Doing the Larnaka Walk

Today, a friend and I did the Larnaka Walk.

No, it's not a Cyprus version of Monty Python, or even a slow barn dance. It's a guided tour around part of Larnaka town, offered every Wednesday at 10am, free, by the Cyprus Tourist Organisation.

I did this with one of our guests some years ago, but apparently it's a bit different every time, depending on the guide. I know Larnaka fairly well now, of course, after eleven years, but I thought it would be interesting to do again.

The tour starts at the CTO office, where we had an introduction, then we walked a few metres to Europe square, where the fountain was playing:


Then we saw the various old buildings which now house museums and art galleries:


We were given a lengthy explanation about the Cyprus problem, then walked a little way along the Finikoudes sea-front to see the statue of General Kimoni, who died at the beginning of an important battle, but his troops didn't know, so went ahead and won:


We walked past the stage where the concerts and dancing take place during the Kataklysmos Fair in May or June:


Then we walked down one of the side-streets, and saw an old-style house with a covered balcony:


I didn't take any more photos after that. We walked to the market area, and into a candle-maker's shop area, then past some of the chair-makers and other local craftsmen.

I knew it was all there; I knew most of the history we heard... but it was still an interesting morning.

I was surprisingly tired this afternoon. It was a twenty minute walk to the town, and another twenty home... I think it was the two hours of the tour that were really tiring, though, as we walked fairly slowly and there was quite a bit of standing still listening, which somehow is much more exhausting than brisk walking.

The CTO also do a tour around the potteries in the Skala area, on Friday mornings, but I don't think I'll be doing that one again. Not for a while, anyway.

Ochi Day in Cyprus, and the first sweatshirt of the season

I just went and found a light sweatshirt to wear over my tee shirt.

Well, you might think, it's nearly November. The UK is having pretty cold temperatures at present, and in parts of the USA it's been freezing for some time.

But this is Cyprus, and the weather doesn't usually start to get chilly until the end of the first week of November.

Stranger still is that I must have acclimatised significantly, since the thermometer in the kitchen is showing 21C, which really isn't cold. That's about 70F, for anyone who still thinks in old currency.

However, I was beginning to feel very chilly. I was fine earlier: the sun was out, and it was apparently 22C. But that's the shade temperature, and it always feels warmer. But now the skies are grey, and we just had a brief rain shower.

Today is Ochi Day, which, translated, is 'No Day'. It's the anniversary of the day when the Greek leader of the time said 'No' to an ultimatum given by Mussolini. It's really a Greek celebration, but Cyprus loves public holidays so it's day off here too. Banks and businesses are closed, and many of the shops.

There was no toddler group this morning, and Richard went sailing, so it's felt like a Saturday to me. And, I think, to Sophia who is walking to and fro across the keyboard mewing as I type.

I did wander out, at around 10.15, to see if the parades had started. I thought I might even take a photo. But there was no sign. Not even people gathering. So I came home again - at least I had a pleasant twenty-minute walk in the warmth. I just hope the parades finished before the rain started.

Chaos at the Fanoroumani/Airport Road crossing in Larnaka

It was shortly after 8am when I set off to walk to the Post Office this morning. When I got to the crossing by Fanoroumani Church, which was pretty busy at that time of the morning, I couldn't - for a moment - work out how on earth I was going to cross.

Why?

The traffic lights were not working.

I suppose the problem is the road works, which are springing up all over Larnaka, as drainage pipes are installed. Perhaps a cable had been cut. Or maybe the power was switched off deliberately, although it's hard to imagine that anyone would do so at such a busy time of day.

There were two uniformed men looking as if they were doing something with a box, which perhaps controls the traffic lights. Or at least the power to the lights. Or rather, one man was doing something, and the other was leaning on the fence watching. Perhaps as a safety precaution. Anyway, whatever it was they were not successful in the time I was there.



Fortunately the drivers were being reasonably courteous, and most of the traffic was moving, albeit rather faster than usual with some near misses. There was a gap in the cars so I was able to cross after a few minutes.

