First sighting of a Christmas tree in Larnaka

The birthday season, for my immediate family, is now over. We celebrated Richard's last Saturday; five friends came to dinner, and we had an enjoyable evening.

The weather is still warm - about 26-28C during the daytime - and our only gesture towards Autumn, so far, is the thin duvet on our bed. And Richard has switched from shorts to long trousers/jeans. And we did stop using the air conditioning a few weeks ago. I'm still wearing shorts, tee-shirts and sandals and avoiding going out during the main part of the day, but it's a lot more comfortable now that the humidity has gone.

So when I popped out to our local supermarket a few day ago, I was slightly startled to see this as I walked down the street towards it:


I know that Christmas cards appear in the shops in the UK in about August... but I don't remember trees or decorations appearing in Cyprus until at least November. We haven't even had Ochi Day yet.

Sometimes technology is wonderful

While I'm far from being geeky or even technologically minded (I STILL haven't learned how to switch on our television...) I very much appreciate the modern ways of being in touch with our sons. Living in Cyprus has many benefits, but it's hard being a couple of thousand miles away from our sons. So, we chat from time to time on one of the instant messaging systems, exchange emails, occasionally use mobile phone texts, and recently have started - albeit rarely, so far - using Skype.

On Tuesday evening, Tim was chatting (typing) online, and asked if we could load Skype to chat as he was feeling a bit homesick. He then said, jokingly, that he wished we could play a game of Settlers via Skype. He did not expect his comment to be taken seriously, but I wondered if it might be possible... and mentioned it to Richard, who was sitting in the living room. Richard thought it could indeed work... although he wasn't sure if the webcam would be good enough quality for Tim to see the board. And I couldn't really imagine how it could work... however, it seemed like an interesting (albeit bizarre) idea. So I set up a Catan board on our little coffee table in the living room.

And Richard set up my little webcam on a chair, pointed at the board:


.. and the laptop sat on the sofa, facing the game, so that we could see Tim via Skype:


Could he see the board, including the numbers, we wondered?

Yes, he could! And while we'd only set it up to see if it was possible, it looked like quite a nice layout, and we had half an hour available before Tim needed to eat, and Richard needed to go out... so we thought we might start. Tim borrowed the resource cards from the set in my mother's house where he lives, and it worked amazingly well:


(For anyone interested in detail about the game itself, I wrote about it on my Settlers blog, in a post called Settlers of Catan via Skype)

When it was 8.30 (Cyprus time) we had to pause the game, but were so involved that we left it set up, and Richard made sure he didn't stay out long... and we resumed at 9.30.

It was very enjoyable. It felt surprisingly natural, since Tim was sitting there on the sofa (albeit squashed up inside Richard's laptop, and unable to make the moves physically). It's definitely something we will try again in future... indeed, long after I'd cleared away and gone to read upstairs, Richard and Tim were figuring out ways to make it easier. Apparently using the video camera as a webcam will make the clarity a great deal better for Tim.

Still, despite the wonders of modern technology, I had a hard time putting the game away again at the end:

Rain in Cyprus, perhaps heralding the start of Autumn at last

The weather continued hot for most of this week. Not that 30-32C is hot compared to the summer temperatures we saw this year, and the humidity was much reduced. Overnight, we stopped running the air conditioning for more than an hour or two, and first thing in the morning I enjoyed the cool breezes, while the temperatures were only 26-28 or so.

On Friday, people said the weather in Cyprus was due to break. The forecast was for rain, off and on, all day. There was a good chance of rain first thing in the morning ... but, no sign of it when I woke up yesterday. The sun shone, and if anything it was a little warmer than it had been.

Then, around 10am, I noticed that it was really quite cloudy:


Then I noticed a faint rumbling, as of thunder. The sky darkened. And then... yes, it started to rain. Not very heavily, and not very long. Just enough to dampen the rooftops outside.

The sun came out again, and I wondered if that was it...

But about ten minutes later, it started to rain again. More heavily, this time, and it must have lasted at least five minutes:

Then it stopped, and the sun came out.

Thankfully, it was cool enough that there wasn't much extra humidity. There was rather a nice breeze, instead.

There were a couple more short showers during the day, one of them for perhaps ten minutes but no more. Still, everywhere seemed cleaner and fresher; it was enough rain to wash the dust from the rooftops, and down the streets.

Last night, I didn't even think of switching on the air conditioning.

Around 4am I woke, feeling oddly uncomfortable. In my not-quite-awake state, I couldn't work out for a moment what it was. Then suddenly I realised... I was cold. Something I had not felt for so long that I'd temporarily forgotten what it was like.

I pulled the sheet over me, and looked forward to hunting out the thin duvet soon.

Perhaps we'll have an Autumn this year.

Glass recycling domes in Larnaka

When we received our information pack about recycling in Larnaka, the booklet told us that there would be green 'bell-shaped bins' appearing in certain spots for glass recycling. The picture didn't look exactly bell-shaped, but fairly distinctive. I've been looking out for them in the past week or so, but had not spotted any.

Recycling in Larnaka is supposed to begin in October, with the first kerbside collection of PND (plastic, metal and drink cartons) and paper in our area this evening. So I wondered if the glass recycling bins might have appeared. According to the booklet, there should have been one outside the primary school on Fanoroumeni Avenue, and one by the St Lazarus kiosk. Since I usually walk down Fanoroumeni Avenue to check our PO Box for mail early on Monday mornings, I decided to take a couple of glass jars with me today, just in case....

Sure enough, right in front of the school as I walked down (on the shady side of the street) I saw this:


I kept walking, collected our mail, and then walked right around St Lazarus Church. I have no idea where the 'kiosk' is - and I did not see any signs of another green recycling bin. So I walked back on the sunnier side of the road - at 7.45am it wasn't yet too hot - and soon came to the school:


I did wonder if the bin would be rather full, but when I gingerrly posted my empty mayonnaise jar through the hole at the front, I heard a plop as it fell to the ground. Either it had recently been emptied, or nobody else has used it.

I then posted my empty pickle jar in, only to hear it break as it landed. Oops. We're not supposed to bring broken glass to recycle... but I suppose it's inevitable that some items will break as they're put inside.

I'm quite pleased that these are the only two glass items we've collected in the past fortnight since we first learned about the new recycling scheme for Larnaka and district. Evidently we haven't been wasting as much as I had feared.

Bird of Paradise plant blooms again in Cyprus

Around a year ago, our bird of paradise plant first burst into bloom. The amazing display lasted a couple of weeks, with new 'tongues' appearing as the older ones faded away.

The plant continued growing, almost bursting out of its pot. I kept thinking that we must buy a larger tub for it, and some more soil. And I don't quite know where the year has gone, but we didn't get around to it... and now it's blooming again:


So I don't want to disturb it until these stunning flower heads have gone.

I've been watering the plants on the front terrace of our guest flat about three times per week, all summer. It's slightly less hot now, so I've cut down to twice a week, and the plants seem to be doing well. Once it starts raining, I may not need to water them at all.

As usual, most of our petunias withered away when the weather started to get really hot in July... all except this one purple petunia, which has not only survived, but appears to have spread itself out and re-planted itself somewhat: