End of August in Cyprus, but not yet the end of Summer

Some people, when they hear that we live in Cyprus, assume that we go to the beach pretty much every day during the Summer.

This is not the case. Indeed, for our first few years here, we went pretty rarely. We had the occasional day-out-with-picnic with visiting friends and relatives, at one of the nicer beaches, but that was about all. We're not great swimmers, and as the boys got older they had less interest in building sandcastles. They would sometimes go to the beach with their friends, but we didn't want to go during the heat of the day, and Richard used to work late in the evenings.

Three or four years ago we made a bit more of an effort to get some exercise during the summer, and would plan to swim at a local beach for an hour or so, once or twice per week during July and August. It was surprisingly refreshing and we enjoyed it, although it always felt like a lot of effort, somehow.

Two years ago, I was in the UK in July. But during August, we went to the beach every week with some friends from one of the local churches. We would take a picnic, and play 'boules' although we didn't do much swimming.

Last year, the Cyprus home educators organised a weekly get-together at a different beach each Wednesday. We took picnics, and swam, and hung out with our friends. And every alternate week we got together with friends from the house group we were attending, on Fridays. More picnics, more swimming. We went a few times just to swim ourselves, too. We probably went to the beach 15 or 20 times during the summer last year. And enjoyed it very much.

But this year, for some reason, my enthusiasm has waned. Our first beach gathering was very early in the year - May 1st, to say goodbye to some friends who have now left Cyprus. We'd just got back from the UK, and it was good to get out to Kiti. It was much too cold (from our perspective) to swim, and it was quite windy too. But we enjoyed catching up with various friends, in particular my small friend Helen:


May is very early for a beach picnic, really. So we didn't go to the beach again until the end of June, when a picnic and get-together with the Cyprus home educators was planned.

Unfortunately, and unusually for Cyprus, the weather did not co-operate. It poured with rain. Some hardy souls did venture into the water in their swimsuits. I kept on my jeans and kagoule... but did at least wade a little way out:


I think there was one successful beach gathering of home educators, which we were not able to attend. There wasn't the enthusiasm of last year, and several families went away for most of the summer.

Since then, we've been to the beach six times. Yes, that's just six times in two hot and humid months. The house group, in theory, got together on alternate Fridays, but most weeks there were only us and one other family. So we enjoyed spending time with them, and the children liked being at the beach. Helen's siblings like getting covered in sand, so - not to be outdone - she rolled in the sand herself at our first get-together, early in July:


She's very photogenic. Here she is, a fortnight later, sitting in a hole built by her big brothers:


and here are the big brothers, Jacob and Lukas, two weeks later again, posing after getting covered with sand:


Lukas is the one who seems to like getting sandy the most, however. Here he is at the last house group gathering, a little over a week ago:


So that was four of our beach get-togethers.

We also went to a different beach early in August to say goodbye to someone who had been working with Richard for a couple of months. We didn't take our swimsuits, though. We hung out with colleagues and their families, and had picnics...

And the final occasion was a birthday gathering for a visiting friend of our friends, at a beach in Pervolia last Wednesday. We enjoyed it, but I found myself quite relieved to think that, most likely, it would be our last beach gathering of the year.

Lukas outdid himself in sandiness that evening:


And here's a photo to say goodbye to the summer: Helen, in sepia (since the light was going, and the photo rather grainy). She's grown up so much in the past few months, and now looks like a little girl who is shortly to celebrate her second birthday:


The temperature is still 33C in the shade today, and the forecast is for similar temperatures for the next ten days. September marks the re-opening of schools and clubs, the end of siesta-time, the start of a new season. But although the days are getting shorter, and I have felt a slightly cooler breeze on opening the windows at 6.00am for the past couple of days, I can't pretend that it's the end of summer just yet. I feel as if I've been in aestivation for the past two months - notwithstanding having first Daniel and Becky, then Tim with us - and would love to be able to switch off the air conditioners and get out of the house during the middle of the day.

Maybe in another month...

An empty nest once more.

So. Tim was here for two weeks. We loved having him. After a week's working in the children's holiday club (mornings only - quite tiring, but he found it fulfilling and enjoyable) he relaxed some more for his last few days in Cyprus this summer.

He invited his young friends over for a game of Settlers of Catan:


And when I invited some of my young friends over, he played with them too, building a Cyprus dungeon (complete with water tanks on the roof, and solar panels):


.. and didn't mind when Helen decided to play with it.


