Building work in Larnaka Town

I'm not sure exactly when the building work started, in Larnaka Town Centre. Well, not exactly the centre of the town, but the focal point: near St Lazarus Church and the fort. I walk down there most Mondays, to collect mail from our PO Box; it's about a mile away from where we live. So you would think I would have noticed when the major road-digging began.

However, there are a lot of roadworks in Cyprus. Drains are being installed, slowly, as per EU regulations. Cables frequently get laid down. And roads need re-surfacing pretty often, probably due to the long, dry summers. So we barely notice when a stretch of road is cordoned off, and there are obvious road works going on.

But I do remember that this major work started at least six months ago. According to a friend, a pedestrianised area is being built, so that people can sit outside and drink coffee, with St Lazarus Church in view. It's apparently been planned for about fifteen years, but kept being blocked for various reasons. And even when it started, it didn't seem to be progressing terribly fast. For several months there were diggers and a large hole, and then we saw new drainpipes appearing.

Last night, we went out for a meal with some friends. We parked near the Post Office, and then walked the last 100 metres or so to the sea front. The non-accessible area had changed, and most of the large holes appeared to have been filled in. Instead, we saw this:


- those piles of bricks are, we assume, for more pedestrian surfaces. They've already done some:

.. although we can't yet walk on this area.

There are also big changes at the seafront itself. Some of the restaurants near the fort had put up extra buildings along the beach itself, which had operated for many years. But apparently they were illegal, and have now been pulled down. We're not entirely sure what's going to go in their places, but the seafront road is being re-surfaced, and the restaurants on the other side of the road now have a much better view of the sea.

Too hot in Cyprus

So much for Summer gradually coming to an end.

Yesterday, although not as sticky as last week, the shade temperature in Larnaka was reported as 35C. It felt considerably hotter. For the first time this year, we used the air conditioning in the dining room in the evening when we ate. And then I left the study air conditioner on even after I had turned my computer off, and was reading. In the last couple of weeks I had been opening the doors and windows during the evening, which gave a pleasant breeze, even if a little sticky. Yesterday it was hotter outside than inside, even by 9pm.

Today is no better. Apparently it's 35C in the shade again, and - according to the weather site - it 'feels like 41C'. I don't know how they calculate that. It's not even particularly humid. But it definitely feels considerably hotter than my comfort zone.

When Richard got up, he said, 'There's something you need to do today.'

'What?' I asked. The accounts, perhaps? Buy something locally which we'd run out of? Clean up a hairball?

'You need to remember to use the air conditioning in any room you're in!' he said.

He was right. On Thursdays I make the beds with clean sheets - well, only one bed now, with neither of the boys at home - and clean the whole upstairs. I don't think I could have done it at all without the air conditioner on in our bedroom.

We even used the dining room aircon at lunchtime. And then the living room a/c after lunch while we drank our frappés and chatted.

As for the cats... they're flaking out all over the house. Tessie is particularly inelegant at times:

Humidity, heat and flaked-out cats

The first week we were back in Cyprus, it was hot - of course - but not humid.

Wonderful, I thought. July is usually the worst, and I managed to be out of Cyprus for July. Perhaps the humidity had gone for the season.

Silly thing to think, of course. Last week, the humidity came back with a vengeance. Even at 6.30am the air felt damp. If I went out anywhere, I was dripping by the time I'd been out for about two minutes. When I took a shower, I felt refreshed at first... but it was hard to know whether the towel had any effect at all in getting dry.

I don't know why high humidity is so exhausting, but it is. Everything takes about three times as long to do, and I just want to flake out as much as possible. Thank goodness for air conditioning; however, we don't want to be extravagant, so generally I just run it during the daytime in my study when the computer is on (since computers don't do well in temperatures of 30C or higher) and in our bedroom for about two hours as we're going to sleep. We run it at 28C, which feels pleasantly cool compared to the outside and, most importantly, removes the humidity from the room.

As for the cats, I feel sorry for them in their fur coats. Sophia usually follows me around wherever I go, so if I'm in a cooler room, so is she. Cleo usually stays upstairs, delighted when anyone flops on the bed, since she comes to sit on top of us. And Tessie, whose coat is the longest, lies in remarkably ungraceful positions, usually on the tiled floors.

