Hard to believe we were out, enjoying sunshine and a picnic only ten days ago. Indeed, I'm not entirely sure where those days have gone. As I type, it's pouring with rain. It's been doing that for the past seven hours, more-or-less. Yesterday was much the same. Grey skies, continual rain. And yes, our roof is still leaking over the stairs, as it has been for the past four years. I'm not sure if it's getting worse, or whether the rain is heavier. Thankfully we have no carpet on the stairs, and strategically placed buckets and cool-boxes usually catch the worst of it.
It's been quite a busy week, for someone like me who needs a lot of time alone. I've also had rather a lot of late nights.
Friday evening, a week ago, we went to the fortnightly cell group at our nearby friends' home. There were, I think, 18 of us sitting down to the meal, plus another baby too young to eat the same food as the rest of us. We didn't do a study, or anything formal; after the meal we chatted, and caught up with other people, and generally had a relaxing evening. But it was past 10pm when we finally left. It may even have been 10.30. I really like to be in bed by 10.30 at the latest...
I did have Saturday to myself. I got quite a bit done, too, while Richard was out working on King Malu. In the evening we arranged to play Settlers of Catan with our friends, and also some other friends who are staying in our guest flat. We were a bit late arriving, and a six-player game can take some time... particularly when chatting, and enjoying each other's company. It was 11.30 by the time we left. I was VERY tired.
Sunday morning I took our guests to the service at Larnaka Community Church. I then had the afternoon to myself, but was so tired I didn't get a lot done other than organising our evening meal, for which our downstairs guests were joining us. Then we played a game of Seafarers of Catan. It was 11pm by the time I got to bed.
On Monday morning I woke a bit later than usual, popped to the local shops, put on laundry, mopped the floors... then had about an hour at the computer where I did little more than check email. At about 11.15 I walked down to the PO Box to check mail, and then on to the Larnaka Community Church building for the memorial service for Maurice, one of the elders, who, sadly, died a week previously. The service had memories and eulogies included by several people, and lasted two and a half hours which was rather longer than I expected. There was some food afterwards, and I was so hungry by 2.30 that I had a couple of sandwiches for setting off home, since I was due, with one of our guests, at our friends to play yet another game of Settlers - this time with their children.
I was home by 5.30pm, just in time to organise our evening meal, and we spent the evening trying to write an 'update' about Richard's work for our various friends around the world. I had really hoped to get to bed early but it was nearly 11pm by the time I was asleep.
Tuesday I walked to Tots, as I usually do. It was quite busy, but thankfully not as noisy as it used to be when it met in a different building a year ago. I enjoy it, but it's somewhat draining and I can never get anything much done on Tuesday afternoons. We were asked out for a meal at 6pm, which meant I didn't have to cook (other than making some ice cream to take with us)... and after the meal we had, guess what...? Another game of Settlers of Catan. We actually did finish just before 10pm... but then chatted until nearly 11pm.
On Wednesday I woke up with a streaming cold. No sore throat, no sinus pain... just sneezing and nose-blowing. Followed by more sneezing. Wednesday was a busy day too, most of which I spent in the kitchen, except when I rushed away from the food to sneeze again. At lunchtime we had three people to eat bread and soup and cake with us. In the evening we had some other friends to a meal; they'd just moved house that day, so were exhausted and thankful to be asked out to eat. In the afternoon, a friend arrived to return some books she'd borrowed and take some more, and we had hot drinks together and chatted.
All of which was very enjoyable. I do like seeing friends, and particularly having people in our house. I'm very glad to be able to lend books to so many people. But by the end of the evening I was SOOOO tired I could barely climb the stairs. I don't suppose the cold helped.
Naturally, I took mega-doses of echinacea/goldenseal and Vitamin C on Wednesday, and by Thursday wasn't quite so sneezy. I had several much-needed hours to myself, but my brain felt rather fogged, probably by the cold. I didn't get much done. I did consider going out for a walk, since Vitamin D is also good for building up the immune system... then it started to rain.
Which is where this post began. It rained for several hours yesterday, and much of the night.
This morning dawned bright and clear; it was even a little sunny. I did my usual Friday jobs of changing the bed sheets, and putting on laundry, and cleaning the upstairs and fully changing the cat litter. Then Richard came back from the office for an hour, and we did our monthly shop at Metro.
There's supposed to be a petrol strike at present, although it seems to be over. Our bigger car was running very low last weekend, and Richard was going to fill up on Monday. Then he heard about the proposed strike... and when he went to try to buy some diesel, the queue at the petrol station was half-way down the road.
