Text messages instead of parking meters in Cyprus

Yesterday, when we went to get my passport photos taken, we had to park in one of the side-streets near the town. It's many months since I have been there, so I started looking for change in my purse, expecting to have to pay for a parking meter.

I was a little startled to see this, which at first glance just looked like an advert:


But Richard explained that parking meters in Cyprus are being superseded by parking-by-phone. Not being very technologically minded this was a little beyond my comprehension. Apparently he had to send a text message (SMS) to a certain number, giving the parking slot, the car number plate, and the amount of time we wanted to park. Since half an hour cost 30c and an hour 60c, we thought half an hour would be sufficient.

How, I wondered, did we actually PAY for the parking?

It seems that just making the call effectively deducts money from the phone contract or credit.

So, I asked, how does a traffic warden know that we've paid? Assuming they still have something a old-fashioned as traffic wardens, that is...

Apparently the call puts details on a database somewhere. The traffic warden would have access to it. And the phone had a reply text, confirming the slot.

It all seemed rather like a conjuring trick to me, but Richard said he'd done it before and that it was a good idea. I could see that it would stop the problem of vandalised parking meters, and would also stop people from 'giving' their unused time to other people since the car registration is noted.

Anyway, we went to get my photos done, and had pretty much forgotten about the parking meter, when a text message arrived on Richard's phone, reminding him that his parking slot expired in ten minutes. We were still waiting for the prints at that stage. I wondered if he would have to go and move the car...

But no. He simply sent another text message, booking another 30 minutes. No need to return to the car, no worries about running out of time. And the cost is exactly the same as it would have been if we had booked an hour in the first place. Suddenly I could understand that it's rather a good system.

The only obvious drawback appears to be that some drivers do not own mobile phones.. although this would be very unusual in Cyprus.

I wonder if this system is now in place in the rest of the world...?

Renewing a British passport from Cyprus

My current passport expires in the middle of November. I have been aware of this for some months, but knew that travelling in April would be fine - as there was more than six months left. However, I realised that I needed to have it renewed before our planned trip to the UK in the middle of October. In April, I did briefly check whether I could get it renewed while we were in the UK, but the cost seemed high for 'quick' options, and there did not seem to be any guarantee that the 'regular' option would return the passport to me in time for my return trip to Cyprus. Moreover, it seemed like a waste to lose the last six months of validity.

A pity I did not investigate further, since apparently up to nine months of remaining validity can now be added to new passports.

Moreover, it is even more complicated than it used to be to get a passport renewed while in Cyprus.

Previously, such as when renewing Daniel and Richard's passports over five years ago, we went to the British High Commission in Nicosia, with photos, passports, and filled-out forms. Someone would then glance over the paperwork, ensure that the photos were good enough and satisfactorily endorsed, and then send it all away. Typically it would take less than two weeks, after which time we could call to check whether it was ready, and return to Nicosia to collect it.

So, during May and June I didn't think about it too much. During July I forgot about it entirely, with Tim visiting. August is typically holiday month in August with many businesses and organisations closed down, so I assumed we would renew my passport early in September.

Yesterday I thought I'd check the High Commission website to see the opening hours and costs of passport renewal.

To my surprise - and horror - I saw that passports can no longer be renewed in Cyprus. Instead, they have to be sent to a regional processing office in Spain. It can take around four weeks from the time when the fee is processed, it costs considerably more than I had expected, and they warn people not to book flights until their new passports arrive.

Oh dear.

When Richard arrived home, I told him about this, and he said that it's not even legal for courier companies to carry passports over international borders.

What to do??

It turns out that many couriers do in fact transport passports even if it isn't legal, including the better-known ones. It also turns out that there is an application form which can be downloaded and printed, and filled in to send with the passport. I was in panic-mode, which tends to make me freeze up, incapable of anything, so Richard did this, and even filled the form in, tellling me exactly where to initial and sign.

This morning we went out to get photos taken. There are no passport booths in Larnaka, as far as I know, but we've previously used a good photographer who didn't charge much. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the place where his shop used to be, it was no longer there. So we went a little further, and found a photographer shop.. but it was closed. Perhaps still on August break.

Thankfully we did manage to find yet another shop - Photo Jimmy - where we were told that yes, they did passport photos. It was a lovely Cypriot small shop, with a child wandering about, several adults engaged in different activities, and seats for us to sit on.

We had to wait a while until the photographer was ready, then she took about five or six different shots before getting one that she was happy with. Conscious of the instructions about British passport photos I had to stay serious; not a hint of a smile is permitted. I was a bit puzzled that the photo was taken with a green background, but that was soon changed by the young woman sitting at the computer.