I had already decided that I would probably walk through the town and return by a different route, so that I could pop into the Froutaria (since tomorrow is yet another public holiday). This confirmed the decision for me.

Eleven years since we arrived in Cyprus

October 26th was a Sunday back in 1997 too, when we travelled to Cyprus as a family for the first time. I was incredibly stressed. I really didn't want to leave our reasonably comfortable home and lifestyle in Birmingham, and the whole process of packing up the house, and deciding what to take was something of a nightmare.

I didn't have a blog back in those days - I don't think they even existed - but I did keep a journal of sorts, and then transferred the contents to our family website - you can read my thoughts and feelings of the time from October 1997 on the RSDT site which still exists, even though I no longer write on it.

We only came for two years, initially. I was going to educate the boys at home, in accordance with the National Curriculum of the UK, for up to nine months before putting them in school. And I was quite sure I would never get used to the heat, or putting toilet paper in bins rather than down the loo, or the mosquitoes.

And here we are, eleven years later. We sold our house in the UK in July 2006, and bought one here. The boys never did go to school; they were home educated until they were eighteen. Far from being socially isolated or backward in any way, Daniel (now 22) is currently living in a community of 350 on the MV Doulos, working as the audio-visual manager. Tim (20) is in his first year at Newman University in the UK, and already has two part-time jobs as piano accompanist to choirs.

We got so used to the toilet paper bins that it's a bit of a surprise not to find any when we're in the UK. We got used to mosquiotes, too. I'm pretty good at catching and killing them in my hand, even - bizarrely - at night, when I apparently manage to get them by sound alone. We no longer react to their bites; they don't even itch any more, but the bzzzz at night is a bit irritating. We have an ultra-violet zapper that gets rid of most of them before they get to the bedroom.

Most surprising of all, at least to me, is that we've acclimatised somewhat to the heat. I suppose it's about 25C today, but rather than feeling hot, it feels very pleasant. There's a breeze coming in my french windows at present, which is almost cool. Not cool enough to put on a sweatshirt, but we're using a thin duvet at night, and I've put away my shorts for the winter.

The day we arrived eleven years ago was the day when the clocks went back in Europe, just like it was today. But whereas this year I could enjoy the extra hour in the morning, I hardly noticed it back in 1997 when we had to change time-zone anyway.

For years, Birmingham felt like home. But since we moved to our own house, Cyprus feels like home at last. Most of the time, anyway.

Here's what our first (rented) house in Cyprus looked like shortly after we moved in. We were only supposed to be able to have it for two years - in the end we were there for nearly nine.


Here's what we looked like in the summer of 1997, shortly before we flew to Cyprus:


... and here's how we look now - taken in April this year, the last time we were all together for a while:

Cyprus meze at a local taverna, and some Scrabble

Last night, we were taken out to eat at a local taverna by some new friends. After perusing the menu, we decided to opt for meze (pronounced something like MEZ-ay). This is a Cyprus speciality, consisting of about 15 or more different items, brought to the table a few at a time. It usually starts with salads, then small pieces of different sorts of meat, vegetables, the ubiquitous chips (aka french fries), pasta and cheese, and more.

We knew, from previous experience, that meze meals tend to be HUGE. So suggested that we just order two mezes rather than four. This was fine with the waiter - he said that we could always ask for extra individual dishes if we wanted more.

The food was excellent, and as we expected, it kept coming. Even with just meze for two, we couldn't manage it all.


Afterwards we went to our friends' apartment to play Scrabble. I have recently been playing a lot of Scrabble on Facebook, where of course there's a button to check whether or not words are valid. Moreover, it's possible to try out several possible moves to check what the scores would be, and there's usually at least 24 hours to think about each move, if one wishes to.

Richard hadn't played for a couple of months. And for some reason, he confused it with Rummikub at first. He was supposed to start... he glanced at his hand, said he couldn't go, and picked up another tile from the bag!

I pointed out that he didn't need to make thirty points, he just needed to make a word of some sort over the centre pink square. So he did something I have never seen before:



Yes, he had both blanks in his initial hand, and used them both in his opening move!