So all week he's been using our old car, which was about half-full. He noticed one garage which stayed open, but the queues continued to be long. Today, however, he was able to fill up the old car on the way back from the office, with no queue at all, so we drove in the big car to Metro, and filled that up too. One tankful (50 euros worth) usually lasts us at least a month, so we should be fine for a while.
We got back - taking a diversion to avoid the roads that were totally flooded from yesterday's rain - and unloaded. Shortly after we'd finished, the heavens opened and it's been pouring with rain ever since.
I think my cold is pretty much over; I only feel a little sniffly today and my mind isn't quite so fogged. But it's been a remarkably unconstructive week for me, one way and another.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Green Monday picnic and kite-flying attempts
Today is the first day of Lent in the Protestant/Western church. Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, when many of us made and ate pancakes - traditional for the last day before Lent; historically it was to use up sugar, eggs etc from the household store, preparatory to Lenten fasting.
However, Lenten fasting doesn't seem to happen much in the Western world - at most people might give up chocolate, or perhaps computer games. Not flour and eggs.
This year, unusually, Western and Eastern Easters fall on the same date: April 4th. So that means that Lent starts the same week for us all. In the Eastern calendar, however, it's counted a little differently so that Lent actually began on Monday this week, after the Carnival weekend (where children dress up and go on parades... although traditionally it was the time to eat up the household meat, again prior to fasting.)
On Green Monday in Cyprus, people - I'm told - clean their houses from top to bottom (it's also sometimes known as 'Clean Monday') and then go out on picnics with their families and friends, and the children fly kites. Even if they're not fasting or cutting out meat during Lent (increasingly rare, even here) they don't eat meat on Green Monday.
We don't usually do anything to mark the date; however, Green Monday is a public holiday, so Richard planned to spend his day working on King Malu. But on Sunday we had text messages from a friend - the wife of one of his colleagues - suggesting we might get together for a picnic on the Monday. Since the weather was good, and it sounded like a good idea to get out and socialise for an hour or two, we said we'd like to do that. We were going to go somewhere near the Salt Lake, but in the event it was totally packed with Cypriot picnickers, even at 12.30 (which is earlier than they usually eat lunch).
So our friends suggested we go up to the Aradippou picnic site. The top area with benches and tables was apparently also full of people having picnics already, so they found a pleasant spot part-way up the hill.
They had brought some kites. During and after our lunch, the various children attempted to fly them:
- but without any success. Richard, who watches wind speeds and other weather conditions closely since learning to sail, said that there wasn't enough wind. There were occasional gusts and the kites appeared to bob about for a few seconds, only to come crashing down.
Still, the children had fun in the attempt, and in playing together for an hour or so, and the adults enjoyed the fresh air and catching up with each other.
You can see from the photos how very green Cyprus has become with the heavy downpours of rain we've had in the past few months. It really was a lovely day, too. Yesterday was warm as well, probably about 22C; today's a bit cooler and has been rather grey, though still nothing like as cold as it was earlier in the month.
However, Lenten fasting doesn't seem to happen much in the Western world - at most people might give up chocolate, or perhaps computer games. Not flour and eggs.
This year, unusually, Western and Eastern Easters fall on the same date: April 4th. So that means that Lent starts the same week for us all. In the Eastern calendar, however, it's counted a little differently so that Lent actually began on Monday this week, after the Carnival weekend (where children dress up and go on parades... although traditionally it was the time to eat up the household meat, again prior to fasting.)
On Green Monday in Cyprus, people - I'm told - clean their houses from top to bottom (it's also sometimes known as 'Clean Monday') and then go out on picnics with their families and friends, and the children fly kites. Even if they're not fasting or cutting out meat during Lent (increasingly rare, even here) they don't eat meat on Green Monday.
We don't usually do anything to mark the date; however, Green Monday is a public holiday, so Richard planned to spend his day working on King Malu. But on Sunday we had text messages from a friend - the wife of one of his colleagues - suggesting we might get together for a picnic on the Monday. Since the weather was good, and it sounded like a good idea to get out and socialise for an hour or two, we said we'd like to do that. We were going to go somewhere near the Salt Lake, but in the event it was totally packed with Cypriot picnickers, even at 12.30 (which is earlier than they usually eat lunch).
So our friends suggested we go up to the Aradippou picnic site. The top area with benches and tables was apparently also full of people having picnics already, so they found a pleasant spot part-way up the hill.
They had brought some kites. During and after our lunch, the various children attempted to fly them:
- but without any success. Richard, who watches wind speeds and other weather conditions closely since learning to sail, said that there wasn't enough wind. There were occasional gusts and the kites appeared to bob about for a few seconds, only to come crashing down.
Still, the children had fun in the attempt, and in playing together for an hour or so, and the adults enjoyed the fresh air and catching up with each other.
