were also submitting their forms at the last minute, and probably panicking because they couldn't get there...

On Tuesday morning, Daniel flew out of Manila on the first stage of his route back to the UK prior to starting his furlough. He even managed to write about it on his blog, from Kuala Lumpur airport. He has been updating us with telegram-like texts ('ARRIVED KL STOP LUGGAGE 16KG STOP EXPECTED DEPARTURE TIME 1650'). This morning he was in Frankfurt, and shortly after lunch I had an even briefer, but very welcome text, saying 'ARVD BHAM SAFE TINY PLANE'.

He does write regular texts at other times, never using 'txtspk' but regular grammar and language, but always does the telegram style when travelling. Just in case anyone thought his capslock key was stuck.

From Birmingham International airport he is - we hope - catching trains to Shropshire, so he can spend a few days with his UK office, de-briefing and getting to know some of the staff. Then he's going to spend a few days with my mother, and a few days with Richard's mother, before flying to Cyprus in just under two weeks. He's hoping to get to see a few of our friends in Birmingham, so if anyone happens to read this who would like to see him in the next fortnight, and is suitably located, please do get in touch...

Meanwhile, Richard is also in transit. Yesterday afternoon he flew to Heathrow Airport, and was hoping to stay the night with his mother before flying out of Gatwick Airport this morning. Unfortunately there were serious floods and since he landed late anyway, it was going to prove almost impossible to get to his mother. So he went straight to Gatwick, and found somewhere to stay nearby. I don't know the details, I just heard the outline - also via text messages.

Strange, I was convinced I would never want a mobile phone. Then, after a couple of occasions early last year when it would have been useful, I bought one with some birthday money at the end of last April. I have still only used it about four times to make phone calls, but I do like being able to send and receive text messages, which are very inexpensive in Cyprus.

So... Tim and I are looking after the house and cats. And Tim is not well. He has been mentioning a sort of lump in his throat for the past week or so, making it hard to swallow. Naturally we looked up all kinds of horrendous possibilities on the Internet, as you do, but the most likely seemed either a nodule from too much singing and talking, or something stress related.

Yesterday morning, he woke up at 2am with lots of mucus in his throat, needing to cough, and cough, and cough.... and didn't get back to sleep again.

Also yesterday morning he was scheduled to teach a music lesson at the local English-speaking private school where he has been volunteering for the last few months. They don't have much in the way of music lessons normally, and the teacher Tim is working with currently had asked him if he would do some singing with her class. So despite feeling a bit fragile yesterday morning, he went in and taught a lesson. He seems to think it went well, and said the teacher was pleased.

However when by the time he had finished, his voice had almost gone. By the time he got home, he was feeling completely shattered, and as if he were catching the flu. He was also coughing a lot. He had some hot soup, and vitamin C, and hot orange juice, and slept for about three hours in the afternoon, with a hot water bottle.

Then the mobile phones came in useful once more... around 5pm I had a text from Tim, still in bed, asking if I could take him some pineapple juice and soluble paracetamol!

He got up in the evening, had something to eat, and we watched some 'Jeeves and Wooster' from his DVD collection. He went to bed at 9pm and slept for nearly 12 hours.

This morning he said that the strange lump in his throat had disappeared, but it was very sore. And he had a streaming cold.

So he had some juice and yet more vitamin C, and a hot bath, and went back to bed. All he wanted for lunch was a smoothie (I had kept some frozen soft fruit from the summer, so that was easy enough) and watched an hour of 'Fawlty Towers' - then went back to bed again.

There are a lot of bugs going around. We don't usually catch them - we seem to have fairly good immune systems in our household, on the whole. But I suppose with Tim going into school twice a week, it's not surprising that he's finally come down with something.

Update on our various stresses

Just in case anyone wondered about the five things I mentioned that were rather stressful a few days ago...