Cyprus rain and rainbows

Showers and thunderstorms have been forecast for the next few days. Sure enough, there was some rain today. It's often quite dramatic here when the sunshine vanishes, to be replaced for a while by dark grey clouds.

I first became aware of the wind whistling around the house - and it really did sound like whistling - shortly after lunch. The sky gradually darkened, and I saw the occasional flash of lightning. Even then I didn't really think... it wasn't until I saw rain start to fall that I remembered the washing I had hung out on our utility balcony a few hours earlier. I managed to rescue one dry item, and the rest will have had an extra rinse. The balcony is covered, but the rain was far from vertical.

I think it rained for at least half an hour. Fairly steady rain, after the initial wild onslaught. Just what we need, although rather more than half an hour.

When I saw sunshine creeping through the clouds, I grabbed my camera and headed for the balconies. Sure enough, there was a rainbow. I caught one half out of the back door:



and the other half out of the front door:



This evening it feels almost chilly. Richard went to find a sweatshirt when he got home after work. I'm wondering if it's time to put the shorts away for the next few months yet...

I do like my dishwasher...

Every couple of months (approximately) we have a lunchtime get-together for Richard's colleagues and their families. It's usually at our house, since it's fairly central and we have plenty of space. Also, I'm home during the morning, and don't have to collect children from school around 1pm.

Today, one of the Egyptian colleagues is here and it's his 31st birthday, so it seemed a good day to plan one of these lunches. Each family brings a contribution so it's not all up to me; my job today was bread, cheese and salads. I went out to buy a couple of loaves of bread; I can only do one at a time in the breadmaker, so it was simpler just to get some from the Perseus bakery which is about five minutes' walk from our house. On the way back I went to the Achna Froutaria to pick up some more fruit and veg.

By the time I was home again it was 11am... I'm not entirely sure where the morning went, but I don't think I'd sat down for a couple of hours by then. We had some rain and a mild thunderstorm about 9am so I had to rush to bring in yesterday's laundry from the line. Then when it finished, the windows looked dreadful - dusty and streaked, as it didn't rain all that long. So I cleaned several of them. Oh, and somewhat sorted out the fridge, too, so I'd have room for my salads.

I made my standard coleslaw, and a pseudo-Greek salad (lettuce, chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumber, chopped feta cheese), and a plate of carrot and cucumber sticks and pieces of yellow pepper, to dip in hummus. Also, since I like to experiment occasionally, this quinoa and sweet potato salad, which required some cooking - and which turned out very well.

I didn't think it would take that long (I never do) but by the time I'd put those together, and organised and set the table - actually two tables, since there were going to be fourteen of us in all - it was one o'clock. I'd hoped to take a quick shower before everyone arrived, but no chance of that.

It all went well; someone else brought tuna, ham, and egg mayo, and another family brought desserts and a birthday cake. Then Richard took the 'birthday boy' off for an afternoon sailing, with one of the other families.

Everyone had left shortly after 3pm. So I pottered around the kitchen, cleaned out the mat drawer as it was looking pretty grubby, threw away paper napkins and olive stones, put all the leftover food in the fridge.. and loaded the dishwasher. Everything fitted perfectly. Then I put away the extra leaves in the table, took the extra chairs back to the various places I'd taken them from... and the house was back to normal in under an hour, with minimal effort.

We've been in this house with the dishwasher for two and a quarter years now, but I haven't yet reached the stage of taking it for granted. I am VERY glad to have it every Friday when our house group (usually between eight and twelve people) have a meal here, and I'm also very thankful for it on days like today.

Neither of us was very hungry this evening, so I just made us some peach smoothies, and we ate salad leftovers.

Happy birthday, Richard and Daniel

A year ago today, Richard celebrated his 50th birthday, and Daniel his 21st. Since Daniel couldn't get back for the occasion, the rest of us had a holiday in Malaysia, so they could celebrate together.

Another year has rolled around. Tim has now left home, too. So, for the first time in twenty-three years, Richard and I are alone for his birthday. He said he didn't want to do anything special, or go out anywhere. Fifty-one is a strange kind of number; the card sent by my sister caught the mood perfectly: 'Another birthday? Weren't you old enough last year??'