We had to wait a while longer while the printing machine was cleaned - by the photographer and the guy whom we assumed to be the owner - and were then asked if we wanted four or nine photos. Since I only needed two, we asked for four. They printed some, then came to check the dimensions. Richard had printed out the full, detailed instructions about passport photos including 'good' and 'unacceptable' variations, so they double-checked, ,and then printed some slightly smaller versions. When done, we measured them and they were exactly correct.

We were charged 7 euros for the photos, which seemed like good value to me, given the amount of time spent by so many people - and the owner even gave us the slightly-too-large versions free as they were obviously of no use to him. So we gave him the printed instructions, which were no longer of use to us, but which could be helpful for producing passport photos for people who don't know the rules.

This afternoon Richard is asking a banker friend to endorse one of my photos, and he will then take the envelope with documentation, passport, payment instructions and photos to one of the courier companies to take to Madrid. I just hope it arrives back more quickly than expected, so that we can book flights to the UK for the middle of October.

In all it's going to cost over 200 euros for my passport to be renewed, which is rather a shock to the system, but if we think of it as 20 euros per year, it's not so bad.

What did give me pause for thought, however, was realising that the next time I need my passport renewed, I will be 61...

Busy times for Tim

We've got so used to having Tim here for the past seven weeks that it's going to feel like having an empty nest all over again when he flies back to the UK next week. Still, he's been managing to ease us slowly into this state. Last week he was out every morning from 7.45am until nearly 1.00pm. He was a group leader at the local church SU-produced holiday club, 'Mission Rescue' which featured spies, and secret codes, and amazing rescue efforts.

Tim disguised himself as James Bond for the week - he was still smiling on Friday, though his bow tie seemed to have gone a little lop-sided:


(Photo kindly taken by my friend Sheila who had three children attending the club).

Note the secret code symbols in the background. They were pasted all around the walls of the church building for children to de-code.

Some of our small friends locally were able to attend the holiday club, which clearly caught their imagination; Lukas was wearing a different kind of disguise when we saw him on Friday evening:


Tim was pretty tired on Saturday, but there was no time to rest because the inter-church youth group had their variety night in the evening, to raise funds for their forthcoming camping trip to Troodos. Tim was part of the youth group for many years and is going to camp as a team leader, and co-ordinator of the music.

The variety night went well, with a mixture of items, from a skit about 'Veggie Tales'...


... to a newly formed choir, singing with aplomb:


I set up our video camera on a tripod to record the entire thing, but it takes time and effort to transfer that to the computer. So Tim had also asked me to film one item on my regular camera, since it's so much easier to upload. Holding it steady wasn't easy with several small people around me! Elina and Marie are singing 'Phantom of the Opera', with Tim accompanying; they only had a couple of rehearsals but I thought it went very well:

(The little girl doing her hair in front of the camera is my small friend Katie, Marie's six-year-old sister. )

Since I'd deleted almost all the photos from my camera to make room for these videos, I discovered that I still had room for more. So when Tim got up for his solo item, 'These are the things you don't say to your wife':


..I recorded that too:

(For anyone who didn't catch them all, the lyrics are here)

Since that was so short, I also had room to record Tim's third musical item, accompanying Marie in 'The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy'. They had only rehearsed this once, at our house, and perhaps once more at youth group; it's a pity nobody was doing the solo dance, but it seemed to go pretty well:

On Sunday morning there was a holiday club service at the Community Church, for which Tim was playing keyboard... in the afternoon he had a final camp leaders meeting, and then a good night's sleep, which is rather important before youth camp as he's unlikely to get much while there.

On Monday morning, he set off with around fifty teenagers and a few other adults for the Troodos mountains, thus moving us into the next adjustment stage before our nest is once again empty:


- and no, I didn't actually wait around to see them off, or even go with Richard to take Tim to the coach. My friend Sheila who was seeing off two of her children took that photo for me.

Half-way through August in Cyprus...

... and so far, it really hasn't been too bad at all. The power cuts have been fewer than expected, with none at all since the end of last week. Yesterday was a public holiday, and the EAC website said, yesterday, that they did not expect any emergency cuts throughout the long weekend, or even today. It's now nearly 4.30 and electricity has been on all day.

We still have to be careful - but we never ran our air conditioners at lower temperatures than 28C anyway, and turn off lights when we're not in rooms. Mid-August is the main holiday period for Cyprus, with lots of businesses closed and many families away in the mountains, or abroad; at the same time generators from Greece and elsewhere have been installed. So it seems as if the crisis may be over, for now. At least for the majority of the population. Those who lost loved ones in the explosion a month ago are still grieving, of course.

Moreover, the temperatures have not been too high this year. We have not had a major heatwave this summer - at least, so far - and although the evening are humid, the daytimes are not too bad at all. 30-32C in the shade, and while we run air conditioners to keep the computers at less than 30C when they're on, we haven't needed to use a/c much anywhere else, other than at night.