1. It's been a cold week. The guy we bought the house from called round this evening, after Richard texted him yesterday. As soon as Richard told him 'error code 2' on the boiler, he looked at the gas. Our barrel is apparently down to only 15% full, and that's not enough to power the heating. I had wondered if the gas was running low, but the cooker hobs are working fine, and we thought 15% was plenty. Apparently not.

Of course nobody works on Sundays, but first thing tomorrow Richard will phone the gas man and ask him to come and deliver some more.

2. The youth group leader came to supper yesterday, read the various information required for an UCAS form referee, and said she would do it. She'll email her reference to Tim tomorrow, so he should be able to submit his form after that... a whole day earlier than the deadline. Wow.

3. Daniel DOES have his tickets for this week! He will fly to the UK from the Philippines on Tuesday, then spend a few days at the UK office, and a few more with each of his grandmothers. He may try and visit some local friends while there. It works out really well, because it means he can fly back to Cyprus with Richard, who's going to the USA and coming back via the UK.

So... Daniel should be home in just over two weeks!! We're so excited. He has never seen this house, which we've now lived in for 18 months.

4. UK taxes. Hmm. We were going to do those this afternoon, but Richard worked on his boat instead. We were going to do them this evening, but he's watching another episode of 'West Wing' with Tim. Maybe tomorrow...

5. Still no sign of Jemima. But we've rather given up hope anyway. I'm being a lot more careful with the other three, ensuring they're all in at night, and we're hoping to get a cat flap fitted in one of our back doors.

Ikea in Cyprus, and bookshelves for DVDs

The new Ikea in Cyprus opened in the first week of September last year.

We didn't visit it then. Partly because we thought it would be jam-packed with visitors, and partly because we were getting ready for our visit to Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Also because although we would have loved an Ikea a year previously, when we moved house, we no longer have such an urgent need for furniture, light shades, and other bits and pieces that Ikea provides so inexpensively and (mostly) tastefully.

But when we returned from our seven weeks away, laden down with rather a lot of extra DVDs amongst other bits and pieces, we realised that we needed a new storage system for them. The bookcase we were using was bulging at the seams.

All right, not literally. But we had to pile DVDs in front of other DVDs and it was all looking very crowded.

So we looked in our Ikea catalogue. In our living room, we already had two bookcases bought from friends who left Cyprus around the time we moved. They had bought them from other friends, who bought them in an Ikea somewhere in mainland Europe.

We found similar bookcases in the catalogue, in the 'Billy' system. And a couple of weeks before Christmas, Richard and I decided to visit Ikea at last.

It only took us about forty minutes to drive there, as it's the Larnaka side of Nicosia. It's pretty big, and remarkably well organised.


There are arrows on the floor directing customers along the main paths, showrooms suggesting how their furniture and fittings could be used. Then there are individual sections with - for instance - storage units, or lighting. And wow, what a lighting display! We had enormous difficulty finding lightshades for the house... had Ikea been around 18 months ago, we'd have bought them all there. Ah well.

I suppose we walked about a kilometre in all, following the paths through the top storey. At the end is a restaurant (with excellent prices), then downstairs are the kitchen bits and pieces, more showrooms and displays, pillows and curtains, and random plants, candles, and so on.

The only problem - and it rather surprised us - is that everything is in Greek. Only Greek. The catalogues, the signs, the forms to fill in for collecting flat-pack units. Everything.

Cyprus is a Greek-speaking country, it's true. But almost every other shop has English as well as Greek in their displays. And given that Ikea is international, it would have been easy enough to give both languages - and useful, I would have thought, since the majority of the people we saw there were speaking English rather than Greek.

Anyway.

We found the Billy bookcase that we wanted, figured out (with help from an assistant) what colour would be best, although there wasn't one that matched exactly what we already had. So we filled in the form. Then we went through the rest of the shop, finding various bits and pieces - large washable bathmats, light fittings and long-life bulbs for our stairs:


.. and some candles that Richard liked the look of.