I don't remember what we used to do about birthdays in the BC* years. He couldn't think of anything he wanted as a gift, either, so I resorted to buying some books from his Amazon wishlist.

I said I'd make a cake - perhaps even two cakes, so he could take one into the office in the morning, and have the other at home. And then I realised a further problem: I haven't made a birthday cake in years! Tim has been our family cake-maker for at least four or five years - perhaps longer.

In Cyprus, the regular self-raising flour really doesn't work. So, on the recommendation of friends, we've been buying pricier brands, recognisable from the UK.

However, I hadn't used any self-raising flour for at least three months. And when I had a look at it yesterday, even though it was in a plastic container with a sealed lid, it was crawling with flour bugs - something that happens fairly often in Cyprus. When I popped out yesterday to our local Orpanides Express for a few bits and pieces, the only self-raising flour they had was the local version.

So I decided to use plain flour and baking powder. I guessed at the quantities, using two 17-cm tins. I just made a basic sponge recipe with added cocoa powder (the one known as 'pound cake' in the USA, although I only used 160g each of flour, margarine and sugar to go with three eggs).

They rose beautifully, but I made the mistake of opening the oven too early, and both cakes sank in the middle. Ah well. I filled the middle with apricot jam, and made a basic plain chocolate icing for the top, and then arranged some chocolate chips on top. It didn't look too bad:



Apparently it tasted reasonable, too. Perhaps some of it will come home this evening. I made Delia's chocolate coconut slices for the lunch-time cake.

This evening we're going to have a quiet meal on our own, and then watch the DVD of 'Parenthood' - which I suppose is appropriate, since it's the 22nd anniversary of the day we embarked on that state.

In the morning, after Richard opened the various parcels and cards awaiting him, we phoned Daniel. There's a satellite link to the Doulos now, so the number we have to call is in the USA, even though he's actually in Australia.

I hadn't thought Dan would have anything to open; I'd sent him a parcel from Amazon about two months ago, and some small packages with chocolate and fruity tea bags every two or three weeks. None of them had arrived last time I saw him on Instant Messenger, but apparently there was a lot of mail yesterday, and they all arrived. Along with a couple of other parcels from relatives, which he was pleased with.

Daniel had asked us to phone before 10am our time, because he was scheduled to do the long afternoon and evening shift for the audio-visual team today.

The reason he was doing this long shift on his birthday was that the person doing the scheduling had forgotten that it was his birthday. This would not have been surprising, perhaps... except that Daniel himself is the person who does the A/V scheduling now.

Perhaps he, too, is feeling that he was old enough last year!




*Before Children

Exchanging Cyprus pounds to euros in Larnaka

Quick answer: you can do this at the Bank of Cyprus opposite the main post office, at least until the end of 2008.

Long and rambling answer:

Euros have been the currency in Cyprus since 1st January 2008.

Prior to that, the currency was Cyprus pounds.

There were detailed instructions about the changeover, and free currency calculators distributed by banks and supermarkets.

It all seems to have gone fairly smoothly, although prices have undoubtedly increased. Moreover, the euro has become strong while both sterling and US dollars have grown weaker, thus those of us whose income is from the UK and/or USA have seen it reduced somewhat.

Still, going into the euro was a positive move for Cyprus overall, and we're just about getting used to it. We used up our Cyprus pounds in January, then as we discovered odd notes and coins around the house, we were able to exchange them at the local bank. We did keep a few small coins for posterity (I wonder if posterity will be interested in them?) but the rest have gone.

Then, in the summer, we had a meal with some friends who still had some Cyprus pounds left from their visit to us a year before. It was a little over £50 (CYP). They gave it to us, since it was no longer any use to them.

A couple of weeks after we returned in August, I was in our bank for something else, and asked if they would exchange Cyprus pounds.

No, alas, the man on the till told me. Only until the end of June. However, I could do it in the big bank in Nicosia, or the bank by the main post office.

His English wasn't too clear, and I was in a hurry, so I didn't write it down or push for details. Surely, I thought, I could find out online.

