Out of Cyprus: Tim's graduation day

So, at last the day dawned which was the primary reason for our making a trip to the UK at this time of year. After three years of study, finishing in April when he handed in his final assignments, yesterday was the official date of graduation.

Being an organised sort of person, Tim had his suit cleaned and collected the day before, ironed his shirt, and was ready in plenty of time:


Newman University does not have a large hall for graduation, so they rent the Birmingham Symphony Hall for these occasions. It's not a very large university, but is considered one of the best for education-related degrees and teacher training, and has sufficient graduating students that even with the size of Symphony Hall, there were two ceremonies during the day. Ours was in the morning.

So after registrating and sorting out various other things, Tim dressed up in the robes he was renting (at great cost) for the day:


A nice security guard took this photo of us with him:


We were sitting on what's called Level Five of Symphony Hall, so had a good view of the building which we had never been in before (although Tim has been to a few concerts there, including some in which he sung and one in which he played their grand piano).


For twenty minutes or so before the ceremony started, there was an organ recital - doors closed to incoming visitors at 11.15 and the official proceedings began at 11.30, with various important guests and bigwigs processing in, and taking their seats at the front:


The students were all sitting in their robes (but without the hats) in a block in the centre, and after some careful study we did manage to locate Tim, who is right in the middle of this picture, at the end of a row holding the green folder we were all given with the order of service and general information about Newman:


There were various short speeches by different people, and then the actual graduation part where each student walked across the stage to shake hands and receive their certificates was fairly rapid - about ten seconds each, I suppose. This was Tim's moment:

Here he is at the point at which he shook hands and magically became a BA:


The whole thing took a little over an hour and a half, ending with a prayer and then a lengthy procession of dignitaries followed by students. Tim had decided that he did not want to pay (and queue) for official photos, so Richard took some instead, and we were quite pleased with this one:


We did some more photos afterwards, then - to our surprise and delight - bumped into an old friend, who was headmaster at the primary school which Daniel and Tim attended before we moved to Cyprus. So we chatted and caught up with him for a few minutes.

By this stage we were feeling quite hungry; Newman does not provide refreshments (unlike some universities) so we had arranged to go out to lunch with the family - six of us staying here currently - at a local pub/carvery. With the crowds and traffic, and a few minutes when we couldn't even move the car, it was 2.30pm by the time we sat down to eat. Far too late by my body clock, but we had a good meal.

So, it's been quite a year for us seeing Daniel and Becky getting married, and now Tim graduating.

Still out of Cyprus: more travels and an induction

No, not the induction of a baby...

But let me first backtrack a few days for those who have avidly been awaiting an update to our UK travels.

Naturally we played some Settlers of Catan games with Daniel and Becky and their friends while in Carlisle. And a game of Ticket to Ride. And on the Monday afternoon we also managed an afternoon of Absolute Balderdash, which is rather like an extended, widened version of the original Balderdash... although we talked so much there was only time for one round:


They had been sent home from their office early, due to extreme high winds, so Euan had to check email from time to time. Hence the computer.

On the Tuesday, we had arranged to drive to Glasgow to meet the daughter of one of Richard's friends, who is studying there. The drive took about an hour and three quarters and was punctuated by quite heavy rain in places - really the first we had seen since arriving, which I suppose is not bad for the UK.

We did see a rainbow too, for a while. I have always loved rainbows:


We were quite surprised at the number of wind farms we also noticed by the side of the road. The windmills did not seem to be rotating all that fast:


However, on Scottish hillsides I can imagine they provide a useful extra source of power. We saw some quite close too, and were awed by their size, but I didn't manage to get a photo then. Nor did I remember to take any in Glasgow itself, where we enjoyed meeting our friend's daughter and sharing lunch. Glasgow seemed rather an attractive town although it was remarkably difficult finding anywhere to park!

Our visit to Carlisle came to an end all too quickly, but Daniel and Becky had taken ten days' break so, happily, we didn't need to say goodbye to them when we departed on Thursday. The plan had been to leave around 11.30 and have a picnic en route, but the weather was extremely cold (well, so it seemed to us) and getting ready took longer than we had intended, so in the end we ate a cold lunch at their house, and did not set out until nearly 1.00pm.

Richard's GPS application told us that it would take us a little over two and a half hours to reach my brother's new home in Derbyshire, but that assumes driving at the speed limit all the way. However, we thought that we might be there by about 4.00. I had emailed with our earlier plans and said we hoped to be there between three and four.

However it took much longer to get out of Carlisle than we had hoped, as there was a lot of traffic around, and then in various places along the way we had to slow down again. We had planned to stop at a service station for coffee, and thought we might call to let the family know we would be late, but had not seen anywhere particularly appealing; by the time we left the motorway it was already nearly 4.00.

The route was attractive, but the roads were winding and were evidently going to be at least another half hour. So we stopped at a suitable looking establishment which advertised coffee and tea, and attempted to phone my brother.

Alas, the region was not in a mobile phone reception area. We tried all the phones we had with us, but they all said the same thing: 'no signal'.

So we had our hot drinks quickly:


Then Richard wrote a text message to be sent as soon as we reached a more urban area. Which he did... but apparently nobody heard the beep so it wasn't much use!

It was almost 5.00 by the time we arrived at my brother's new Vicarage, just south of Sheffield.


Four other family members were there so it was a nice reunion. Living in Cyprus, we don't see my brothers and their wives very often.

Peter and Candy only moved to their new home a couple of weeks previously, but they had it well organised with plenty of space for visitors to stay. And had provided a sumptuous cold meal for us to share in the midst of their busy-ness. After we thought we had eaten all we could, a rather yummy looking cheesecake appeared:


They told us it came from their local supermarket, but it could easily have been home made. It wasn't the only dessert, either. Three of us were asked to cut them up, and Richard caught us in action, concentrating on this important task:


Afterwards, those of us who had been travelling had a quick wash and change into slightly more respectable clothes, and we then walked the short distance to the old church building. The reason we were all gathered was to be with Peter for his induction as team Rector of the parish. I couldn't take photos during the ceremony, but did take this one beforehand:


It was a formal service, but only took an hour in all; Peter smiled throughout, and the bishop gave an interesting talk, although unfortunately his microphone was not working so I doubt if anyone behind the first few pews heard any of it.

Out of Cyprus: celebrating a joint birthday

Just over 25 years ago, our first son arrived three weeks early, on his Daddy's 29th birthday. It was a great surprise to me - everyone had told me that first babies were 'always' late, and I had only quit work a few days earlier. We had lots of plans for my last three weeks of pregnancy, such as tidying and decorating the room we had allocated for our firstborn.

Little did I know that Richard, who was rather anxious about the idea of being a father, had been talking to God and said that, while he knew it was a very minor issue in the scheme of things, he would love it if his baby could arrive on his birthday... and since he had already thought about it (though never expecting that it would actually happen) he mentioned, as we held our tiny and awesome new son, that Daniel's 21st birthday would coincide with his 50th..

For many years they enjoyed a joint celebration. So much so that Daniel felt quite sorry for Tim, who did not share his birthday with anyone in the close family. But time passes, all too rapidly, and when Daniel was 20 he had left home and joined the MV Doulos. We knew that he would not be able to leave to join us in Cyprus for his 21st birthday the following year, but we had just sold our house in the UK and bought in Cyprus, and had a fair amount of money left over, which enabled us (among other things) to have a wonderful holiday in Hong Kong and Kota Kinabalu, where Richard and Daniel celebrated this special birthday together.

In the intervening years they have not been together, but since we were coming to the UK for Tim's graduation late October, Richard thought it would be good to come and visit Daniel and his bride Becky, and celebrate their birthday together once again.

I already posted about the bookcase we bought for Daniel as a gift. It would have been rather difficult to wrap up, and he chose it himself anyway. He actually chose a few other small items when we were shopping in Carlisle on the Saturday, which I did wrap up... and the same for Richard, who is very difficult to find presents for.

A few cards and gifts had also arrived in the post, and of course Becky had bought some, so there was quite a pile of presents awaiting the two birthday people in the morning:


Of course, birthdays cease to be particularly exciting as one gets older, so neither of them was particularly eager to start unwrapping. Richard seems to be checking something on his phone in this picture:


But eventually they did unwrap everything, and were pleased with what they found. We had a leisurely morning, and then took Daniel and Becky out to lunch at a Toby carvery restaurant which they liked. I had a supposedly 'Mediterranean' veggie lasagne, which was perhaps the most delicious one I had ever tasted. As well as unlimited vegetables of various types. Richard was the only one who had meat from the carvery; Daniel (who had a nut roast) looks a little surprised at the amount of food on his plate in this:


Next door to the Toby was a large supermarket, open even on Sunday afternoons. We had decided to make a chocolate cake, so needed a few extra ingredients. And since Dan and Becky only had one large cake tin (for cheesecakes and similar) we also popped by Matalan - also open - and bought a couple of smaller sandwich tins. In Cyprus most shops are closed on Sundays still, which I think is a good thing in principle... but since people are working anyway, I don't have a moral problem with using the facilities if they're open.

I made the cake and Becky decorated it with jam and Bournville chocolate, although I completely forgot about taking a photograph. They had invited their closest friends over for cake mid-afternoon, so we enjoyed a piece each, and then had a birthday game of Settlers:


We had all planned to go to the evening service at 6.30; the church is about two minutes' walk from where Daniel and Becky live, but it meant that we didn't quite manage to finish the game. We decided after the service that we didn't really want to continue - so three of us were the joint winners. Very democratic.

Out of Cyprus: the building of a bookcase

The reason we flew out of Cyprus when we did and drove to Carlisle was so that Richard and Daniel could spend their joint birthday together. However, we had not actually bought Daniel's present before leaving, hoping we could find something on the Saturday.

Daniel had asked us to bring some of his juggling equipment with us, and also one of his books. But when Richard packed the cases, we were quite a long way under our weight limit. Not wanting to waste weight, so to speak, he decided to bring one or two more of Daniel's books. I chose about four... and then Richard picked out yet more until our suitcases weighed just under the 20kg limit.

I was a little surprised at just how many books we had brought out, when they had all emerged from our cases:


So it seemed like a good plan to buy him a new bookcase for his birthday. The one they have already is a tall Ikea one in a beech style finish. Unfortunately the nearest Ikea is in Liverpool, and we really didn't want to drive that far on a Saturday. Ordering it online would have meant it arriving several days late.

So we looked in Argos, and found a slightly smaller bookcase in a very similar finish, and Daniel said that yes, he would like that.

Then came the problem of where to put it. Several suggestions were proposed, but we eventually thought it would work best next to the living room door. To check the width, and to ensure that the light switch was still reachable, I stood in position with a shelf, on which Daniel put a few books to add to the realism, so that they could check whether it looked right. Richard took this photo on his phone:


Daniel then set to work to assemble the flat-pack bookcase, with me holding the relevant parts in position as needed:


A friend pointed out that this photo looks as if I'm going head-first down a slide. Something I cannot imagine ever wanting to do...

The next part, nailing the back in place, took some time - not helped by the fact that Daniel could not find a hammer, so used a variety of implements before selecting a thick glass jar as the most effective - and it was time to eat before it was finished. So the bookcase leaned against the wall, looking rather sad:


.. and there it stayed, all night.

Sunday morning was the joint birthday, and most of Daniel's other presents were, to his joy, books:

So we turned the bookcase around and finished it, and admired it, and then Daniel put a large number of books in place:



However, we decided that a six-shelf bookcase was perhaps slight overkill for just the Kindle, so Daniel and Becky re-organised their other bookcase a little, in order to decide what might go on the new one:


.. and, as happens when bookcases are assimilated into a household, it wasn't long before the new one was looking completely at home:

Temporarily leaving Cyprus: airport delays

On Friday, we flew out of Cyprus for a couple of weeks in the UK. We wanted to start by visiting Daniel and Becky - now married for nearly six months - in Carlisle. And we managed to find a reasonable value flight to their nearest airport (Manchester) at a remarkably sociable time, with Cyprus Air.

I did have a slight moment of panic when I saw on the Cyprus Mail website that their flights from Larnaka to Manchester are going to be cancelled... but breathed a sigh of relief when I realised that it's only after the end of October that it will no longer run. Cyprus Air seem to be making a lot of cutbacks, and we assumed that the flight was not heavily used.

We arrived at the airport shortly after 11.00am in plenty of time to check in for a 1.10 flight. We were surprised to find no queue, and thought that it might be a mostly empty flight. We wandered through to the lounge area, and Richard showed me that beyond the main (crowded) lounge there was an almost empty area, otherwise identical, with the advantage of plug sockets available for laptop chargers. So he set his up:


.. and I decided to follow suit with my little netbook, although I had to sit on the floor to reach it easily:


We were a bit surprised that, even by 12.00 there was no gate listed for our flight. Then around 12.30 -when we should have been beginning to board - a note appeared on the screen next to our flight saying 'delayed'. No hint of how long the delay might be. We suspected - and it was later confirmed - that this was due to the air traffic controllers' strike in Greece, making it difficult for flights across that part of Europe. There had been many such delays that week.

An announcement came, around 1.00, that the flight was delayed until 2.30. So we went to find something to eat, as we were evidently not going to have our lunch on the plane. We bought some over-priced (but good) sandwiches and Richard had a coffee, and then we returned to our computers to catch up with email and Facebook. By the time 2.30 arrived the flight had been delayed until 3.30. It was almost 4.00 by the time it finally took off.

We were quite surprised to find that the flight was completely full. Other than a little turbulence a couple of times it was a smooth and uneventful one, landing around 7.10 (local time) in Manchester. We had a rental car booked with Avis, which took about half an hour to get sorted (due to a short queue...) and when we got to the car we realised that although it was the size we had booked, it was only a three-door car. So Richard went back to ask if we could exchange it - and after about half an hour, discovered that he could not, although we were told that we might be able to change it at their depot in Carlisle.

So it was 8.30 when we finally set out on the two-hour trip to see Daniel and Becky. We had previously hoped to reach them by about that time, driving mostly in daylight. The car was not particularly comfortable, but the journey was straightforward, guided all the way by the voice in Richard's phone.

By the time we arrived it was nearly 11.00pm. I had woken at 4.00am that morning in Cyprus, for some unknown reason (possibly because we usually have night flights!) so had been awake continuously for 21 hours (taking into account the two-hour time difference). I was unbelievably tired... but jet-lag never seems to be much of a problem coming this direction, so after a good night's sleep and a cup of Daniel's excellent aeropress coffee, I felt pretty much myself again, and very happy to see our son and daughter-in-law.

Autumn coming - perhaps - in Cyprus

Two weeks have flown by. We had visitors in our guest flat, and saw various friends as ever... being an Introvert it's hard for me to think of much else. But I was quite surprised to find that I had not written on this blog for nearly a fortnight.

In that time, we seem to have moved from Summer to the start of Autumn in Cyprus. There have been a couple of short bursts of rain, and the humidity has pretty much gone, making the evenings a great deal more pleasant. We have not used any air conditioning at all for over two weeks now; ceiling fans and open windows are sufficient during the day, and the nights are a great deal cooler anyway. The weather site for Larnaka tells me that the night-time temperature is around 18C, which is still warm enough to sleep with no covering but a light cotton sheet, but cool enough that air conditioning would be counter-productive.

Summer really wasn't too bad this year. We had no major heatwaves, and the threatened power cuts were short-lived. The island now has sufficient generators that there have been no further power outages since early August.

I'm still wearing shorts and a tee shirt, and sandals, but it won't be long before my jeans and trainers come out. I do prefer winter clothing, on the whole, despite the fact that it means more laundry. I'll have to find at least the thin duvet, too. The days are getting shorter - by 6.30 last night I was turning on lights and closing the curtains, and this morning when I woke just before 6.00am it was still dark out.