You can see from the photos how very green Cyprus has become with the heavy downpours of rain we've had in the past few months. It really was a lovely day, too. Yesterday was warm as well, probably about 22C; today's a bit cooler and has been rather grey, though still nothing like as cold as it was earlier in the month.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Walk in Larnaka Salt Lake Park
After a cold few days in Cyprus at the end of January and beginning of February (cold enough that on a couple of mornings we heard of people having to scrape ice off their cars if they were up early) and a few very wet days at the start of last week, it's suddenly become warmer. It almost feels as if Spring might be around the corner, although I know that March can also be very chilly in Cyprus.
On Friday morning, in the early hours, some of our friends who had been away for six weeks returned to Larnaka. On Saturday I had a text saying they were going out for a walk in the Salt Lake Park, and wondering if I'd like to join them. I had an hour available in between various things in the kitchen, so I grabbed my camera, decided against a jacket, and went out. It was just Sheila and the three youngest children, so we didn't walk particularly fast or far. The day was grey, but really quite pleasantly warm - around 18C, I believe.
Lukas insisted on taking an umbrella, although we didn't need it. I hadn't been near the Salt Lake for a while, so we were all surprised to see how very full it was looking:
There were flamingoes - lots of them - in the middle of the lake. Even with my camera on full zoom it was hard to see much - and the day being grey, the colour doesn't show at all. But this is what we saw:
You can click the image to see a bigger version, where it's possible to see that the blobs on the water really are flamingoes!
I was more interested in chatting with my friends than remembering to take photos of the extensive greenery that usually follows heavy rains during a Cyprus winter. But this photo shows how tall the weeds are, and how some of the yellow flowers have already started appearing:
On Friday morning, in the early hours, some of our friends who had been away for six weeks returned to Larnaka. On Saturday I had a text saying they were going out for a walk in the Salt Lake Park, and wondering if I'd like to join them. I had an hour available in between various things in the kitchen, so I grabbed my camera, decided against a jacket, and went out. It was just Sheila and the three youngest children, so we didn't walk particularly fast or far. The day was grey, but really quite pleasantly warm - around 18C, I believe.
Lukas insisted on taking an umbrella, although we didn't need it. I hadn't been near the Salt Lake for a while, so we were all surprised to see how very full it was looking:
There were flamingoes - lots of them - in the middle of the lake. Even with my camera on full zoom it was hard to see much - and the day being grey, the colour doesn't show at all. But this is what we saw:
You can click the image to see a bigger version, where it's possible to see that the blobs on the water really are flamingoes!
I was more interested in chatting with my friends than remembering to take photos of the extensive greenery that usually follows heavy rains during a Cyprus winter. But this photo shows how tall the weeds are, and how some of the yellow flowers have already started appearing:
Monday, February 08, 2010
Water, water everywhere... (in Cyprus, anyway)
As I type, it's pouring with rain. Again. It has been the most remarkably wet winter for Cyprus, and apparently the reservoirs are now at 50% capacity, which is very good indeed.
Yesterday it was officially announced that water restrictions have been lifted. This isn't exactly news to me, since we've had continual mains water for the past ten days or so. Nice to have it confirmed officially, although apparently some people are unhappy at the announcement, since people are likely to become more wasteful if they know we're no longer in a drought situation. I'm not sure why the official announcement makes any difference really, since people just seem to use water whenever it's on, washing their patios and pavements and even the street outside.
Still, it's good to know that we don't need to worry about water any more. The proposed price-hike won't be very popular, but then we've always felt that Cyprus water charges are far too low. We typically pay about 20-25 euros per quarter - yes, that's around 100 euros per year at MOST. That's considerably less than we paid in the UK for unmetered water. Even 30% on the bill won't make a huge amount of difference, and just might deter people who waste water, since prices at the greater consumption levels are significantly higher.
Yesterday it was officially announced that water restrictions have been lifted. This isn't exactly news to me, since we've had continual mains water for the past ten days or so. Nice to have it confirmed officially, although apparently some people are unhappy at the announcement, since people are likely to become more wasteful if they know we're no longer in a drought situation. I'm not sure why the official announcement makes any difference really, since people just seem to use water whenever it's on, washing their patios and pavements and even the street outside.
Still, it's good to know that we don't need to worry about water any more. The proposed price-hike won't be very popular, but then we've always felt that Cyprus water charges are far too low. We typically pay about 20-25 euros per quarter - yes, that's around 100 euros per year at MOST. That's considerably less than we paid in the UK for unmetered water. Even 30% on the bill won't make a huge amount of difference, and just might deter people who waste water, since prices at the greater consumption levels are significantly higher.
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