We played more games of Settlers with our friends:


And on his last night, we even played - for the first time - a game of Cities and Knights with Seafarers of Catan. It was complicated, but not as lengthy as it could have been.

I did manage to get some sleep that night, before my alarm woke me at 1.30am. This is not a time when I like to be awake, but I wanted to say goodbye to Tim at the airport. And he wanted me to be there, if I could. So I struggled awake, and even remembered to take a picture as he headed towards the airport, with less luggage than any of us has ever managed before:


Although his flights were on time, and the journeys reasonably uneventful, he had a dull time in Vienna airport on a seven-hour layover, and a very frustrating time in Heathrow airport when he attempted to regain possession of his e-reader. He had accidentally left it in a cafe on his way here, but knew it was found and locked in a safe by BMI. Unfortunately, no key-holders were available. So he ended up arriving back in Birmingham two hours later than planned, without his e-reader, and very annoyed. He then spent all of Friday in a vain attempt to phone the number he was given, to arrange for its delivery. Over 100 calls later (ten of which were actually answered, none of them helpful...) he was more frustrated than ever.

But then, at 8am this morning, he tried once more and got through to someone intelligent who knew the procedure. A courier has been booked, and the e-reader, if all goes well, should be returned to him on Monday.

So our nest is now empty again, and will remain so until - we hope - one or both of our sons return for a break over Christmas.

And I'm ready for the end of summer. Right now it's just after 6pm, and the shade temperature is being recorded as 36C. The humidity is only around 40%, so it 'only' feels like 40C. But that's a lot hotter than I want it to feel like any time, and particularly after three hot and humid weeks. Overnight, the humidity is apparently going to rise to over 80%. And the ten-day forecast for Larnaka does not predict any cooling of the weather. Or not significantly, anyway.

The adventures of a registered mail parcel in Cyprus...

Three weeks ago, Richard went to Lebanon for some meetings.

There was a particular kind of rather expensive router that he wanted to take with him. It's not available in Cyprus. But that's not a problem - a friend in the UK was able to order it. And since courier delivery would have made it even more expensive, and there was plenty of time, it was sent to the office PO Box via registered mail.

The day before he flew, Richard went to the Post Office. The parcel had not arrived. So he had to travel without it.

He returned five days later.

A few days after that, he went to the Post Office again. There was still no sign of any notification that a registered parcel was awaiting him. So he spoke to the postmistress. She told him that if he could tell her the tracking number, she could investigate.

So Richard emailed his friend... and a few days later, a reply came back with the tracking number and other details. This morning he planned to go to the Post Office again, taking the tracking number with him. And, of course, his passport since that's required as ID when signing for something registered...

I glanced at the paperwork as I handed it to Richard, and queried the address.

Oops.

It had been sent to the wrong PO Box. The final digit was incorrect. No wonder it had not arrived.

Still, they couldn't give a registered parcel to anyone other than the addressee... could they...?

Richard went to the Post Office again.

Apparently they HAD given the parcel to the owner of the post box to which it was addressed. Yes, someone who wasn't Richard - and probably wasn't even British - had signed for a registered parcel that was not addressed to him, and collected it.
This is Cyprus....

Thankfully there is a happy ending to the story. Evidence of the positive side of living in Cyprus. The person who had signed for the parcel realised that it was not intended for him at all... so he took it back to the Post Office.

And thus Richard was, at last, able to sign for it himself (after, ironically, showing his passport to prove that it was him...) and bring the router home. Three weeks after it was sent.

Tim in Cyprus for a couple of weeks :-)

Part of the pattern that comes with our now empty nest is that our 'chicks' arrive for holiday, although from our perspective they are never long enough. Just over two weeks ago, Daniel departed after his furlough. And last Thursday, in the very early hours, Tim arrived. He's only here for a fortnight, so we're making the most of it.

Naturally he had to get to know the youngest of our local friends, Elisabeth, who is now two months old:


He also wanted to play a 'proper' board game of Ticket to Ride; prior to this he had only played the online version:


Of course we have played Settlers of Catan too. Two regular six-person games with our friends, and one three-person Cities and Knights game so far. Tim has won them all.


We went to the beach on Friday evening, with our friends. The sea was so warm it felt almost like bath-water, although thankfully the weather isn't quite as hot as it was a week ago.

This morning Tim popped into the children's holiday club run by Larnaka Community Church, since some of his friends were helping there. He was welcomed by the leaders, and ended up staying to help. He is planning to be a primary school teacher in a few years, so the 5-11 age range is his favourite to work with. He will probably return for the rest of the week. This afternoon he's looking after two sons and a friend of our friends, probably playing Carcassonne with them.