We got to the checkout, and found that the bookcase was out of stock. But we bought everything else, and were pleased with the price. They told us the bookcase would come in 'in the New Year'.

On January 5th, Richard phoned Ikea, gave the product number, and they said it was still out of stock. 'It will be in during January or February', they said.

Yesterday, he tried again. Much to his surprise, they said that yes - it was in stock! Amazing. Cyprus stores are not renowned for having items arrive that quickly, when they're supposed to.

So we went to Ikea again. It was indeed in stock. We decided to get a smaller bookcase as well to replace one that's rather falling apart. And various other bits and pieces.... as you do. We hoped we could find extra shelving for the bookcases, but the only ones they had available were glass.

We even had lunch there. And it was, indeed, very good value.

Got home. Struggle up the stairs with the large bookcase. Richard put it together, and we realised that we definitely needed more shelves. So he took the ones from the smaller bookcase (temporarily) to make the size we wanted:

There is now plenty of space for more DVDs, and it looks pretty good.

We also found a tall light for Daniel's bed, which is a cabin style (like a top bunk). Tim slept there over Christmas, when my mother stayed in his room, and commented that there was no bedside lamp. He also commented that there was nowhere to put his watch, phone, glasses, etc when he went to sleep - so we decided to buy one of those TV remote holders:



As for the bookcase that used to hold our DVDs, it's a very nice one that originally belonged to my grandparents. It's moved into my study, replacing a boring shelving unit that I had there before. And somehow it's already got filled:


We puzzled what to do with the new DVD bookcase, however. At some point we want to put up the smaller bookcase we bought, but its shelves are now all used in the DVD case.

I hunted online to see if I could find a source for spare shelves. It seems silly to sell bookcases where the shelves can be moved, but without spares. Sure enough, I found several discussions on this very topic - Ikea Billy bookcases used as DVD cases! Some countries do provide extra shelves, apparently - but that's not much help to us.

However, another person said they bought glass shelving, which was fine for the DVDs, and we were impressed. This is what it would look like with glass shelves

So I suppose we need to go to Ikea another time, before too long...

All rather stressed at present!

Life in Cyprus isn't all palm trees and beaches. Living here is mostly fairly relaxed, compared to some other places in the world, but it's not without its stresses.

1. Since the start of the new year, the weather has become cold. Very cold at night. Last night Tim got out another blanket, and I had a hot water bottle. That would be fine if our central heating was working, but it isn't. It's been getting worse and worse for the past week. A week ago we had to reset it about once a day. Yesterday we had to reset it about once every half hour. Resetting it means going outside, downstairs to the ground floor, and into the boiler room. Which is cold. Even colder than the house without central heating.

We have various instructions about the boiler left by the people who sold us the house, but they're mostly in German or French, and have got damp so are not very readable. We don't know anyone who knows anything about central heating, other than the guy who sold us the house... so Richard will text him tonight. Probably. And find out if he or a colleague can help. In the meantime, we're wearing a lot of clothes, running an electric heater, and - when it gets really cold - running down and resetting the system.

2. Tim is applying to university in the UK, and has to get his UCAS form in by Tuesday. He started this a couple of months ago - it's all done online, and stores the information as he goes along - but we're not good at time management in our family and he's particularly expert at leaving things to the last moment. He has been wondering who to use as a reference, and thought of his Vicar, since he's been the church organist for the past couple of years. He asked him this week, and in principle he agreed.

Today I took a look at the requirements. I thought they would just need the name and address of a reference, for character purposes. But no. They need an actual reference typed or pasted into the online form. And it's not just a simple acknowledgement that the candidate is a good guy who can probably do the courses he's applying for. They require information about character, motivation, ambitions, attitude, and commitment, plus details of interests, hobbies, outside activities...

