A few drops of rain in Larnaka

Although the past winter and early spring in Cyprus were very wet - sufficiently so that water restrictions have now ended - we hadn't had any rain for quite some time. Possibly not since we returned from our visit to the UK a month ago.

But on Thursday morning the sky was rather grey, although the sun was shining (as usual in Cyprus) and it felt muggy. The weather sites didn't predict any rain. Nevertheless, in the early afternoon, I heard raindrops outside. Large, heavy tropical style raindrops. So I grabbed my camera:


As is clear from the shadow, the sun was still out. I rather hoped there might be a rainbow, but there wasn't.

Thirty seconds later, it was impossible to see the gaps in between the drops.

Thirty seconds after that, it stopped.

Five minutes later, it started hailing.

A minute later, it stopped.

And then the clouds rolled away and the sun came out. Unfortunately it felt more humid than ever, but a slight breeze came up, and it was at least slightly cooler.

Oh, and if you happened to find this post because you wonder what the weather is going to be like in the next weeks and months, you might like to look at my page Weather in Cyprus in Summer, on my site about Cyprus.

Time to top up my Cyprus mobile phone again

About a year ago, I wrote about my mobile phone. I'd had to top it up with another ten euros, or risk losing the 29 euros of credit that I still had on it.

This week I had a text reminder that I needed to top up again. Fair enough - this time I knew where to buy another MTN card, and forked out another ten euros.

Then, before actually doing the top-up, I checked my credit balance. I've used the phone a fair bit (for me) this year... I've sent, probably about 20 texts per month, including the times when we were on 'roaming' in the UK. I've made sure that when I call Richard to remind him to come home for a meal, I use my mobile rather than the house phone. So I thought I might be down to my last few euros.

Imagine my surprise when I was told that I had 29.44 euros of credit.

That means that in the past year, using my phone has cost me slightly less than ten euros.

I know I don't chat for hours on the phone - I really don't like mobiles much - but I was sure I'd used it more than ever before in this last year. Evidently not.

Telephony is one thing that is still exceedingly good value in Cyprus.

A remarkably busy couple of weeks in Cyprus

There has been a long silence on this blog. Regular readers (if there are any left) might be puzzled that I made extensive reference, a couple of weeks ago, to my preparations for Daniel and Becky's visit ... and then said no more.

The problem was not a change of plan, nor volcanic ash. It was simply that we've been busy - really surprisingly so - and I've felt pretty tired. Today is a public holiday for Kataklysmos (Pentecost) and there's nothing happening. Tonight, for the first time since they arrived, the four of us will have an evening to ourselves.

A quick summary of our evenings in the past fortnight:

• 11th May - Daniel and Becky arrived at 9.30pm. A bit late, with the flight slightly longer than expected, but otherwise fine. Hungry - they came on EasyJet which doesn't provide meals - but in good spirits.

• 12th May - our friend Joan and her daughter Emily (here for ten days from the USA) came over for a meal, to meet Daniel and Becky. We played a game of Settlers of Catan... in which Daniel showed his propensity for playing with the pieces rather like Richard does...

• 13th May: the four of us went over to our friends Jörn and Sheila to play a game of Settlers with them. Becky won.

• 14th May: Daniel and Becky had been invited to speak at the Larnaka inter-church youth group, about their time on the Doulos. Richard and I went to the usual fortnightly inter-church cell group for a meal.

• 15th May: We were asked for a meal at Jörn and Sheila's, followed by - surprise, surprise! - another game of Settlers of Catan. As we set the game up, I helped my youngest best friend Helen understand a little more about the rules...
  
  
  Afterwards, Daniel and Becky were asked to write in the guest book since it was the first time they'd had a meal there. Daniel likes to do these things thoroughly, so he wrote and wrote...
  
  
  If you're really interested, you can click the next photo to see a larger version, and might even be able to read what has to be the longest sentence in the entire guest book...
  
  

• 16th May: Our friends Mike and Marlene arrived from Birmingham in the evening, in time for a meal with us. Daniel and Becky decided to go out on a date.