Here's Cleo, trying to get comfortable on one of the chairs - she's in the living room, for a change, but never did learn how to sit elegantly:



Yesterday and Saturday were probably the stickiest days so far. Then, last night, it felt as if a storm was brewing. There were strong winds, dust blowing about, apparently even some lightning.

No rain, of course. It would be most unusual to have rain in August. But, thankfully, the humidity does seem to have dropped. At 7am this morning the weather outside felt much more refreshing than recently, and when I walked to the PO Box and back to check mail, about a mile in each direction, I only felt slightly sticky.

I suppose it's too much to hope that there won't be any more unpleasantly humid days this summer, but today does feel much pleasanter than recently. I am thankful.

Update on plants during summer

After six weeks in the UK, I was a bit concerned about the plants on our front porch. Richard said he had kept them watered when he remembered, and that one set of visitors in the guest flat had done some watering. But then some more visitors came, who forgot about watering the plants... and Richard didn't notice until his last day in Cyprus before joining us in the UK, when he was showing our cat-sitter how the hose works.

So he gave them plenty of water, and hoped that she would remember. With the temperature being over 30C every day, and sunshine for fourteen hours, most of them simply wouldn't have survived without water at least two or three times per week.

However, they all seem to be fine. This one, whose name we never did discover, has one or two yellowing leaves, but otherwise looks healthy:


This one, which did very badly at our other house - and which we nearly didn't bring with us when we moved two years ago - is thriving in this position:


The geraniums look rather sad, although I think they're still alive:


The bi-coloured bougainvillea, which thrives on minimal water, seems to be perking up after looking rather bare during the spring:


The orange tree, I'm happy to report, has an orange (yes, just one, but then we've only had the tree for two years) which should change colour in a few months. There were a lot more little ones earlier in the year, but most of them fell off. However, this one looks like a survivor:


And then there's the fig tree. Last year, there were three or four figs at this time of year, but they all shrivelled up and fell off. This year, there are more:


They're green and quite hard still, so I assume they're not ripe. And yet, this is the season for figs. I've seen them in the froutaria, and I've heard a man driving around selling them (it took us a while to realise that the doleful cry of what sounds like 'SEEKAH...' is actually the Greek for figs (συκα) .)

Does anyone know how we can tell when they're ready?

Assumption Day in Cyprus, and a new bookcase

Last Friday, August 15th, was a public holiday in Cyprus. It was the Feast of the Assumption, an important holy day in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Since schools are still on their summer break, and many shops and businesses are closed for a couple of weeks during August anyway, I hadn't realised quite what a major holiday it was. However, this year it fell on a Friday, and we usually do our supermarket shopping on a Friday. Earlier in the week I'd noticed on some advertising mail from Orphanides that they were open on Friday 15th August, so I made the assumption (ha!) that they all would be.

How very silly of me.

We drove to Metro. The car park was full, which was reassuring.

Unfortunately, the supermarket was closed, with a note on the door saying that it would be shut all day. The cars evidently belonged to members of the Roman Catholic Church, which is right across the street from Metro. Apparently it was an important holy day for them too, since they were streaming out of the church and into the car park.

Ah well, we thought. Surely Carrefour would be open. So we drove there.

It wasn't.

Never mind, I remembered the junk mail from Orphanides. I don't much like it as a supermarket, but it sold the things we needed. So we drove there.

It, too, was shut.

When we got back home, I found the junk mail concerned. Sure enough, it said the stores would be open. What I hadn't noticed (since it was all in Greek, anyway) was that underneath was a listing of several of the stores - in Paphos, Limassol and Nicosia. Presumably they were the ones which were open - but not the one in Larnaka.

Oh well. It wouldn't have been a major problem (since we can get milk and bread from the bakeries, which are open every day other than Christmas and Greek Easter) except that we had guests coming for a meal that evening. But I adjusted what I had planned to cook, and everything was fine, if a little annoying.