Having Tim home has been very enjoyable - six weeks have gone past quite quickly, with plenty of time to relax, and play games, and see friends. I haven't aestivated as much as I usually do. With milder temperatures than usual, I haven't needed to get all my household chores done before 8.00am, and have tended to potter a bit more, through the morning. I've worked a bit on my websites, and read plenty of books - aided by the power cuts which forced me to turn my computer off mid-afternoon - and enjoyed being with Tim.

Usual activities with friends have continued, including one morning when I babysat for my three smallest friends while Richard started teaching their mother to sail. Tim came back after an hour or so and read to Katie and Helen from my favourite children's book, 'Dogger', since my voice was running out by then after reading so much else.


Meanwhile Elisabeth, who is usually a contented little person, played with Lego:


We don't usually do much entertaining during the summer, and I thought it would be even more difficult with potential power cuts - but when our other friends Mark and Joan returned from a long time away, we wanted to have them over for a meal and a game:


However, I haven't taken many photos at all recently. We had more friends for a meal (which Tim cooked) on Sunday evening, but I didn't even think about getting out my camera.

This week Tim is helping at a church holiday club every morning; next week he will be away in the mountains for the inter-church youth camp where he will be leading one of the groups. Then after a couple more days in Cyprus he will be back to the UK for a few days before starting his PGCE course at Newman.

I'm surprised how easy this summer has been, at least so far. There's always time for a heatwave, as it won't really cool down until mid-to-late September, but either I've acclimatised at last, or Cyprus really has been far less oppressively hot and humid than usual.

Not sailing into the sunset...

Although it's almost two years since Richard has been part-owner of the yacht King Malu, and a year since they started sea-trials, I have never been out sailing in her. This is because I don't do well in sunshine or heat... and they generally don't sail when there is no sunshine, because it tends to mean that the waves are choppy and the wind high. I did go on board in January, for a meal, and was quite prepared to be taken for a short sail... but it was too windy.

So when, about a week ago, Richard said they wondered if I would like to go for a sunset sail some time, I thought it sounded a good idea. Sunset is around 7.30pm, as it's totally dark by 8.00pm now, and the weather is mostly calm.

Then he said we would eat a meal on board - but I didn't have to provide any of it. So that was good. Then I learned that it wasn't going to be a sail at all, but a gentle motor for maybe ten minutes. Hmm. After much discussion, it was decided to meet at the marina at 6.00pm on Thursday. I'm glad I took a hat since it was still quite hot and sunny by then, and the 'bimini' (sunshade) no use at all since the sun was low enough to avoid it.

So, after a slight hiatus when the boat was blown into the one next-door, we set off. The sea was rather choppy and it worried me how much the boat seemed to be rocking, but Richard said it was fine. I was more disturbed by the sun on the back of my head than I was by the waves. And by around 7.00 was more than ready to stop and have something to eat - which was roast chicken from the 'New York' take-away and some excellent salad.

Tim had made some chocolate brownies:


After we'd eaten them, Erika and Lauren sat with their feet up:


I suddenly noticed that the sun was indeed starting to set, so thought I'd better take a photo since that was, after all, what we had come to see:


The camera is automatic, so it wasn't actually as dark as it looked in that picture. Tim P (the main owner of the boat) decided it was time to go back so he went to the front of it:


And Richard took the wheel:


I managed to catch another picture of the sun just before it disappeared over the horizon, although it wasn't fully dark for another fifteen minutes or so:


So I still haven't been sailing on King Malu. Going on board a couple of times a year seems reasonable enough, though... but I preferred it in January when it was decidedly less hot.

Another birthday party

About ten days ago, on a Sunday afternoon, we were invited to a birthday party. The birthday girl was our small friend Katie, who turned six.

As she told her grandma on the phone, she only invited two families. But since we had a guest with us, and the other family has several children, there were quite a few people at her party. Eight adults, and fourteen children between the ages of four months and fourteen years.

It was a hot afternoon, so nobody wanted to be outside. And while there wasn't an official theme, Katie is rather keen on anything to do with princesses. So the children - those under the age of about eleven, anyway - started by colouring in tiaras to wear:


Helen, who will soon be three, proudly showed me hers when she had finished:


Katie - like most children - enjoys opening presents:


Since her favourite colour is pink, she was particularly happy with this 'dressing up' outfit:


She changed into it before playing a traditional German game called 'hit the pot'. It can be terribly noisy, so rather than a saucepan they used a plastic pot, and only one person was allowed to guide her.


Then they played some surprisingly quiet games, sitting in a circle. After which, we had some finger foods to eat, and then it was time for the cake, brilliantly decorated (as ever) by Sheila:


There were six candles which Katie blew out although she had to move from her seat to do so, otherwise the air conditioner would have extinguished them instead:

The candles were removed before she had a chance to see the cake properly:


It soon disappeared.. and then the other family had to leave. As peace gradually descended, Sheila and Katie sat down to read some of the classic AA Milne book, 'Now we are Six':