Usually it would be a school teacher, but that's no good for the home educated. He's only known his current piano teacher for a little over a year, and they don't talk about much other than music. He helps in a local primary school, but only since last October, so that's no good. We wondered if I could do it, since I was home educating - but after writing to three or four people who know more about these things, the consensus is that parents can't do references on UCAS forms.

So he's going to ask the youth group leader, who he knows quite well (and ask her for a meal, if she'll do it, so she can type it in this weekend!) or else let the vicar know it's not just a theoretical agreement for something in the future, but necessary immediately.

Tim has no idea if he'll be accepted at any of the five courses he's applying to. He has several other ideas (plans B to J, as far as I recall) in case none of them accept him. He's fairly relaxed about believing that if God wants him to do one of these courses, then he'll get a place - and if not, he'll do something different. He hadn't realised until now that if he'd completed the form in, say, November he would have heard whether he'd got places or not by the end of last year. Ah well.

3. Daniel is due to come home on furlough after two years on the MV Doulos. He should have been coming in about mid-February. In February, the Doulos will be in Papua New Guinea, and it appears to be an extortionately expensive place to fly to and from. The Doulos pays for his flight to the UK (where he will go at first, to de-brief, and perhaps see one or two of the extended family) so when they realised the high costs of flights from PNG, they suggested that all those due to leave then (ie everyone who joined with Daniel) should either extend for a couple of months, or leave from the Philippines in mid-January.

It worked out well for Daniel to leave in January. But then they couldn't find any flights. Or else they found them, but couldn't book them as he would be required to show the credit card used for the bookings. So, last weekend he emailed that he would probably go with the ship to PNG and leave from there after all, which would cost about three times as much as flights from the Philippines.

Today I had another email from him, saying it looks as if a flight has been found after all, so the AV department has to change its schedule, and he has to pack... and he would let me know when he knew for sure. But he hasn't, so we still don't know.

When he has confirmation either way, we will have to book him a flight to Cyprus, and a coach from whatever airport he flies into (to the office in the UK), and hope that he gets the e-ticket in time. And that he doesn't need to show the credit card used for the booking...

4. I said we weren't good at time management. Every year we decide we're going to fill in our UK tax returns as soon as we get the notification (around May). Every year, we remember about it a few weeks before the deadline (January 31st). We still haven't done it. Richard will be travelling to the USA next week, and I'd really like to have it done before then, particularly if Daniel's going to be here in a fortnight. I'm just not quite sure when we'll have a free evening...

5. Jemima never did return.

Ah well. Compared to many, our stresses are minimal. I am very thankful for what we have, and that UCAS forms and tax returns can be done fully online these days. I'm also thrilled at the thought that we should be seeing Daniel soon - if not two weeks, at least within the next six weeks. He hasn't ever seen this house.

Life back to normal in Cyprus... if 'normal' exists here.

This week, the schools started, the shops are open, and everything that closed over the Christmas/New Year period seems to have started up again.

It's also very cold. Down to about 4C overnight, and no more than 15-16C during the daytime.

Which means it isn't a good time for our central heating to be acting up. We're not entirely sure what the problem is, but although it comes on in the evening without problem, it fails to do so first thing in the morning. There's a 'reset' button on the boiler, and Richard's shown me how and where to press to make it come on again since I'm the first one to get up. It's a bit of a nuisance having to go downstairs (outside) and press a button every morning at 6.30am. Still, much better than not having heating at all, which was the situation in our old house!

'Back to normal' means that Richard goes to work some time between 9 and 10am each morning, coming back for an hour or so at lunch-time, and then returning in the evening about 7pm.

Except that he flew to Jordan on Monday night, for several lengthy meetings yesterday, and returned this morning. About three hours later than he expected, but at least he's home. So that's not quite normal...

On Mondays, after I've done various bits of housework, made fresh juice and put on bread, I go to the PO Box to see what mail is awaiting us. This week there were another four or five Christmas cards which didn't make it in time to go up on display. That isn't normal, at least I hope not.