Richard had decided to take the day off, anyway. He thought he might clean some of our air conditioners, which hadn't been cleaned for a couple of years. We had found some of the special anti-bacterial spray at Kleima a few days previously.

So he went to look for the step-ladders in the shower.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Our front door goes directly into our living room, so there's no useful hallway to dump things, and nowhere to put a bureau or cupboard for that purpose. However, near the front door is my study, which was built as a guest room. And it has a shower in it. Not very big, with no natural light, so it would be horribly claustrophobic to use. But it's extremely useful as an extra cupboard for storing things.

Mostly it is full of Richard's sailing things. And some step-ladders. And a few other random things which we haven't found homes for.

So, when he went to look for the ladders, he was nearly knocked over by a large box falling out. Inside the box was a bookcase we bought from Ikea some months ago. We want some new bookcases in the dining room, where our old rattan ones are (a) too small and (b) being rather destroyed by the cats. But although we measured, we weren't exactly sure that this particular unit would look right. So we just bought one.

Then when we got it home, we realised that although the size might be fine, the colour was too dark. But we thought we'd find a place for it somewhere... and that place, for six months or so, has been the shower. And a very annoying place it is, too.

So I suggested we put it together. And perhaps use it as our recipe bookcase, since our current one is also rattan, and subject to the same problems as our other rattan bookcases. Only more so.

So we (well, mainly Richard, with me holding a few bits here and there) put the bookcase together. Ikea "Billy" bookcases seem very well constructed for relatively inexpensive chipboard items. Pretty heavy, too.

We weren't entirely sure it would look right replacing our ancient rattan recipe bookcase, but when we'd put it there, we decided it was MUCH better. We only wish we'd thought of it sooner.
The only problem was that three stuffed shelves of the rattan bookcase - and a few extra books that wouldn't fit - take up less than two shelves of the Ikea bookcase. So Richard moved the Encyclopedia Brittanica, which we're looking after for some friends, thus creating more space in two other bookcases elsewhere in the house.


Oh, and Richard did eventually get to cleaning four of our air conditioning units with the anti-bacterial spray. One of them was particularly gungy, so it was probably well worth doing, even though there was a rather artificial flowery smell emanating from them for a day or two afterwards. At some point he'll do the other three in the main part of the house, and the two in our guest flat.

Visiting the Salt Lake in a busy week in Cyprus

So, another week has flown past. We're getting used to our 'empty nest', although it still seems strange at times. It's good to 'see' Tim fairly often both on Instant Messenger and Facebook, and I seem to be coping fine - except when someone asks me how I'm coping!

I caught up with two months of accounting earlier in the week, and today I finally caught up with the last of my book reviews, including two books I finished yesterday and today.

On Wednesday we had ten people for lunch - colleagues and families who are currently on-island - and I was very relieved to have the dishwasher, meaning that within twenty minutes of everyone leaving, the house was clean and the dishes being washed.

On Friday we had some friends over for a meal in the evening, and played a couple of games of Scrabble, which was very enjoyable.

Oh, and I've been enjoying playing Scrabulous and other word games on Facebook, with Tim and others. If anyone wants to challenge me, just go ahead...!

On Thursday evening Richard and I decided to go out for a walk to the empty Salt Lake. He had taken some colleagues to the airport that morning, and was surprised to see that the salty surface looked reddish brown, rather than the usual white (or, at least, greyish white).

The Salt Lake Park is less than ten minutes walk from our house. We noticed that some of the trees had been cut down, making it feel much more open than previously. We also noticed how very brown it all looks after so long without rain:


The main path just goes around the park; we have to follow a dirt track to get to the newer path, which goes around the Salt Lake itself:


When we got closer, it did indeed look a bit red, but then the sun was starting to set so it was probably at least partly reflection. Oddly, it looks as if there's water in the lake - but of course it's as dry as anything. It's been dry since about early May this year, after one of the dryest Springs on record:


If you click the next photo, you can just see the 'misty mountains' in the distance...

Four days back in Cyprus already

It's Summer, which is my official estivation time, so I'm not doing anything very energetic. I do have several things I should really catch up on - the accounts for the past couple of months, for instance, or a huge pile of books which I read while in the UK, that need to be entered into the various places I list books, and reviewed on my book blog.



I did write (with pen and paper!) reviews of all the books I read while away, and kept a note of all the money I spent... but somehow it's hard to get motivated to do these things, even though I'm in my air-conditioned study, and they're all computer related.

The weather is hot, of course... around 32C in the shade. But to my surprise (and great relief) it's not very humid. A little sticky, but if I go outside, or am in a room where the aircon isn't switched on, I don't feel drenched. This is a great bonus, and I am thankful!

I did do a fairly major clean of the house on Thursday, and have done three loads of laundry since coming back to Cyprus. Yesterday evening Richard and I swept and mopped the outside stairs and the patio at the front, both of which were looking rather grubby. We used a mop and bucket, of course, although some of our neighbours told us we should really use a hose... when Richard said that there's a hosepipe ban, and that it would waste water, they just shrugged and said (with truth) that everyone else uses them!

Today, Richard has gone sailing - as he usually does on a Saturday - and I've had time to myself. I have finally succumbed to the lure of Facebook - prompted in part by Tim saying he would play Scrabble with me online if I did. I'm still not entirely sure what the point of a social networking site is, other than to network socially... and to waste inordinate amounts of time playing word games!

However, if anyone reading this (a) has a Facebook account and (b) knows me well enough to know what my surname is [so you can find me there!], then please feel free to add me as a friend if you would like to.

A few photos from my six weeks out of Cyprus

I've finally uploaded all my photos from the camera to my computer in Cyprus. Of course, most are of relatives and friends - I shall get prints of those, and obviously won't post them publicly here. But I did take a few of places, and Daniel and Tim... so if anyone's interested, scroll down. As with any photos on this blog, you can click any of them to see a larger version if you want to.

As mentioned below in another post, we visited Christ Church, Selly Park several times. This is where Tim has decided to attend for the next few years: it's one of our supporting churches, and we all belonged there for a few years before coming to Cyprus. There were plans afoot to knock down the old, dilapidated building even before we moved here (nearly eleven years ago) and it's taken this long for the new building, finally, to be put in place.

In October last year, we happened to be in Birmingham when the Bishop laid the foundation stone, and saw the beginnings of the place amidst scaffolding. Now, just a couple of months after the new Christ Church was opened, we were able to see it:


We were very impressed. It's spacious, and adaptable with plenty of rooms, but not in any way pretentious. The kitchens and loos look excellent, yet the whole place still has the right feel about it - it's the old 'church centre' (as it used to be called) as it should be!

Tim has already played the piano there for a couple of services, and guitar for a couple more; he's organising the music for the holiday club later in the month, and hopes to help with some of the younger youth. So much for his idea of not getting involved until after his course started!

Tim set my mother up with broadband wireless internet access, and then tried to enable his mac to work with it. He's had a known problem with his notebook for eighteen months now - the built-in wireless connection simply stopped working. He was able to order a replacement from the USA, fairly inexpensively, and spent an hour or two taking his mac to pieces and installing it:


Unfortunately, it didn't work for more than about five minutes at a time.

So in the end he bought a wireless stick, even more inexpensively, from Argos - he didn't want something extra to carry around, but it works faultlessly.

The first weekend we were in Birmingham, Daniel came to visit us. The second weekend, I went up to Carlisle to see him. It's very strange that, while train travel is very expensive if you book on the day, it's extremely good value if you go into the station (or online) and book in advance.

I enjoyed seeing the scenery and even some of the stations on the three-hour journey. This one seemed like something out of Victorian times:


It was wonderful to see where Daniel was living during his two months training in audio-visual work in Carlisle. He was in a small house, shared with two other guys who were away at the time I visited. Shortly after he arrived, he wrestled with his conscience before buying a very inexpensive espresso and latte making machine - so of course he showed me how it worked:


And made me a very nice latte with chocolate sprinkles on the top. Or is that a cappuccino? I never really know the difference, not being much of a coffee connoisseur. Anyway, it was very good:


We had a pleasant, peaceful weekend doing a lot of walking, exploring an excellent second-hand bookshop, and reading. Here's the river in a park he took me to:


and a photo of Daniel that I was pleased with:


Here's Carlisle Castle. We didn't go in - neither of us is particularly interested in history, and one had to pay to go in. But it looked quite nice from outside:


After I was back in Birmingham, Tim's new digital piano arrived. He had considered shipping his large keyboard from Cyprus, but it would have cost almost as much as buying a new one in the UK. He was given some money by his church before he left, and had some Christmas money left from last year, so we spent a morning checking out the options, and getting to know the Birmingham buses a bit better too. 

Tim eventually chose a Casio keyboard with legs (I'm not entirely sure what is the difference between a keyboard and a digital piano) - it's fully weighted, touch sensitive, sounds good, and fits nicely in the corner of his attic bedroom:


Shortly before Richard arrived, I was able to visit a friend who I mainly know via an email list, and someone else I had not previously met. We had a very good day, which culminated in my introduction to Malteser cake, which is delicious:



After Richard arrived, we had a busy week in which we visited about ten different sets of friends - all of whom invited us for a meal, sometimes the whole day. It was great to catch up with the last year or two, and eat good food. But it was also nice, occasionally, to take a little time out - such as when we went for a short walk around Cannon Hill Park:


Then, after our busy week, I was able to meet three of my closest schoolfriends, one of whom I hadn't seen for about twenty-seven years! We met in the city centre, and saw how much Birmingham has changed since we were all at school there. We had lunch by one of the canals, then went for a walk and even a short canal trip. Not everyone is aware that Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice - although over a rather larger area. Here's part of where we walked:


After that, we went to Cardiff for a couple of days to visit my sister, then down to Sussex to stay with Richard's mother before Richard and I returned to Cyprus earlier this week, leaving Tim behind to start his studies in September.

Back in Cyprus after six weeks away, and bag-snatchers in Larnaka

It's been a busy few weeks. Richard joined Tim and me in Birmingham on 18th July, and we then had a hectic round of visiting various friends and family. This involved eating good food, catching up on the past year or two, and seeing how other children grow up just as much as ours do...

We said goodbye to Tim yesterday evening, around 5pm UK time, which left me very teary. I don't like this 'empty nest' thing at all, and it's probably worse when the grown-up children aren't even in the same country.

Anyway, Richard and I had a straightforward drive to Heathrow, an easy return of the car, and a three-hour wait at the airport after we'd checked in. Still, we were able to buy some sandwiches and drinks and browse several shops, and there were plenty of places to sit. If one has to spend significant time at an airport, Heathrow isn't a bad one to choose.

The flight was fairly smooth and uneventful, and I managed to doze most of the time. We were back in Cyprus by 5am local time, when I was relieved to find that it was 'only' 25C and not at all humid. Two of Richard's Egyptian colleagues insisted on meeting us, which was nice, so we were home by 6am. The cats came to greet us, evidently in good health.

We went upstairs and fell asleep almost immediately, waking around 10.30, feeling at least slightly less tired.

All of which was fine. I didn't feel nearly as bad as I usually do after a night-flight.

Unfortunately, our cat-sitter had a horrible experience on Monday. She went out to do a little shopping, and was on her way home when a car whizzed up to her, someone leaned out and grabbed her shopping bag, and then zoomed away and around the corner.

She was in a state of shock, not surprisingly, but a kind Cypriot lady came to help her, and sat her down, and called the police. She had to go to the police station to make a statement, and while she was there someone else came in and - although she doesn't speak Greek very well, it seemed that he was saying that something similar happened to him.

The police brought her back again, and another neighbour looked after her when she got back, until some friends came to take her away for a few hours.

We will be much more careful than we have been with bags, when out walking in future. The police seem to think some kind of gang may be operating: apparently this kind of thing is fairly common in some other European countries, but as far as we know hasn't happened in Cyprus until now. Ten years ago when we were newly arrived, it was very safe - hardly anybody locked their cars, or even their front doors when they went out. Alas, it seems that things are changing.

Tomorrow I hope to post a few photos from our time in the UK, if I can find anything of general interest.