Could I?

No. I found several sites telling me that I could exchange my Cyprus pounds at the central bank of Cyprus in Nicosia. But nowhere could I find reference to exchanging them in Larnaka.

However, today I had to go to the main post office to collect a parcel. So I picked up the Cyprus pounds which were sitting in my desk, just in case.

I noticed several large banks on the corner opposite the post office. But I decided to go into the Bank of Cyprus first, since that's the bank we use (albeit not our branch) and I didn't know if an account was needed.

It was much bigger than I had expected. And there didn't seem to be anywhere obvious to queue. So I hung about until a cashier was available, and then went to ask him if it was possible to exchange Cyprus pounds.

'Yes, of course!' he said, and pulled open a drawer full of Cyprus pounds. 'What do you want?' he continued. 'Dollars are good! But maybe you want euros?'

I agreed that I wanted euros. So he calculated the exchange on the computer: it came to €95.68.

Then - since this IS Cyprus - he gave me €95.70.

Barn Dance in Larnaka

Most of this week was similar to every other week, but on Friday there was a church-run barn dance at the Blue Wave restaurant. Very well organised, with a hot buffet and plenty of dancing, although no barn dances that I recognised. Live music made it all the more enjoyable, and the caller was good.

Barn dancing is fun partly because it's so informal - it doesn't matter if people make mistakes, or go the wrong way, or forget who is 'first couple'. In one of the dances, our set was in a corner where the caller couldn't really see us. For some reason the first couple hadn't grasped the essence of 'casting off' (ie turning outwards and skipping down the outside of the line), so instead of casting off and then making an arch, they made an arch and the rest of us went through it in a different order. It worked... and by the time Richard and I got to be first couple, it was easier to stick with the dance we'd been doing for three turns than to follow the correct instructions!

Since we danced almost all the time (when we weren't eating) I didn't get around to taking any photos.

We were glad it wasn't any earlier in the year. Some people looked fairly hot and sticky after some of the more energetic dances, but although we joined in almost everything, we didn't feel too hot - just pleasantly warm. A month ago it would have been exhausting with the heat and humidity.

Flexibility required in Cyprus

On Tuesday mornings I help at the local toddler group. Afterwards I take a slight detour on the way home to visit my favourite Froutaria (roughly the equivalent of a traditional greengrocer in the UK).


I wanted some apples and pears, for making fresh juice in the morning. I also wanted some cherry tomatoes and garlic, as we were almost out of both. And I thought I might buy some lemons, if they were a reasonable price, as the citrus season is starting and I made my first batch of lemonade a couple of weeks ago.

Outside the froutaria are stands with boxes of fruit a day or two old, on special offer. Usually well under half-price, and basically in good condition although one has to sort through them to avoid any that have gone bad or squashy. I usually buy fruit for smoothies from these boxes, so was pleased to see peaches and nectarines still available inexpensively, and also some rather nice-looking plums. I found apples and pears in the reduced boxes too, so had quite a weight of fruit before even going in the shop.

Inside I found the garlic, tomatoes and lemons, and also some broccoli which I had forgotten I needed. And some rather nice looking grapes, although not particularly cheap. So I ended up with two fairly heavy bags to carry home - fortunately only about half a mile from the shop.

I had vaguely been thinking I would put all the fruit in the fridge, then deal with it tomorrow. On Wednesdays a friend goes into Richard's office to do the week's bookkeeping, and usually comes hom for lunch with us. My Wednesday mornings are usually taken up with cleaning out the fridge, dealing with any fruit and veg, and perhaps doing some cooking for lunch. In the winter I make soups, and last autumn and winter made a batch of lemonade every week or two on Wednesdays.

Then I remembered that we used to have mains water every day, but of course it's only every other day now. And whereas there's plenty in the tank, I do prefer to wash fruit in mains water, and to cook with it. Lemonade takes quite a lot of water, and while we fill up plenty of water bottles, I don't really want to use two litres of stored water for cooking.