Then I went to the Larnaka Christian Writers' group, which started last spring (and meets monthly), and we had a very good meeting. Then home to try and catch up on our accounts on the computer... and that was definitely not 'as usual' since I had to close down our various Cyprus pounds accounts, and transfer the money in them to euros. Richard had shown me how with a couple of our accounts, so I did it with the rest. I suppose we'll get used to euros eventually but they still feel a bit like Monopoly money.

Tim had his first piano lesson of the year on Monday. Usually he has this at the Municipal music school, as it's fairly convenient. But that was closed, since Epiphany was on a Sunday, and it should be a public holiday. So he had to walk to his piano teacher's house, which is rather further away. Not quite back to normal there, either.

On Tuesday mornings I help at the local Mother and Toddlers' group which meets at one of the churches. That too was rather different from usual, since the lady who usually runs it is in the UK for a couple of weeks, and two of the other regular volunteers weren't there either. One of the mothers was doing the organisation, and someone who usually only volunteers on Thursdays was helping out. There weren't a huge number of children there, and it all seemed very peaceful and quiet. Definitely not normal!

Tim helps out at one of the local English-speaking private schools on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he was up early (schools start around 7.40am here ) - all went well until he was half-way home when he tripped and fell, twisting his knee somewhat. It seems all right today, thankfully, but he had to limp the rest of the way home, and didn't go out to the student group in the evening, where he usually plays guitar.

So much for 'back to normal'...

Eleventh Day of Christmas...

.. but we decided to take down the tree and other decorations anyway. They'd been up three weeks, after all, and I thought it was about time.

I'm pleased to say it took us all of forty minutes. Tim, being the tallest, took down all the Christmas cards. I collected up all the candles and tinsel and so on (having already washed and even ironed the two Christmas tablecloths) and un-decorated the tree. Then Richard did the very difficult job of putting the lights back in their box, while I took the tree apart. Then he piled all the boxes in a high cupboard in the study.

I thought it would take at least an hour.

We do still have the magnificent poinsettia we were given a few weeks before Christmas, but I shall just consider that as a house plant from now on. I know from last year's experience that it will probably live all year, this being Cyprus.

Tomorrow is Twelfth Night, and the Feast of the Epiphany, if anyone's interested. It doesn't often fall on a Sunday.

Cyprus has switched to the euro

So, after three days (more-or-less) of public holiday this week, shops got back to normal yesterday. We had managed to run down our supply of Cyprus pounds cash, other than about £5 in cash, which Tim decided to take charge of. On Wednesday he bought a roll at Zorpas (a bakery, which is open almost every day of the year) and said that their tills now work only in euros. They had a large pot of Cyprus money and told him an approximate amount, then just threw the cash in.

That's one way of dealing with it!

This morning we made our usual weekly trip to Metro supermarket to buy groceries. We wondered what changes would have been made... would they have switched around all the price tags on the shelves? Would there be a whole new set of special offers on the windows, all in euros...?

No.

It looked exactly as it did a week ago. The Cyprus pound labels were still bigger than the euro labels, and the notices on the doors advertising special offers were still in Cyprus pounds.

Labelling at the meat and fruit/veg places (where produce is weighed and priced) gave the price in euros, but bizarrely prefixed by a £ (pound) symbol. And the date stamp was way off - as it had been a few weeks previously - telling us that the food was packaged in the year 2049.

At the till, one of the girls was putting Cyprus pounds in a bag, and shouting at one of the other girls - complaining, I think, about having to deal with two currencies. All in Greek so I could only catch a few words, but she didn't seem very happy about it. Probably because even though people can pay in Cyprus pounds, they are now obliged to give change in euros.

I always pay with my debit card so that was simple enough - I just handed it over, signed for the amount in euros, and all was OK. Somehow I had expected the change to be more obvious.

Tonight, as there was no youth group and no house group, we decided to treat ourselves to our favourite take-away, Souvlaki Express. Richard and Tim went out to buy it. They were told how much to pay in euros, and handed over some euro cash... then received a till receipt in Cyprus pounds.