• 17th May: I know I said I was just going to write about the evenings.. but in the afternoon some of our friends' children came over for a game of Settlers. I mention this because I liked this photo of the winners:

In the evening we were invited to pizza with our friends Mark (returned from his trip away) and Joan; Emily was still there. And since the three young people finished their meal before their aged parents, they played a quick card game while they waited for us:

Since Emily had enjoyed her first game of Settlers, we had yet another foray into Catan. And at the end, since Emily's unlikely to be in Cyprus for at least another year, I took a group photo:

• 18th May: Since Mike and Marlene were staying in the guest flat, I cooked a meal for them, plus Daniel and Becky in the evening. We didn't play any games, just hung out and chatted.

• 19th May: Daniel and Becky were asked to a meal with Daniel's old friend Haroon; Mike and Marlene took Richard and me out for a meal at our favourite local meze restaurant. We forgot to take a picture until nearly the end, when we had eaten our way through several excellent dishes, and they still kept coming...

• We didn't manage the meat that came at the end, or many of the chips, and didn't finish the dips, or the pasta. But we managed pretty well, we thought. We know from experience that when four people want a meze, we only need to order for two since there is always way too much food. And at this restaurant, they still bring out four little desserts at the end - at no extra cost - even if only two meals, technically, are ordered.

• 20th May: Mike and Marlene had a meal with us again, and we enjoyed spending time with them.

• 21st May: Daniel and Becky were running games at the youth group, but were able to have a meal with us - and Mike and Marlene - beforehand. I was very tired by about 9pm so we didn't have a late night.

• 22nd May: Daniel and Becky had arranged to go to a curry evening at Larnaka Community Church; since it was Mike and Marlene's last evening in Cyprus, they said they'd take us out for another meal. We decided not to try the sea-front, since it was a Saturday night and the day before Kataklysmos - so the sea-front was crowded with stalls and booths and people - and went, instead, to the Art Cafe; an indoor restaurant a little way away from the front. Excellent food, although I forgot to take any photos

• 23rd May: On Sundays when we didn't have a cell group, our friends Jörn and Sheila and their children come over to our house for a cold evening meal, which for some reason we have started referring to as 'not cell group'. Daniel and Becky were at the Global Day of Prayer meeting - Daniel playing drums with the music group. They should have been home shortly after 7pm but it overran, and it was 8.45 before they were home.

So. A very enjoyable couple of weeks, with friends, games, and lots of food. I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals, and desserts... including ice cream and cookies. I've been to the local shops almost every day for more fruit and veg, milk, cheese, or other necessary ingredients. And of course I've done my regular cleaning of the house, and laundry, and helped at Tots, and looked after the lad who comes on Thursday mornings. I've kept up to date with my Settlers of Catan blog, as evidenced from the links above, because if I didn't I wouldn't have a hope of remembering what happened in the games.

Richard, meanwhile, has been working most hours, and also spending some early mornings and the weekends at King Malu. They really, really hope to be able to start sailing her soon. On Saturday he took Mike and Daniel sailing for the morning.

Today, being a public holiday, Richard is at the boat all day. Becky is busy reading, and Daniel hasn't got up yet...

Summer is arriving all too fast in Cyprus

Having been away from Cyprus for most of April, it feels to me as if spring - such as it is - has gone, and summer is approaching all too fast. I popped out to the bank this morning, around 11 o'clock, and then on to the Froutaria to pick up some fruit and veg. I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, with sandals, and by the time I got home felt extremely warm.

Surely it shouldn't be like this in May?

Not that weather in Cyprus is entirely predictable, of course. But out of curiosity I checked the UK weather site for Larnaka. The ten-day forecast shows temperatures of around 26-28, with a high of 27 expected today. That's about normal. However when I looked at today's weather, it showed 31C. Which, of course, is shade temperature. Not surprising it felt extremely warm walking home in the sun.

I need to get back in my summer routine of doing any errands first thing, before it gets too hot.

(Note: If you happened to find this post by looking for something to do with summer weather in Cyprus, then you might find my web page weather in Cyprus: Summer (June, July and August) more useful. )

In the past week - when, thankfully, it wasn't so hot as this - I've been getting back into normal day-to-day life in Cyprus. I caught up with the accounts for the past month, and also the photos - uploading to both Facebook and Kodak Gallery. I did a lot of cleaning, and think I've finally got rid of the scent of cat that was permeating the house when we got home from our trip to the UK. It's inevitable when we go away, since stray cats tend to come in when there aren't any people around and leave their mark.