So this afternoon I washed all the fruit and veg, and made the lemonade. I love the scent of lemon juice, which is pervading the house right now. I've made us a peach smoothie to go with our evening meal - I'm quite surprised we're still getting peaches so late in the year; fruit here is mostly quite seasonal. I was surprised to see such nice grapes, too. They're usually finished by now - or getting very sweet and squashy.

Still, it's good to be flexible, and I do like the variety of good fruit and vegetables we get here, most of them grown locally. There's not much that's organic, but at least they're not imported from other continents. So they're picked when they're ready, and usually taste much better than the UK equivalents.

October in Cyprus

I do like October. It's something of a transition month, weather-wise: the end of September is usually still hot and somewhat humid, but by early November we'll be wearing sweatshirts and even thinking about the central heating.

In the past few years, we've been out of Cyprus for part of the Autumn; in two out of the past three years, we haven't been here in early October. So I'm enjoying the fresh feeling to the atmosphere, the cleanliness of the plants and houses, now that we've had the first rain, and the early morning chill to the air when I get up around 6.30am.

We haven't used air conditioning at all for a couple of weeks now; a couple of days ago we put the thinnest (4.5 tog) duvet on our bed. I'm still wearing shorts, since the daytime temperature is still up to about 27C, and predicted to stay that way for at least another week, but Richard's abandoned his shorts in favour of long trousers again. He's even worn a fleece a couple of times in the evenings.

Perhaps, at last, Summer is at an end. Autumn is all too short in Cyprus, so I shall try to make the most of it.

Visitors and a meal at Alexanders

Before we moved house a couple of years ago, we had a few guests - mostly relatives, and close friends who didn't mind sharing one bathroom with us, and being very much en famille.

Now we have a separate guest flat, we have a lot more guests. I'm surprised how well it works. The flat is the ground floor of our house, but it has no access from the middle and top floors, where we live, other than via an outside staircase. So if we have guests we don't know very well (such as friends of friends) then they can do their own thing entirely and we barely see them. There's a good sized kitchen with basic equipment and a table that seats up to six; so if they want to eat in, they can cook for themselves easily.

If it's relatives or close friends who are staying, then we can spend most of the day with them, if that's what they want, but we still all have our own space: we never do breakfasts together (I like time to myself first thing each morning; Richard gets up fairly late and doesn't eat breakfast anyway) and if our guests want a siesta, or an early night, then the guest flat is theirs to pop back to any time. And if they want to go out and about without us, that's fine too, of course.

And if we have people we know just a bit, or people who like plenty of time to themselves, then we can do some things together, and some separately.

It works so well that the flat had people staying for about four months of 2007, overall - with gaps in between, of course - and I think will have been used for over half of 2008. We have so many visitors that we had to set up a Google calendar for it, so if either Richard or I get a phone call or email asking whether it's available, we can quickly check online.

Last week some friends of Richard's who work in Egypt were staying; they had various meetings set up, so we didn't see much of them.

The day after they left, Ruth arrived - the younger daughter of a home educating email friend, whom we met in the UK seven years ago. Ruth is now an adult, and an experienced sailor, so Richard was delighted to take her sailing at the weekend - they had a particularly good day out on Sunday, when the weather was perfect. Richard wrote about Sunday's sailing on his Wayfarer blog.

Ruth ate with us on Saturday and Sunday evening, and we even managed a game of Rummikub, which she won...

On Monday, Ruth's friend Alice arrived. It was pouring with rain at the time, and while I, along with the locals, was very pleased to see some serious rainfall this early in the season, people just arriving from the UK weren't so happy to see what looked like English weather in Cyprus. However it stopped after a couple of hours, and the sun came out again yesterday.

So Ruth and Alice spent yesterday exploring the town and sitting in the sun, and planned to do something similar today. And last night, they took us out for a meal at Alexander's:


The food is always good with generous portions, and they have a fair selection of vegetarian dishes. Despite feeling fairly full, Ruth decided we would have some ice cream, and we all opted for the wonderful Negrita chocolate sundae... the waiter was a little startled when she asked him to bring four Negritas, so we quickly assured him they weren't all for one person - but then couldn't resist setting up this photo: