Saturday evening games-fest

In Cyprus, it's not unusual for people to travel for their work; it's a useful place to live from that point of view. And so it came to pass that last Saturday evening, my friend Joan and I were both potentially home alone, with our husbands travelling. So she suggested an evening of game-playing. Since I'm not too good with late nights, I proposed an early start...

We began with a two-person Settlers of Catan game:


I have played this game many, many times while Joan is more of a novice, although she's pretty good. And there is undoubtedly a significant amount of luck. I bought six 'development' cards through the game... and FOUR of them were victory points:


So I won the first game, fairly quickly. Cleo was firmly ensconced in the box lid, as usual:


So we decided to play a second round...


.. which Joan won comfortably.

It had been raining lightly, off and on, since Joan's arrival, but as we ended the second game the skies cleared. It was 6.45pm by then and I was feeling hungry. We had already decided that we didn't want to waste time cooking or indeed clearing up after a meal, so Joan offered to treat me to Souvlaki Express which is Cypriot style fast food. And it was good to get a little fresh air and light exercise; not that it's very far away.

Since neither of us has a huge appetite, we decided to share a large halloumi/salad sandwich; a whole one is too big, but half was exactly right. Joan didn't want me to take a photo while she was eating, but I thought this came out very well:


We didn't stay long; there were too many people smoking nearby. So we returned to continue our games marathon, and decided on Rummikub.

I won the first game (with Joan having exactly one point against her)...


Cleo had moved out of the Settlers lid and into the Rummikub one:


So we played a second round of Rummikub:


Joan won this time, with about 50 points against me at the end.

We then decided to try something new, which we had not played with our husbands. We both like Scrabble and play it online, but Joan had never played Upwords, and I had not played it for many years and had forgotten all the details of the rules.

At first it seemed like an inferior version of Scrabble, with no bonus tiles, no high-scoring letters, and rather a small board. But as we progressed we realised what potential there was for strategic playing, as we built new words up rather than outwards. Here's the final board for the first game (which I won):


And here's the final board for the second game which, predictably by now, Joan won:


Yes, 'QUA' and 'GUP' are acceptable words.

Oh, and in the middle are 'EX' and 'SHIRE', whatever it might look like from this angle!

By now it was past 10.00pm and I was beginning to get tired, so we thought we would have a quick game of Bananagrams:


It's a bit of an odd game in that the 'winner' is whoever uses up their final set of tiles first, irrelevant of who does so right the way through. I don't even remember who did so - we were more interested in building up our tiles into crosswords than caring who actually did so first. It was probably a draw.

When we finished it was 10.20pm so we thought we'd try again. This time I cared even less about doing my crossword quickly, particularly when I realised that I had managed to build some words around a + shape in the top left corner of my board...


.. and Joan discovered that she had made a step pattern of A tiles in the top right of hers:


It was nearly 10.45 by the time we had finished, and I was yawning... so Joan departed. All in all, a very enjoyable evening playing:


- we had planned to play 'Ticket to Ride' too, but ran out of time.

Calls from the Cyprus Traffic Police

Richard has just returned from attending a conference in Scandanavia. He flew in the early hours of last Wednesday morning. Since our street was blocked off, due to ongoing construction work, he could not park in our driveway, or even in front of our house.

So, as he has done for the past few weeks, he found a place to park in a nearby street, in front of someone else's house. Cypriots can be a bit possessive about the road space in front of their homes, but with so many road works going on everyone locally seems to have been fairly flexible recently. It was a street where construction work had finished, so we hoped it would be all right for five days.

Mid-morning Wednesday, the phone rang. I said 'kalimera', in response to the greeting, and the person at the other end launched into some rapid Greek. I was about to say that it must be a wrong number when I caught the words 'Mr Richard', with a query. Yes, I said slowly and in English, Mr Richard lives here, but he is not here now.

More rapid Greek ensued. I apologised (in English) and said that I did not understand. I have learned from experience that trying to apologise in Greek just leads to a response in Greek which I still won't understand.