On Saturday evening some friends came for a meal. More friends are coming tomorrow, and yet more for Sunday lunch next Sunday. Tim played the piano at St Helena's church service yesterday, and will do so again next week. It doesn't sound like a particularly restful break to me, but he likes to be busy.

Tim is particularly pleased to be back with the cats. Tessie, who considers him her personal property, is thrilled to have him home:


Cleo is pleased to see him too. It's only Sophia who is still a little disgruntled that Daniel didn't come back too...

Hot, hot, hot in Cyprus

Last Saturday, July 31st, I opened the french windows in my study at around 6.30am, as I usually do, and breathed deeply as I felt the gentle cooling of the morning breeze. It almost felt cold, for a few minutes. The end of July is something of a milestone for me each year; half way through the hot and humid summer months.

Having air conditioning available in each of our rooms does make life in Cyprus summers much more bearable than it was in our old house, but we try not to use it too much. We don't run the air conditioning at less than 28C, we don't use it much in June at all, and although we've been sleeping with it on all night, I looked forward to starting to use it only for an hour or two at bedtime. And to switching it on later in the day, rather than around 10am as I had been throughout most of July.

I should have enjoyed the moment more. The coolness of the early morning was a harbinger for a very hot day. Since I spent most of Saturday in my air conditioned study, I wasn't really aware of it until the evening, when I realised that the rest of the house was a great deal warmer than usual. I was glad I hadn't scheduled anything particularly energetic, but assumed it was a one-off. On Wednesday I had cleaned the house very thoroughly, and on Thursday I had washed all the curtains, dried them on the line - six loads of laundry in all! - and re-hung them. I could not have done either on Saturday.

On Sunday, in contrast to my quiet few days at home, with Richard away, I spent the day with our good friends who have six children. I decided to make some cookies for the shared lunch we were going to, and assumed that the kitchen would feel quite pleasant around 7am. I was surprised at how warm and muggy it was, particularly when the oven was on. It didn't even occur to me to switch air conditioning on in the kitchen that early, but perhaps it would have been a good idea.

I went to a church service with four of our friends in the morning (in an air conditioned building, even though not terribly effective), then we came back to our house and sat in the study, with the air conditioning on, for a couple of hours, chatting and playing with Lego. Er, that is, the children were playing with Lego. We just helped. Then we went to the house church for a late potluck lunch. In an air conditioned room. Then back to our friends' home, and sat in the air conditioned living room to play some games. We had a cold meal together in the evening - also in the living room since they said the kitchen was too hot. And an evening game too. By the time I walked home, about 10.15pm, it wasn't as hot as it had been earlier but was still surprisingly warm and sticky.

It was only on Monday that I learned that Sunday had been the hottest day ever recorded in Cyprus history. In Nicosia, according to that link, the thermometer hit 46C. That, apparently, is 113F. Hot, however it's counted. Nicosia isn't as humid as Larnaka, but it does tend to be a degree or two hotter. It probably didn't get to more than about 42 here... but with the extreme humidity, it may have felt as hot as 50C. I don't know quite how they count the 'feels like' temperature, but I do know that high humidity - and it's been very high at times - make it feel a great deal hotter than it is. And since the temperatures given are the 'shade' temperatures, it's even hotter still in the sun.

Monday was almost as hot again. When I opened the study door at 6.30am, it felt no cooler outside than inside - around 28C already. And muggy. I did do a bit of mopping, but was so hot and sticky I took my shower than spent the next twelve hours, basically, in the study in the air conditioning. I don't think I did anything constructive. The cats basically flopped on the bookcases or the floors. Sophia came in the study with me, but Cleo and Tessie seemed to prefer to be in the main part of the house despite the excessive eat.

Today, the same again. No rush of cooling air even at 6.30. By 8am, according to the UK weather site for Larnaka, it was 30C with 75% humidity, which made it 'feel like' 36C. Distinctly uncomfortable. The sky looks grey, too, but it's highly unlikely to rain in Cyprus at this time of year. I suppose I should switch on the air conditioning in here right now, since the computer is on, and computers do not like temperatures over 30C.

The weather site predicts a high of 34C (in the shade) every day this week. I hope it's correct. Sometimes they are still showing a high of 34 when the actual temperature is 37 or 38. A heatwave doesn't usually last for more than a few days... and while I do know that I have much to be thankful for (including the air conditioning!) I don't like it at all.