There are supposed to be inspectors ensuring that all shops are dealing with euros and the conversion correctly. I think that will be a more than full-time job (and probably a losing battle) for the next month.

We're quite used to using different currencies when we travel - Richard visits Middle Eastern countries, and we've lived in the UK and USA, and travelled around mainland Europe before they switched to the euro. In 2006 we visited Singapore, and last year were in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

And yet, it feels rather strange to be using a different currency, which we aren't yet familiar with. Or, at least, we don't have a 'feel' for how much euros will buy. I think it's because we usually have to travel to change currency. It's not often that one changes within one's own country.

Tim pointed out that Richard and I both lived through the change from pounds, shillings and pence in the UK to the decimal system of pounds and pence in 1971, but somehow that wasn't so disturbing. Partly because we were children, but partly because a pound was still a pound, even though the pence altered in value.

LOUD music in Larnaka!

We heard from some friends that Anna Vissi a fairly well-known singer (although we had never heard of her before) who was born in Cyprus, was due to give a concert at the Larnaka sea-front last night.

We weren't interested in going - it was cold, and I'm not keen on pop-concerts anyway, so we forgot all about it.

Until about 9pm, when we heard the sound of fireworks. We weren't entirely sure why - there were plenty on New Year's Eve at midnight. But they didn't last long, so we shrugged and assumed it was a party somewhere.

By around 9.30, we had become aware of music playing. With a beat. We thought at first that it was a neighbour listening to television, or perhaps playing the radio loudly. By 10.00 it was getting louder. And that was in our house with double-glazed windows. When we opened a door, it was really very loud. Much louder than any of our neighbours would play music.

Then we remembered the concert. It was evidently that. We could make out a female voice singing, and - at times - talking in between songs.

It continued to get louder. I did manage to get to sleep by about 10.30 but Tim couldn't sleep. The really scary thing is that we are at least 2km away from the place where the concert was staged. We have never before heard any sea-front concerts from our house, but this wasn't just a faint noise if we listened hard, it was quite intrusive.

I dread to think what it must have been like for those crowding down to hear it. They were probably unable to hear anything at all today.

Which probably doesn't matter, since today was apparently yet another public holiday. Monday was a day off in Cyprus, so that shops could organise their stock in preparation for the introduction of euros. Yesterday was a public holiday for New Year's Day. And today was another holiday, to mark the introduction of the euro to Cyprus. I gather it was a public holiday in Malta, too.

Happy New Year, from sunny (but chilly) Cyprus

We don't usually do anything for New Year's Eve - I don't think I've stayed up till midnight at New Year since the beginning of 2000. A new century and millennium, after all, is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Even if the new millennium did 'really' start a year later. But we were all hyped up for the number changeover, and I managed to keep awake, if only to be reassured that our electricity and water kept working without problem.

But, since then, not being a night owl, I tend to go to bed around 10.30 whatever day it is. Last night was no exception. Tim had invited some of his youth group friends over - they were going to play games in the guest flat. He had no idea who might come; several of them had said that they had nothing to do, but only two had actually responded. In the event, only one of them came - a friend we know quite well. So he and Tim sat downstairs and chatted awhile, then came upstairs and we had some Christmas cake and talked some more. Then I went to bed, and they all stayed up till past midnight.

There were fireworks at the sea-front at midnight, ensuring the old year goes out with a bang. Tim and his friend had considered going downtown to buy something at one of the fast-food places, just to see if they would be given change in euros past midnight - but decided that it was too cold, and they were too tired. So they didn't.

Today has been distinctly chilly, though mostly sunny. For the first time this season we put the central heating on at lunch-time, as we were all sitting there in sweatshirts and fleeces, and still feeling cold.

So, 2008. Euros are now the currency of Cyprus. Happy New Year to anyone who passes by...