So the person who had been speaking to me found someone who spoke English, at least somewhat. 'This is the traffic police', he announced. Then he read out the number plate of our car and asked if it belonged to Mr Richard. I acknowledged that it did, but that Mr Richard was currently out of Cyprus.

'You must move the car, it is blocking,' I was told. I did not, at that stage, know exactly where the car was, but was pretty sure it would not be blocking anywhere. More to the point, I don't drive. So I told the man.

'You have a key?' he asked. I said that we did.

'Then you must ask a friend to move the car. It is blocking.'

I said I would see what I could do. I knew that at least one other person was on the insurance, possibly more. I wrote a note on Facebook (to local friends only) explaining the dilemma. And saw one friend online, whose husband - I thought - was on the insurance. It turned out that he was, and he would be able to come over late morning, and would happily move the car to somewhere safe behind the building where he lives.

So far, so good.

I went for a brief walk to check exactly where our car was, and it wasn't far at all. Nor was it blocking anything. It was parked in front of a fairly wide house, with plenty of space, nowhere near the driveway.

I discovered that I could even see it from one of our bedrooms:


At lunch-time, our friend arrived. He started the car with the spare key... it turned over... and nothing happened. He repeated it. And again. Each time, the car sounded lively - the battery was evidently fine, and the petrol gauge showed plenty of fuel - but it simply would not go.

After several more attempts, our friend said that we must have some kind of immobiliser chip in our key, which rendered the spare one rather pointless (unless the main keys had been locked in, I suppose). So he walked home. There was evidently no way to move the car until Richard returned. I did find an email address for the police, and wrote to explain, but had little expectation of anyone reading it.

Having heard stories of cars being towed away and even crushed when they could not be moved for a few days, I felt quite anxious for the rest of the day.

On Thursday, late morning, I had another call from the traffic police. This time it was from a man who spoke excellent English. I explained about the apparently immobilised car, and he understood immediately. I gather it's quite common although it's not something we've had on any of our other cars. Probably they were all too old.

He sounded very worried until I said, 'So, I'm afraid there's really nothing we can do until Monday. I don't see the problem since the car is NOT blocking anyone in...'

.. and he said, 'Monday? Your husband returns then?'

'Yes,' I replied. 'Early Monday morning. He is only away for five days. '

He sighed with relief. 'Oh well, in that case, we can wait. There is no problem at all.'

So that was that. I still don't know why we were phoned. Did the people really complain that they were blocked in, or is there some further construction work to be done in that street? We will probably never know.... this is Cyprus!

The end of Summer 2011 in Cyprus may just about be in sight...

As so often happens, September, for the first couple of weeks, continued to be hot and humid in Cyprus - at least, at sea-level. It hasn't been an over-hot summer, thankfully, but there was really no reduction in temperature, despite a couple of hours of rain one afternoon at the end of August. So we have continued using air conditioning (set at 28C, of course) for an hour or two in the evenings, overnight for at least a few hours, and, if necessary, for the computers during the day.

I've also continued watering our patio plants three times per week, and was a little surprised that our potted bougainvillea is blooming - usually May is the bougainvillea season:


I had seen forecasts for rain expected on Thursday or Friday this week, but was a little cynical. However, when I woke up on Friday morning, there was a feel of rain in the air. Apparently there had been some thunder in the night, and quite heavy rain, although I did not hear it. But the road looked damp, and I could see rain on some of the rooftops. And, best of all, by 8.30am there was still a fresh breeze - the shade temperature, apparently, was still only 22C.

It rained again during the afternoon, yesterday. Not heavy rain - just drizzle, which of course is very good for plants and farms, as it soaks in rather than rolling away or causing floods. It got a few degrees warmer during the day, but didn't get too humid in the evening, and was cool enough to sleep without air conditioning at all - although it was odd trying to sleep without the 'white noise' we have become used to!

Today felt very pleasant when I got up, around 6.30am, and although I have been running my ceiling fan, my study feels reasonably cool and breezy with the windows open. The ten-day forecast for Larnaka is currently showing a possible 30C next week, one day, but no more than 29 on other days. Somehow, when it dips below 30, it starts to feel as if autumn might be coming.

Construction work almost finished in our street... maybe?

Life seems to have been dominated, recently, by the sewerage pipes being put down in our neighbourhood. It's noisy, and dusty, and means that people driving to or from our house have to find new routes almost every time, since different streets are closed off in the area.

The first digging in our little bit of street happened just over three weeks ago. A day later, the noise was considerably worse and the disruption extensive. Then we had a little peace, until they started digging trenches across the road, to join (eventually) with our septic tanks.

As I explained in the last of those posts, the workmen then roughly covered over the holes, leaving the road bumpy but useable. As it remained until a few days ago, when the diggers and other noisy machines came back. Slightly to our surprise, they dug up the top couple of inches along all the channels (lengthways and crossways) that had been roughly surfaced, and removed all the excess rubble. it looked rather neater than it had done:


But made the road, once again, unusable for cars. And it all seemed remarkably inefficient... why put the rough surface down, we wondered, if they were going to dig it up again a week later?!

The following day, all was quiet. At least, it was in our street. We heard the ongoing rumble of digging and other construction work in other roads nearby.

Then, after the time when the workmen usually finish, they arrived with just one machine, and painted some kind of tarmac along all the new shallow channels. Perhaps they needed to seal them in some way:


There were barriers and diversion signs at both ends of the road, but they didn't stop an intrepid driver who drove half way along the street, bumping noisily in and out of the channels, making me wince each time and wonder just how much damage had been done to a rather new-looking car.

However, almost opposite our house the driver got stuck in a slightly wider hole, and had to reverse out after rather a struggle. Then performed something like a 23-point-turn to turn the car around... which was finally achieved to the accompaniment of applause from several of the neighbours who had gone out to watch.

The following day, the workmen returned, starting at 7.00am as usual, and working through the day. This time, they managed to fill in all the shallow holes on one side of the road, meaning that cars could at least get along it without bumping up and down too much:


I took that picture just after several of the neighbours had been out with their hoses, washing down the street, as Cypriots love to do.

And today, at last, the road itself is completely done. At least, the surface is smooth.

Well, fairly smooth.

It would have been too much to hope for a complete re-surface, but it definitely looks better, although it's hard to tell from this photo:


- the only thing now lacking is access into driveways, where the pavement is still rough and unfinished.

Cyprus sewerage digging work continuing...

It's amazing how quickly one gets used to noise in the street, and general disruption in the neighbourhood. It's been ongoing for some time, with routes by car changing almost by the day as different places have been dug up for the local sewerage and (theoretically) storm drain project that is gradually taking place all around Cyprus.

It was almost two weeks ago when the digging started, in earnest, in our little bit of street. It only took a few days for the main pipes to be laid, then the hole was filled in again. The workmen kept going from about 7.00am every morning until 3.00pm, at which point they stopped, left the machines lying around, put up a few fences for a low-key kind of security, and departed.

They didn't work weekends, either. But our road was inaccessible for several days, meaning that rubbish piled up since, obviously, the dustmen (garbage collectors) could not drive into the road. However, by last weekend peace was more-or-less reigning, the road was accessible again, and the cats were able to relax.

Then it started up once more. This time, channels had to be dug across the road, to begin the process of connecting the sewers with the current septic tanks that we all have. Not that we'll be able to use the drains for some time - possibly several years - since everything has to be in place beforehand. The trenches were probably a couple of metres deep:


There were rough metal sheets over the pavement enabling us to walk down the street, so we weren't actually imprisoned entirely in our houses:


And there was a rather puzzling (typically Cypriot) diversion sign at the T-junction at one end of our road:


Puzzling for two reasons:
(1) Nobody could drive - or even walk - straight ahead anyway since there are houses there.
(2) Nobody could even drive up to that sign, since our road was closed.

Yesterday, they filled in the holes. It was excessively noisy and dusty, but by 3.00pm our road was open again. It looks rather a mess and is pretty bumpy:


But perhaps, one day, they will come back to re-surface it. Probably a week or two before the electricity or phone company comes to dig it up again for some other purpose...

Helen's third birthday

My small friend Helen 'adopted' me as a special friend when she was about six or seven months old, and has remained constant. A few weeks ago, we were at her home playing on the floor, when she suddenly said, 'Aimee is my friend, and I want her to come to my birthday party, but you are my BEST friend!'

Helen's birthday comes after four other birthdays amongst her siblings - three in June, and one in July. So she knew what birthdays were about, and was looking forward very much to her third birthday. Aimee was in fact the only child of Helen's age who was invited, but with Helen's family, and Aimee's, and us, and someone staying in the guest flat there were 17 of us in all. Quite a gathering.

Present-opening started about half an hour or so after we had arrived. Helen was very patient, taking one gift at a time, and carefully tearing them open:

She seemed to be happy with everything she received, which included a fishing game, some marker pens, some playdough and cutters, some books, some soft toys, a small bear backpack, a doll, and an ingenious table/'microphone' constructed by her brother Lukas.

By the time Helen had opened all her gifts, and played somewhat with most of them, it was time to eat. A leisurely and enjoyable meal, followed by the traditional family singing accompanied by Marie on violin:

Here's a view of the cake the right way up, which was - at Helen's request - a 'hippo-hopamus' on a roof, eating special cake, made by her clever mother. (Inspired by the classic children's book, now sadly out of print, 'There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake'by Hazel Edwards.)

Then Helen was presented with another cake, bought from the local Zorpas bakery, by their guest flat visitor:

She immediately ate one of the roses, and gave a second to her sister Katie. Then she requested a piece of the hippo-hopamus cake, AND some chocolate cake, AND two kinds of ice cream, and then added the final two sugar roses to her plate as well:

I was not surprised that she managed to eat all her dessert, despite having eaten a fairly hearty main course. Helen has a very good appetite. I was, however, surprised at how little chocolate ended up spread around Helen herself. Her mouth and fingers were a little messy, but she didn't seem to spill anything at all on her clothes:

Helen had taken a nap earlier in the day, so she was still wide awake after all her siblings had gone to bed. A nice way to end her special day, cuddling up to her parents:

Then she borrowed my camera, and took this photo herself, of her new blue cat. It was crocheted by Marie - made without using a pattern:

Constant rumbling in the street... sewerage project in Larnaka

I was fairly blasé about the digging in our street yesterday. Even when the water went off, I wasn't too worried. We had some drinking water stored, and at 8.00this morning our mains water started flowing again.

There was a deep trench cut in our street, just like the ones we've seen in other roads in the neighbourhood in recent weeks:


- and this morning, about 6.45am, work started again. Various mechanical diggers have been up and down the road pretty much all day so far:


It's now mid-afternoon, 3.00pm, and they just paused. I'm not particularly hopeful since there have been several brief, wonderful pauses in the noise throughout the day. Blissful moments of silence before they start up again... although, this time, it seems as though they might indeed have stopped.

Richard asked one of the men how long it would be before the house drainage systems (currently septic tanks) can be linked in with these new storm and sewerage drains. About five years, he was told. Which, if previous experience is anything to go by, suggests that it could be twenty or twenty-five years at least. Unless, of course, the man was muddling his chronological units and meant 'five months'. In which case, I suppose it might be a couple of years.

At least I know what's going on, and hope it will be worth it in the end. Our cats have been very disturbed. Sophia is terrified of machines with arms, which must look like some kind of nightmare cat-eating monster to her. She has spent most of the day so far curled up by the stairs, which must somehow seem safer. Or perhaps offers a quick escape route upstairs if necessary:


Cleo is not quite as unhappy as Sophia, but when it's particularly loud she hides under the coffee table, a place that was always 'den' for the cats when they played games as kittens:


As for Tessie, she apparently thinks we're having an earthquake. She has been running around the house, crying. I think it helped when I picked her up so that she could actually see the diggers, and perhaps see that the noise was coming from something outside... but she is very disturbed:


Tim went back to the UK very early Tuesday morning. Good timing, since the work started about four hours after his flight departed.

Richard's timing is not so good. After working about 50-60 hours per week for many months, he finally decided that he would take a day off so that he could sleep all morning.

Today.

It's hard to think of a worse morning from the point of view of having a peaceful rest...

Now there is real digging in our street...

It was at the end of June when we received a notice in our mailbox about the sewerage construction in our neighbourhood. Lasting up to three weeks, they said. I was dubious... but then a week later, we did indeed have workmen digging up the road, somewhat.. not very deep, and it only lasted one morning. So much so that it only warranted a brief mention in the update I wrote at the end of the week.

It seemed odd to me, since other roads nearby have much deeper channels built, and far laster-longing disruption. But Richard thought that perhaps we didn't need deeply-laid pipes in our road. It all seemed to have been done, anyway, and there was no sign of anything else happening despite plenty of work going on in other roads around our neighbourhood.

This morning, I was just on my way out of the house to go to the bank, at around 7.30am, when I saw a man in some kind of digger machine driving slowly up the street. His English was fair - just as well since my Greek is not - and he told me that they were going to dig up our road in an hour, so we had to move the car.

I went back inside, squeezed orange juice and made coffee for Richard, then apologised for waking up him, but said that if he wants to use the car today, or perhaps any time this week, he should move it before 8.30. I suggested he wake the people staying in our guest flat, too, who have a rental car at present which was parked out on the street.

Then I walked to the bank, only to find that the ATM was out of order. The bank itself doesn't open until 8.30 and I didn't want to wait around. So I walked on to the place where I thought there was another Bank of Cyprus... only to find that it had closed. By then I was not far from the sea-front, so I walked on... and found a bank with a working ATM enabling me to withdraw cash.

I had been planning to walk back via the froutaria, since we need some more fruit and veg... but since I was already at the sea-front, decided I might as well walk along and go to our PO Box, which I haven't checked for a week or so. On the way I spotted that Estia, my favourite stationer was open... so I went in, and browsed around, and was delighted to find that they had one of my favourite kinds of photo albums available. Sometimes they don't. So I bought it, plus a few new ballpoint pens that I needed, and on to the PO box where I found my latest order from Kodak Gallery - 160 photos from the past four months.

And then home, feeling decidedly warm but not as hot as I would have done a month ago. I had been out for over an hour, rather than the twenty minutes or so I had expected. Richard had gone to work, the rental car was moved.. and there was, indeed, a large digger making deep holes in our street:


A couple of hours later a man with almost no English knocked at the door, telling me I had to move the two cars parked in our driveway. I tried to explain that I don't drive, but I could call my husband if they really needed them moved... although I could not understand why as they are parked well away from the street. Eventually he managed to explain that if they were not moved, we would not be able to get them out as they were about to fence off in front of the drive. Which, I said, was fine. One is our 'old' car, used by guests if they don't rent a car, the other is our 'big' car which we really want to get rid of but haven't yet managed to do so.

Right after lunch, there was yet another knock on the door. A problem with water, they said. It would be fine tomorrow. At least, we think that's what they said. Either that, or it would be a problem tomorrow as well. Sure enough, the mains water has gone off. Perhaps the digger went through a water main. We have plenty in our tanks for showers etc, and if we run out of drinking water (which comes from our mains tap) I suppose I can buy some in bottles.

I suppose it's pretty good that the street digging is happening only six weeks after it was supposed to have finished...