I bought some inexpensive (but good quality) french beans and tomatoes, about 3kg of each and spent one morning chopping and freezing them. Much more time consuming than I expected, but well worth doing. Buying frozen or canned vegetables is very expensive in Cyprus, and home-frozen ones are so much tastier.

I also made some lemonade, although lemons are nowhere near as abundant or cheap as usual for the time of year. And while I was expecting to make apricot jam, I haven't yet seen any apricots in the froutaria other than very expensive ones which don't look all that great.

We played some games in evenings, of course... Settlers with our friends (twice), Cities and Knights on our own (once) and a new game called Thurn and Taxis, which we had to teach ourselves slowly but which looks as if it has potential.

I've also been sorting out Daniel's room, since he's going to be home - volcano permitting - tomorrow, for about two months. We are very much looking forward to seeing him, of course. Richard had been using his room -off and on -as a study, so he cleared his things out earlier in the week. Over the weekend, the washing machine was running almost continually; unfortunately the cat smell was strong in Daniel's room. I discovered that not only did I need to clean the floor, very thoroughly, I had to wash a pillow, a sleeping bag, all his curtains, his rug, and even his beanbag. But they're all done now, and we're trying to keep his door shut at least for the next 24 hours.

Preparing Tim's room for Becky was much simpler since Tim was here at Christmas and it hasn't been used then; we keep his door shut when he's not here, so no cats have been in.

On Saturday we went to a friend's birthday party, and on Sunday had the same friends over here for our regular fortnightly gathering... and now it's Monday once more. I have quite a to-do list still, but at least it's shorter than it was when we arrived back from Cyprus.

Back in Cyprus

The past week has flown by. And yet, last Sunday feels as if it was at least a month ago. It's hard to remember, somehow, that this time last week we had just arrived home from a service at ChristChurch, Selly Park, and were awaiting my sister and her family who came for the day. In the afternoon we all went for a walk in a local park with their dog, and Tim took some family photos, since it's the last time the four of us will be together for a while. We liked this one best:


Just seven days ago - and yet, at the same time, so far in the distance.

On Sunday evening, we took Daniel and Becky to the station to return to Carlisle for a couple of weeks. We're very much looking forward to having them in Cyprus for a couple of months, arriving in about ten days.

On Monday, I caught the train to Oxford for a day to meet three of my old school-friends. Not that they're 'old', of course. Like me, we're all celebrating our 50th birthdays at some point during this academic year. We only had a few hours together - coffee in Waterstones, a walk around Oxford, and the discovery that more than one possible interesting venue was closed on Mondays.

But we climbed up a large number of steps in one of the colleges to find views like this over Oxford:


And had a good lunch in one of the local pubs. Afterwards we went into the Natural History Museum:


Then spent some time in the fascinating Pitt River collection. After that we walked through some parkland to the river:


Then we sat down for a while in a cafe, chatting all the while of course. The day was over all too quickly and we returned to our various destinations.

On Tuesday Richard and I were asked out to lunch with yet more friends - very enjoyable - and in the evening Richard started packing. We were a little overweight - actually quite a lot, but left some of our books behind temporarily - but when we got to Birmingham Airport on Wednesday, just after lunch, Cyprus Airways were as flexible as we had hoped and we had no problems at all.

Our friend Sheila met us at the airport at 12.30am Thursday morning... and since then I've been gradually becoming more human again. I always seem to feel tired for days when we return from the UK.

On Thursday, late morning, Richard and I went into Larnaka town to collect our mail and do some shopping, and I was surprised to notice that the paved area by the port has now been finished:


And there's a new jetty, too. We didn't walk along it. It wasn't very exciting, or even very long. But it looks a great deal better than it used to!


Friday we saw our friends so that I could pay their children for feeding the cats, and hand over the computer they'd ordered; we went to Metro to shop in the afternoon, and the inter-church cell group in the evening. Saturday Richard went to King Malu and then we enjoyed a picnic on Kiti Beach with some of the Cyprus home educators, leaving about five minutes before it started to rain.

Perhaps this week will be back to our normal Cyprus routine again... at least for a few days!